Football round-up
THERE was a crucial English Premiership win for Manchester City on Wednesday, which took them to the top of the table ahead of the Gunners, who had held an eight-point lead back in mid-November. Also last weekend there were wins for Fulham, Leicester City (4-1 over Spurs), for Manchester United v Leeds, Liverpool (2-0 v Everton in the Merseyside derby) and for Wolves (2-1 at lowly Southampton). Soon afterwards Saints sacked manager Nathan Jones after three months and 14 games in charge. They are now seeking their 20th new manager in the last 25 years.
In the Championship, leaders Burnley were held 1-1 by Watford, while secondplaced Sheffield United lost at home to Middlesbrough. Plymouth are now sitting on top of League One and Leyton Orient lead the way in League 2. North of the border, there were fifth round Scottish Cup wins for Ayr, Celtic (5-1 over St Mirren), Falkirk (5-1 versus giant-killers Darvel), Hearts, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Kilmarnock and Raith.
Here in Spain, Real Madrid, after their latest 4-0 win over Elche, are now 11 points behind rivals Barcelona at the top of La Liga. Meanwhile, Real beat Al-Lilal 5-3 in Morocco last Sunday to lift the World Club Champions trophy.
In the European Champions League, both Spurs and Chelsea
lost their latest games by 1-0 against AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
Premiership games this weekend include two London derbies, Brentford v Crystal Palace and Spurs v West Ham, plus Aston Villa v Arsenal, Nottingham Forest v Manchester City, Everton v Leeds and Manchester United v Leicester. Last Saturday, Winkel Sport B goalkeeper Arne Espejel (25) collapsed and died seconds after saving a penalty against Westrozebeke in a Belgian provincial league game. The match was subsequently abandoned with Winkel Sport leading 2-1.
Neil Warnock, now aged 74, has been appointed as manager of Huddersfield Town – his 18th different club. And former Spurs defender Chris Hughton is the new head coach of the Ghana national team.