United join beaten City at Premier League summit

LONDON: Ex-Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson did his old club a huge favour by scoring the winner for Everton in a 1-0 victory over Premier League leaders Manchester City, while United moved level on points at the top after beating Stoke City 2-0.

Ireland midfielder Gibson left United to move to Goodison Park earlier this month and his fierce strike on the hour, which took a slight deflection, proved decisive.

United, who trail their rivals on goal difference, eased past Stoke thanks to two penalties at Old Trafford from Javier Hernandez and Dimitar Berbatov.

City and United have 54 points from 23 matches, five ahead of Tottenham Hotspur who thumped Wigan Athletic 3-1 at White Hart Lane.

Dejected City manager Roberto Mancini said he had underestimated mid-table Everton.

“Probably, probably, probably,” the Italian said in an interview with Sky Sports after he was asked if he had taken Everton too lightly.

“Maybe it’s my fault because I prepared, maybe, bad for this game … It is very important that we win our next game against Fulham.”

The leaders enjoyed plenty of possession but created few openings to trouble a resolute home defence.

Everton, who paraded new signing Nikica Jelavic at halftime after the Croatia striker’s move from Rangers, almost broke through early on but Joleon Lescott was well positioned on the goalline to clear Denis Stracqualursi’s close-range header.

City went closest to an equaliser when midfielder Samir Nasri rattled the crossbar with a swerving 30-metre piledriver on 36 minutes.

The match was halted for around four minutes late in the first half when a fan went on to the pitch and handcuffed himself to a goalpost.

Police freed the man who had attached himself to the post in the goal that City were defending.

NO MISTAKE

United had no problems overcoming Stoke despite handing a first league start to goalkeeper Ben Amos, called up due to David de Gea being ill and Anders Lindegaard injured.

With Wayne Rooney still out with an ankle injury, Ferguson partnered Berbatov alongside Javier Hernandez up front and both made no mistake from the spot.

Mexico striker Hernandez fired home on 38 minutes after Jermaine Pennant had felled Park Ji-sung.

United were awarded a second penalty eight minutes after halftime and this time Berbatov scored after Antonio Valencia was brought down.

Spurs cemented third place after Gareth Bale scored twice against bottom side Wigan.

Bale’s eighth and ninth league goals of the campaign came either side of a Luca Modric goal. Substitute James McArthur got a late consolation for Wigan.

A stoppage-time own goal by Neil Taylor rescued a point for fourth-placed Chelsea, on 42 points, who escaped from Swansea City’s Liberty stadium with a 1-1 draw.

Things looked bad for Andre Villas-Boas’s side who trailed to a first-half goal from their former player Scott Sinclair and had defender Ashley Cole sent off with four minutes remaining.

But Portugal defender Jose Bosingwa then got lucky in the fourth minute of added time when his shot took a big deflection off Taylor to beat keeper Michel Vorm.

Sinclair’s goal was the first Chelsea have conceded in five games in all competitions.

Liverpool striker Andy Carroll ended his goal drought to help fire the Anfield side up one place to fifth, above inactive Arsenal, after a 3-0 victory at struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers who remain in the bottom three.

Carroll, who has failed to impress since his big-money move a year ago, broke the deadlock seven minutes into the second half with his first goal in 12 league games before Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt rewarded Liverpool’s dominance.

Arsenal are away at Bolton on Wednesday.

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“You should not be playing to break records,” Imran tells India

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan feels that iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar should have retired after the “ultimate high” of India winning the World Cup last year.

“We all want to go with a big bang but you don’t always get it right. For Sachin the ultimate time to go was after that World Cup win. He had such a great World Cup. He is a great player and there is no replacement for him,” Imran said.

“He has to decide for himself and he must time it right. You don’t want to go having lost to Australia 4-0. If he had gone after that World Cup that would have been the ultimate high,” Imran told a TV channel here.

Imran said Indian players have the right to decide when they want to retire and the management should first get the replacement for them. “It’s a very difficult question for a sportsman to know when to leave…It’s a very difficult decision and many great players have not got it right,” he said.

“For Indian cricket it’s not one player now but three or four would have to take decision. But the big question is whether you have got their replacement. If the gap between the young and old player is too much then you have to stay with the old players.”

Asked about Tendulkar’s impending 100th ton, Imran said it doesn’t matter whether he gets that elusive hundred or not as statistic doesn’t matter for a great player.

“Records must be broken within the team winning. You should not be playing to break records. Records should be part of the win. Sachin is a great player. Would I think of Sachin whether he is of 99 hundreds or 100 hundreds! No,” Imran said.

“The greatest player I’ve played is Viv Richards. I don’t need to look at his records. He is great because he loves challenges. Records are after all statistics and statistics did not matter to great players,” he said.

The former fast bowler said that he would have hung up his boots if his team had suffered a similar consecutive overseas whitewash like Team India.

“I would have retired from cricket. I think if I was in a team that lost eight matches in a row I would have given up cricket. It’s not the West Indies of 80s. But see who India has lost to Australia and England. This Australia team hardly has won any series. You can’t blame the fans for feeling upset,” he said.

Imran said if India gives too much emphasis on Twenty20 cricket and the IPL then it might be reduced to a “walkover team in Test cricket”.

“India need to think seriously… have they put too much emphasis on the IPL, T20 cricket. It’s great entertainment but how to compare T20 with Test cricket. Test cricket is the ultimate test of the skills,” he said.—Agencies

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Malaga take honours in Andalusian derby as Valencia draw

MADRID: Ten-man Malaga beat Sevilla 2-1 on Sunday night in a fiery Andalusian derby to leap above their local rivals into seventh position in La Liga, one point behind a potential place in next season’s Europa League.

The Brazilian centre-half Weligton and Uruguayan midfielder Seba Fernandez got first-half goals for Malaga either side of an Antonio Luna strike for Sevilla.

Malaga lost Francisco Alarcon ‘Isco’ with 12 minutes remaining for a second yellow card after a bad foul on Alvaro Negredo but held out for the win that brought to an end a run of three consecutive league defeats.

Sevilla are now six league games without a win and drop into the bottom half of the league for the first time this season.

Earlier, Valencia substitute Aritz Aduriz came off the bench to score twice and help his side earn a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Racing Santander.

Santander went ahead in the second minute when Adrian Gonzalez turned home a delightful pass from Pedro Munitis from close range and the home team controlled the first half.

Valencia came into the game more in the second period and Aduriz netted on 66 and 79 minutes with a left-footed shot and a header that gave his side the lead.

However, in a match marred by injuries and cards, Bernardo Espinosa grabbed a leveller for Santander with a header on 88 minutes to set up a grandstand finish.

With seven minutes of injury time, the game descended into chaos as players from both teams clashed and Munitis for Santander and Valencia’s Ricardo Costa both received their marching orders.

The late equaliser keeps Santander just out of the relegation zone in 17th position, a point ahead of third-bottom Villarreal.

Valencia remain in third position and extend the gap to five points over city rivals Levante, who earlier missed a golden opportunity to bolster fourth position when they lost 2-1 at home to Getafe.

Dani Guiza, with a fortunate deflection, and Ruben Castro scored in each half for the visitors before Ruben Suarez got a kate consolation from the penalty spot.

The result means Levante remain fourth but are now level on points with Espanyol and two points ahead of Athletic Bilbao in sixth, after both teams won on Saturday.

Real Sociedad beat Sporting Gijon 5-1 in a game that opened in amazing fashion for midfielder David Zurutuza, who scored two goals in three minutes for the home team before being stretchered off in the fourth minute after a clash of heads with Gijon’s Gregory Arnolin, who also had to leave the field.

Miguel De las Cuevas got a goal early in the second half for Sporting before late goals from Gorka Elustondo, Mikel Aranburu and Antoine Griezmann wrapped the game up for the home team.

The defeat means Sporting remain in the drop zone.

Real Betis were beaten 2-1 at home by Granada, for whom Odion Ighalo and Carlos Martins bagged first-half goals, while Jonathan Pereira scored a late goal for Betis.

The result provides renewed optimism for Granada, under new manager Abel Resino for the first time, and keeps the side out of the relegation zone.

On Saturday, Barcelona dropped precious points in a 0-0 draw at Villarreal to slip seven points behind leaders Real Madrid.

Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil had scored to help Real Madrid beat Real Zaragoza 3-1 and pile the pressure on Barca, who never convinced against a well-organised Villarreal.

Espanyol beat 10-man Real Mallorca with a Vladimir Weiss goal to remain fifth, level on points with Levante.

Meanwhile, Spain centre-forward Fernando Llorente scored a hat-trick for Athletic Bilbao in a 3-2 win at Rayo Vallecano to keep the Basque side in sixth.

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