Arsenal beats Newcastle to go top

LONDON: Arsenal beat Newcastle United 3-0 for the second time in four days on Tuesday to edge ahead of Manchester United in the Premier League title race.

Goals from Emmanuel Adebayor, Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas underlined Arsenal's superiority and took the Gunners three points above champion United, which can regain top spot with a win at home to Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Newcastle, beaten by the same score at the Emirates in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, is still looking for its first goal since Kevin Keegan returned as manager earlier this month and remains just seven points above the relegation zone.

"The players were genuine tonight and kept chasing the ball even when they were 3-0 down," Keegan told the BBC. "3-0 looks bad but we didn't deserve to lose 3-0.

"Michael Owen was wrongly flagged offside when it was only 1-0, Flamini scored a wonder goal and their third goal was definitely offside."

The three other matches on Tuesday all involved teams fighting to stay in the top flight.

Sunderland gave its survival hopes a huge boost, beating Birmingham City 2-0 at home to move out of the relegation zone and up into 14th place.

Wigan Athletic drops into the bottom three after losing 1-0 at Middlesbrough while Fulham stays second from bottom after a 0-0 draw at fellow strugglers Bolton Wanderers.

Newcastle, without a league goal this year, looked solid for 40 minutes against Arsenal but did not pose any attacking threat.

Adebayor then headed in a cross from the outstanding Flamini for his 16th league goal of the season and there was no way back for shot-shy Newcastle.

Flamini struck with a powerful right-foot shot after 72 minutes and Fabregas rounded off the victory after being put clear by Nicklas Bendtner.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/31/2008 page24)