Liverpool burns bringhtest in wintery conditions
By Vic Mills
LONDON (JP): Cold and frosty weather over much of Britain at the weekend caused a third of the soccer program to be canceled. The installation of undersoil heating at Premiership grounds, however, enabled the championship race to continue unaffected and in some style.
Liverpool, fortunate 1-0 winner at Southampton, remains top, five points clear of Manchester United, Arsenal and Wimbledon. The Merseyside club has played 21 games, one more than United and Arsenal and two more than Wimbledon.
A mistake by Southampton goalkeeper Dave Beasant presented Liverpool captain John Barnes with a 76th minute match-winner at The Dell. With the home side on top in a tense game, Beasant charged out of his penalty area only to misshit his clearance to Barnes who drilled a 40-meter shot into an empty net.
With the Anfield club not playing until Sunday afternoon, Arsenal had the chance to move back to the top, albeit briefly, Saturday if it could beat Aston Villa by two clear goals.
In a wonderfully entertaining match Arsenal took the lead twice through Ian Wright and Paul Merson only for Villa to come back strongly in the second-half with goals from its dynamic forward duo Dwight Yorke and Savo Milosevic.
Capitalizing on the current dip in form by the Highbury club, Manchester United moved into second place with a 1-0 home win over Leeds United. Without the goal feats of recent matches, the Old Trafford club had to be satisfied with a 9th minute Eric Cantona penalty after a move between the Frenchman and Ryan Giggs was ended by a rash challenge from Gary Kelly on the Welsh international.
Not be to left out of the year-end festivities, Wimbledon returned to winning ways with a 3-1 victory at Everton. The home side struck first in the 23rd minute through Graham Stuart only for Wimbledon to come roaring back with second-half goals from Efan Ekoku, Oyvind Leonhardsen and Marcus Gayle.
Pride of place, however, on a weekend of stirring soccer went to Newcastle which turned around a run of seven games without a win to beat Tottenham Hotspur 7-1 at St James's Park.
Unstoppable
Life is never dull on Tyneside these days. Flying in the face of present-day managerial thinking based around defense, manager Kevin Keagan knows only one way to play football and that is going forward.
When all the parts of Keagan's philosophy fall into place, Newcastle is simply unstoppable. Revelling in the pace and movement up front there were two goals apiece for Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Robert Lee with Philippe Albert completing the rout. Allan Nielsen scored a consolidation for Tottenham a minute from time.
No such joy at Stamford Bridge where frustration was again the order of the day.
Chelsea started brightly enough against Sheffield Wednesday establishing an early two goal lead through Gianfranco Zola and Mark Hughes.
Displaying all their Yorkshire grit, the visitors pulled a goal back through Mark Pembridge only to compound the misery of the Chelsea faithful with a no-way-back equalizer from Dejan Stefanovic in the 89th minute.
Elsewhere in the Premiership, Coventry City continued its climb to safety with a 3-0 home win over Middlesbrough. Darren Huckerby, a recent one million pound buy from Newcastle, opened the scoring, captain Gary McAllister added a second from the penalty spot before a late goal put the result beyond doubt to complete a fourth consecutive victory for the Sky Blues.
Coventry stands as living proof that two weeks is a long time in soccer. In mid-December it stood bottom of the Premiership with just one win in 16 games and facing the prospect of a bleak Christmas.
The change in fortunes came with a hard fought home win against Newcastle which was followed by further confidence building away victories at Leicester and Leeds.
Talented but initially unable to pull out of a nose dive in form, Gordon Strachan's side now stands 14th in the Premiership and approaching the comfort zone.
There was a welcome win over the weekend too for the pride of London's East End, West Ham United. A spectacular individual strike from substitute Florin Raducioiu completed a 2-0 win over Sunderland to bring a momentary respite to Harry Redknapp's beleaguered foreign legion.
Of the other relegation candidates, Blackburn Rovers claimed a valuable away point with a nil-all draw at Derby County, while Leicester City and Nottingham Forest shared four goals and two points at Filbert Street.