Manchester United still number one in English soccer
By Vic Mills
LONDON (JP): Manchester United remains one point clear at the top of the English Premiership after the weekend round of matches. Premier League clubs now have an eleven-day break because of World Cup commitments.
The Old Trafford club has an 80th minute Eric Cantona goal to thank for beating Southampton and preserving its lead. The mercurial Frenchman slid home a deep cross from Ryan Giggs to avenge United's 6-3 drubbing at the Dell in late October.
The visitors even had the audacity to take an 11th minute lead through Norway's Egil Ostenstad. United equalized eight minutes later, England defender Gary Pallister forcing home a Cantona corner.
A solitary 75th minute Stan Collymore goal against Derby County was enough to move Liverpool ahead of Arsenal into second place. This was another ordinary Liverpool performance, however, assisted in no small measure by Daryll Powell being sent off for a reckless tackle on Bjorn Kvarme just after half-time.
The home fans left the referee in no doubt of its feelings towards the incident with chants of "cheat" reverberating around the Baseball Ground at the final whistle.
There was controversy too at Elland Road where Leeds United thought it had won when Rod Wallace and Brian Deane carved open the Arsenal defense for Ian Rush to stab home at near post only for the flag to be raised for off-side.
Seconds earlier the north London club had come close to breaking the deadlock when Ray Parlour fired fractionally over. The goalless draw dropped Arsenal to third place, three points behind Manchester United.
In a weekend short on inspiration, St James' Park again proved the exception to the rule as Newcastle United overcame gallant Leicester City 4-3 thanks to a stunning Alan Shearer hat-trick late in the game.
Leicester went behind as early as the 3rd minute to a Robbie Elliot strike, but bounced back in the third quarter to totally outplay Newcastle with goals from Matt Elliot, Steve Claridge and Emile Heskey.
A subdued Shearer came to life in the 77th minute, crashing home a free-kick to continue his record of scoring in every home game this season. With time running out he threaded a right-foot shot inside the post before completing an improbable turnaround two minutes into injury time.
Own goal
In a very London affair at White Heart Lane, Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 thanks to a Sol Campbell own goal and a 30- yard drive from Roberto Di Matteo. The victory lifts Chelsea above Wimbledon into fifth place.
The hitherto all-conquering Dons were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough. Robbie Mustoe equalized from close range after Wimbledon had taken a first-half lead through a Neil Cox own goal. A late penalty save by Neil Sullivan from Emerson denied Boro a deserved victory and with it the chance to move off the bottom.
In the Midlands, Aston Villa gained its first league victory of 1997 thanks to a first-half Savo Milosevic strike against Sunderland, but it was another unimpressive performance from Brian Little's side. The Roker Park team was easily a match for Villa and only lacked a finisher.
The story was no different at Hillsborough where Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City played a stalemate that was both pedestrian and predictable. With Coventry content to defend in depth, the only saves of note came from Wednesday's Kevin Pressman, both in the first-half and both from rising star Darren Huckerby.
The feeling of loss around Goodison Park at the sale last week of Andrei Kanchelskis to Fiorentina was eased somewhat as Everton ran out comfortable 2-0 winner over Nottingham Forest. Second- half goals from Duncan Ferguson and Nick Barmby were enough to take the points as Forest faded after a bright opening.
Despite finishing on an encouraging note, there was still no joy for West Ham United as it went down 2-1 to goals from Kevin Gallagher and Chris Sutton at Blackburn Rovers. The Londoners rallied through a second-half Ferdinand goal and almost grabbed an equalizer with Mark Reiper going close as Rovers held out.
Recovery
Elsewhere around Europe, Juventus had its lead in Serie A cut to two points after a 0-0 draw at lowly Cagliari. The Turin side played for almost an hour with 10 men after Uruguayan defender Paolo Montero was sent off.
Second place Sampdoria closed the gap with a remarkable recovery against AC Milan at the San Siro. Despite taking a first minute lead through Roberto Mancini, the visitors' afternoon fell apart as goalkeeper Fabrizio Ferron was sent off in the 22nd minute, George Weah compounding the misery with goals either side of the interval.
Undaunted, Sampdoria stormed back to equalize in the 74th minute through a Sinisa Mihajlovic free kick and went on to take the points as winger Marco Carparelli netted five minutes later. AC Milan dropped to 12th in Serie A after their eighth defeat of the season.
Highest scorer in an eventful round was Bologna which beat Verona 6-1 to move into third place above Vicenza which lost 2-0 at Roma and Internazionale which was held 1-1 at Perugia.
Real Madrid extended its lead at the top of the Spanish league to five points over the weekend courtesy of a hard fought 3-2 home win over Deportivo de La Coruna and some charitable play from their archrivals Barcelona.
Sloppy defense at the Nou Camp saw Barcelona squander a two goal lead for the second time in a month as Oli Alvarez netted twice in the last fifteen minutes to earn Oviedo a surprise draw.
With both AC Monaco and Paris St Germain drawing at the weekend, Monaco remains seven points at the top of the French first division. Bastia moved to third, equal on points with PSG, following its 3-1 win over Strasbourg.