North-south split opens at top of Premiership
By Vic Mills
MELBOURNE (JP): The gulf between north and south in the English Premiership widened at the weekend as Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United all stole a march on their southern rivals Chelsea and Arsenal.
In the Monday match, Manchester United extended its lead at the top to four points thanks to a 52nd-minute Ryan Giggs winner against Aston Villa.
On a night of modest finishing, Teddy Sheringham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Andy Cole and Giggs all came close only to be denied by a combination of woodwork, bad luck and some heroic defending by goalkeeper Michael Oakes and centerback, Ugo Ehiogu.
United had the opportunity to put the issue beyond doubt in the 66th minute, but Sheringham, as if a statement on both the game and evening, missed his third penalty of the season.
Blackburn Rovers the toast of the north on Saturday as it beat Arsenal 3-1 at Highbury to move above Chelsea into second place.
Behind to a first half Mark Overmars strike, Rovers drew level in the 58th minute as Jason Wilcox capitalized on a Tony Adams mistake and took the lead eight minutes later with a superb 25- yard volley from Kevin Gallagher.
A Tim Sherwood goal on the stroke of full time consigned Arsenal to its fourth defeat in six games; a result that leaves the Londoners fifth, 10 points off the pace.
The southern challenge was equally joyless at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea was held goalless by a Leeds United side reduced to nine men before the interval.
In a fiery opening, as much a testimony to the late Billy Bremner as the minute's silence before the game, Gary Kelly and Alf-Inge Haaland were both dismissed for their second bookable offenses.
Leeds might not yet have the class of the Bremner era, but it more than makes up for it with team spirit. This shone through in the second half as, marshaled by the admirable Nigel Martyn in goal, it fought manfully to frustrate a disappointing Chelsea side.
Liverpool added insult to injured southern pride by putting its recent poor form behind it to deny Crystal Palace a first home win of the season with goals from Steve McManaman, Michael Owen and Oyvind Leonhardsen.
Coventry went one better as Darren Huckerby (2), Gary Breen and Marcus Hall conspired to put four past luckless Tottenham Hotspur. The imposition of Sunday training and the arrival of new fitness advisers had little effect on a Spurs side that again fell away in the last quarter.
The one ray of sunshine on a bleak day for sides from the capital came at Upton Park where a Paul Kitson goal for West Ham United was enough to end Sheffield Wednesday's unbeaten run under new manager, Ron Atkinson.
Other matches
Elsewhere, late goals from Nathan Blake and Jamie Pollock enabled Bolton to snatch a point in a six-goal thriller at home to Derby County; bottom club Barnsley came back to draw 2-2 with Newcastle United thanks to a goal 15 minutes from time by John Hendrie; Southampton ended its run of four successive defeats with a 2-1 win over Leicester City; and Wimbledon crowned a miserable weekend for London clubs with a goalless draw on Merseyside against Everton.
On the continent, Internazionale extended its lead at the top of Italy's Serie A to four points with goals from Youri Djorkaeff, Marco Branca and Ivan Zamorano in a 3-0 win over AS Roma.
The absence of Ronaldo on international duty had little bearing on a match in which Roma contributed to its own downfall by finishing the game with nine men after Matteo Pivotto and Francesco Totti were sent off early in the second half.
Unable to reproduce its midweek form against Manchester United, second place Juventus could do no better than draw 1-1 at Piacenza. Daniel Fonseca scored on a rare outing for the Turin club only for Angelo Peruzzi to gift Gian Pietro Piovani an equalizer minutes later with a handling error.
The positions remain unchanged at the top of the Spanish first division where Barcelona heads the standings by two points thanks to goals from Luis Enrique, Giovanni and Sergi Barjuan in its 3-1 win over city rivals Espanyol.
Real Madrid stays second, but was unconvincing in a poor game against Merida in which it was reliant upon a 33rd minute Mariano own goal to take the points.
Unfashionable Hertha Berlin breathed new life into the German Bundesliga Friday by beating runaway leader Kaiserslautern 2-0. Bayern Munich closed the gap to four points on Sunday with a nervous 3-2 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Coasting 3-0 after 52 minutes with two goals from Carsten Jancker and another from Christian Nerlinger, Bayern made life difficult for themselves by conceding late strikes to Steffan Effenberg and Jorgen Pettersson.
In France, a 54th minute Thierry Henry goal against Rennes gave Monaco a two point cushion at the top of the first division, while honors were even in the second against third battle at the Parc des Princes where Paris St Germain took the lead with a Rai penalty only for Metz to equalize shortly after through Robert Pires.
Finally to Holland, where it was just another day at the office for league leader Ajax Amsterdam, which beat Volendam 3-0 with two goals from Jari Litmanen and another from Frank de Boer to stay 18 points clear at the top.