Week's results help Arsenal strengthen hold on league

By Vic Mills

LONDON (JP): The weekend round of matches in the English Premiership saw Arsenal consolidate top position despite dropping points at home in a 2-2 draw against Derby County. The North London club has rising French midfield star Patrik Vieira to thank for securing a point with an injury-time equalizer.

Arsenal, having taken the lead with a diving header by captain Tony Adams, had been rocked by second-half goals from Dean Sturridge and Darryl Powell.

The performance demonstrated once again that while not the most talented or cosmopolitan side in the Premier League, Arsenal more than compensates with a combination of team spirit, organization, discipline and a man-size helping of bloody- mindedness.

These characteristics are much admired, and indeed mirrored, by another London club currently second in the Premiership, Wimbledon. The Dons continued their title challenge, in the process extending their unbeaten league and cup run to 18 matches, with two goals from Efan Ekoku and another by Dean Holdsworth in a 3-1 away win at Sunderland.

Big guns Liverpool and Manchester United both missed out on the chance to close the gap on Arsenal. The Merseyside club went down at home to mid-table Sheffield Wednesday courtesy of a first half strike from center forward Guy Whittingham. The below par Liverpool performance was epitomized by potential match winner Steve McManaman who was marked out of the game by visiting captain Peter Atherton.

In the Sunday match, Manchester United took a two goal lead away at West Ham through Ole Solskjaer and David Beckham only for the Londoners to share the points with late goals from substitute Florin Raducioiu and captain Julian Dicks.

In a weekend, both literally and figuratively, of missed opportunities, Newcastle United's much vaunted forwards failed to score at bottom club Nottingham Forest on Monday evening. The Tyneside club now stand fourth in the table.

Elsewhere in the Premiership, Aston Villa climbed a place with a first-half Andy Townsend winner against luckless Southampton.

Italian import, Gianfranco Zola, opened his account with Chelsea, scoring the first in a 2-2 draw at home to improving Everton. The visitors hit back with goals from Michael Branch and Andrei Kanchelskis. Zola's compatriot, Gianluca Vialli, hit his eighth goal of the season midway through the second half to give Chelsea a share of the points.

At the bottom of the table, life among the relegation candidates remains a tense affair. Middlesbrough and Leeds played out a nil-all draw at the Riverside stadium on Teeside; in the Midlands, Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers shared the spoils 1-1 at Filbert Street, Chris Sutton scoring his seventh goal in 13 games for the visitors; there was still no joy, for Coventry City who went down 2-1 at home to an Andy Sinton goal for Tottenham Hotspur.

Best game

In Europe, the match of the weekend, billed as the 'game of the country', saw Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 to the delight of 110,000 fans at the Bernabeu stadium. The Balkan strike force of Predrag Mijatovic and Davor Suker scored either side of half- time to leave Real Madrid two points clear at the top.

Deportivo de La Coruna moved into second place in the Spanish first division with a hard fought 1-0 win over mid-table Valencia on Sunday. Barcelona drops to third place as a result of their defeat in Madrid.

Elsewhere on the continent, Juventus joined Vicenza at the top of Italy's Serie A following its 1-0 defeat of Sampdoria in Genoa. A first-half Ciro Ferrara goal allied to disciplined defense was enough to take the points.

Unable to convert consistent pressure into goals, Vicenza lost outright top spot in its 1-1 draw against fellow title challengers Internazionale of Milan. Top for the first time in their 94-year history, Vicenza took the lead through Giampiero Maini only to see Inter draw level with a Youri Djorkaeff penalty.

AC Milan returned to winning ways for the first time in seven weeks with a 2-1 victory over Udinese. Unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions Cup last week by Rosenborg, Milan took the points as George Weah created goals for Dejan Savicevic and Stefano Eranio.

Just two points separate the top five teams in Serie A, Juventus has a game in hand over Vicenza and remains a point clear of Inter. Bologna missed its chance to join the front runners, succumbing to a late equalizer against Piacenza and Mauro Milanese's injury time winner against Verona was enough to take Napoli into fifth place.

The closeness of the Italian title race is not mirrored in Holland where PSV Eindhoven now leads the first division by six points following its 6-0 thrashing of FC Volendam Saturday. Another goal for Belgium striker Luc Nilis, his 14th of the season, and two for Brazilian Marcelo took PSV's goal tally to 68 in 19 matches.

Second place Feyenoord kept up its challenge with a 4-0 victory away to De Graafschap Doetinchem Sunday. Goals by Koeman, Swede Henrik Larsen and two from Argentinean Pablo Sanchez completed a comfortable victory for the Rotterdam side.

Mid week European Cup endeavors blunted the cutting edge of Ajax who could only draw 1-1 away against AZ Alkmaar. The Amsterdam side now stands sixth in the first division, 16 points behind PSV.

As the German Bundesliga heads towards its two-month winter break, Bayern Munich stands two points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top. A solitary goal by Jeurgen Klinsmann, his 100th in the Bundesliga, was enough to take the points against Borussia Moenchengladbach.