Reds open gap

Manchester United laboured to a 1-0 home win over Fulham on Monday evening to open a 3 point gap at the top over Manchester City who had been held to a 1-1 draw at Stoke City while Arsenal took advantage of Tottenham’s goalless draw at Chelsea to create a similar gap over their neighbours with a 3-0 victory at home to Aston Villa. Djibril Cisse was sent off for Queens Park Rangers who lost 3-1 at Sunderland while Grant Holt scored twice for Norwich before being sent off as the home side defeated Wolves 2-1 and in an emotional match in Bolton, as the thoughts of all was with the recovering Muamba, David Wheater netted twice to give the hosts a 2-1 win over Blackburn. Liverpool suffered a shock 2-1 loss at home to troubled Wigan while Everton struck twice at Swansea and 2 goals from Papiss Cisse helped Newcastle to a 3-1 victory at West Brom.

In Spain Cristiano Ronaldo became the fastest to 100 league goals as he netted twice in Real Madrid’s 5-1 home triumph over Real Sociedad while Barcelona kept up the pressure with 2 goals at Real Mallorca.

In the FA Cup Tottenham won their rescheduled match at White Hart Lane 3-1 against Bolton to set up a semi-final clash with Chelsea while Everton will face Liverpool after winning their replay 2-0 at Sunderland.  

Real Madrid all but booked their passage to the next round of the Champions League with Karim Benzema bagging a brace in their 3-0 win at Apoel Nicisia while Chelsea enjoyed a 1-0 win at Benfica. There were no goals between Milan and Barcelona while Bayern Munich scored twice at Marseille.       

There were 2-1 home wins in the Europa League first-leg matches for Atletico de Madrid over Hannover, AZ Alkmaar against Valencia and Sporting Lisbon against Metalist while Athletic de Bilbao celebrated a 4-2 win at Schalke.