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.        

At the heart of the matter

English football was dominated by the news that Bolton player Fabrice Muamba suffered heart failure in the 41^st minute at Tottenham and had to be taken to intensive care as the FA Cup match was postponed while in other cup matches Sunderland drew 1-1 at Everton and Stoke lost 2-1 at Liverpool. Fernando Torres found the net twice for Chelsea as the home side enjoyed a 5-2 win over Leicester City. In league matches Manchester Unite had a feast at Wolves as they struck 5 with Hernandez scoring 2 for the leaders while Manchester City came from a goal down to earn a 2-1 home win over Chelsea and Tottenham salvaged a 1-1 draw with a last-gasp goal at home to Stoke but were overtaken by Arsenal who won 1-0 at Everton. Gylfi Sigurdsson scored twice as Swansea brushed Fulham aside 3-0 at the Cottage and Norwich were beaten 1-0 at Newcastle while WBA drew 1-1 at Wigan. Queens Park Rangers came from 2 down to beat Liverpool 3-2 with 2 late goals at Loftus Road and Blackburn sent Sunderland home 2-0 losers. In Spain Barcelona picked up 6 points with a 2-0 win at Savilla and a 5-3 home victory over Granada thanks to a Messi hat-trick while Real Madrid dropped points to a last minute goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Malaga and suffered another late blow when they conceded a late 1-1 equalizer after being reduced to 9 men at Villareal in midweek. An eye-catching result in the English Championship was 7-3 demolition of Leeds United by Nottingham Forest with Garath McCleary scoring 4 times for the visitors.

United top and out

Manchester United took advantage of a 1-0 City defeat at Swansea to go top with a double from Wayne Rooney against West Brom at Old Trafford while a last-gasp goal at the Emirates gave Arsenal a 2-1 victory over Newcastle and took them within a point of Tottenham who lost 1-0 at Everton. Queens Park Rangers lost 2-1 at Bolton and Liverpool fell to a single goal at Sunderland while ten-man Stoke lost 1-0 at Chelsea. David Hoilett scored both goals for Blackburn at Wolves and a last-minute goal at Aston Villa settled the match in favour of the hosts against Fulham while Wigan drew 1-1 at Norwich. On Tuesday evening Steven Gerrard scored a hat-trick for Liverpool as Everton were taken apart 3-0 at Anfield.

In Spain the top 2 both won away from home with Ronaldo scoring twice in Real Madrid’s 3-2 win at Real Betis and Messi scoring both goals from Barcelona at Racing Santander.

Bayern Munich hammered Hoffenheim 7-1 with a Gomez hat-trick in the German league and went on to batter Basel 7-0 with Gomez bagging another 4 in the Champions League where Real Madrid cruised 4-1 past their visitors from CSKA Moscow. A 2-1 home win was not enough for Inter as Marseille progressed on the away-goals rule while Chelsea overturned their 3-1 defeat at Napoli to take the match to extra time and win 4-1 at Stamford Bridge. The Europa League saw the exit of both Manchester sides with United going down 2-1 away to a dominant Athletic Bilbao and City going out on away goals at home to Sporting Lisbon despite heroically coming back from 2 down to score 3 times after the break.