Chelsea threw the Premier league title race wide open by losing 1-0 at Aston Villa on Saturday, ensuring Manchester City trimmed the gap to the leaders to six points with a battling 2-0 win at Hull.
Chelsea saw Willian and Ramires sent off, and manager Jose Mourinho sent to the stands, in a wild end to a match settled by Fabian Delph’s impudent 82nd-minute goal at Villa Park.
City leapfrogged Arsenal and liverpool into second place by overcoming the 10th-minute sending-off of captain Vincent Kompany to win at Hull thanks to goals by David Silva and Edin Dzeko.
City has three games in hand over Chelsea, while liverpool and Arsenal are seven points back having played two fewer matches.
The battle to avoid relegation also heated up, with the bottom seven teams separated by just five points after last-place Fulham beat Newcastle 1-0 for the team’s first victory under new manager Felix Magath.
Cardiff conceded a goal three minutes into injury time to lose 2-1 at Everton and is now just a point above Fulham along with Sunderland, which drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace.
West Bromwich Albion won 2-1 at Swansea to move three points clear of danger, Norwich remained in trouble by losing 4-2 at Southampton and Stoke beat West Ham 3-1 in a match between two mid-table teams.
Chelsea looked to be marching to the title in Mourinho’s first season back at Stamford Bridge, but a first defeat in 15 league matches offers plenty of encouragement to its title rivals.
Willian had already been sent off for two bookings, the second coming in the 68th for a slight tug of an opponent’s jersey, when Delph ran onto Marc Albrighton’s cut-back and flicked a left-footed finish from behind his right foot and into the corner.
Ramires was then dismissed for a lunging tackle on Karim El Ahmadi that was described by Villa manager Paul lambert as a “leg-breaker.” In the ensuing melee, Mourinho was ordered from the dugout by referee Chris Foy.
“I asked for five seconds to ask one single question,” Mourinho said. “I had no question because I was sent to the stands.”
Doubts were suddenly swirling around Man City’s title bid after a slump in form that saw the team lose to second-tier Wigan in the FA Cup quarterfinals, eliminated from the Champions league by Barcelona, and slip nine points off the pace in the Premier league.
A win in adversity at Hull will silence the doubters, especially considering Kompany’s early red card for pulling back Nikica Jelavic when last man.
“Playing with one player less for 80 minutes is very difficult,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said. “It was a great performance. We played well with and without the ball.”
Silva curled home the opening goal from outside the area in the 14th minute and the Spain playmaker set up Dzeko for the clinching second in the 90th.
Everton climbed into sixth place above Man United, boosting hopes of securing European football for next season, with a win over Cardiff at Goodison Park that was secured when Seamus Coleman mis-hit a shot into the net with seconds remaining in stoppage time.
liverpool crush Manchester United 3-0
Manchester: Steven Gerrard converted two penalties and luis Suarez also scored as liverpool confirmed its new-found superiority over Manchester United with an accomplished 3-0 victory over its great rival in the Premier league on Sunday.
After the darkest day of David Moyes’ tumultuous first season at Old Trafford, United is virtually assured of missing out on Champions league qualification for the first time since 1995.
liverpool moved up to second and within four points of leader Chelsea — with a game in hand — after Gerrard dispatched penalties in the 34th minute after Rafael da Silva’s handball and in the 46th after Phil Jones’ foul on Joe Allen.
There was time for Gerrard to hit the post with a third penalty, in the 78th, after Nemanja Vidic was given a second booking for tripping Daniel Sturridge before Suarez completed the thrashing in the 84th.
While liverpool capitalized on Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday and can realistically aim to win a first title since 1990, United couldn’t be at a lower ebb after being humiliated in arguably the biggest match in English football.
Their defending was shambolic and reckless — there could have been more than three penalties awarded, and their midfield was non-existent at times.
Moyes has a massive job to pick his team up in time for Wednesday, when United tries to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Olympiakos in the Champions league’s last 16. That is their final shot at silverware.
liverpool had lost on their previous six visits to Old Trafford and seemingly had an inferiority complex whenever it came to the home of its biggest foe.