Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Steven Gerrard backs Liverpool for title after Manchester United rout
Chesterfield profit from numbers game against Oxford to dream on | Jeremy Alexander
Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool | Michael Cox
Felix Magath's faith in young Fulham players rewarded against Newcastle
Hull City's Steve Bruce rubbishes spitting claims against George Boyd
Chris Hughton denies losing the heartbeat of Norwich at St Mary's
Sunderland's Wes Brown rues lack of finishing touch against Crystal Palace
Pepe Mel enjoys stay of execution as West Brom finally get his message
Saving Cardiff's skin would be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's greatest success
Tim Sherwood loses his coat and his cool and insists Tottenham were better
Full-throttle Tottenham fail to calm Tim Sherwood's sound and fury | Barney Ronay
Premier League struggles to punch its weight among European elite | Sean Ingle
Messi becomes Barça's record scorer
Aberdeen 0-0 Inverness CT; aet Aberdeen won 4-2 on pens | Scottish League Cup final
Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal
Tottenham v Arsenal – as it happened! | Ian McCourt
Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal: the north London derby – in pictures
Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool: five talking points | Jamie Jackson
Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool – as it happened
Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool
Manchester United v Liverpool – in pictures
Vincent Kompany may face further action for 'obscene hand gesture'
FA to request Anelka ban transferred
Jermain Defoe scores twice for Toronto on MLS debut
A-League: what we learned this weekend

Steven Gerrard backs Liverpool for title after Manchester United rout

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:17 PM PDT

• 'We totally bossed the midfield,' says Gerrard
• Wayne Rooney describes defeat as a 'nightmare'

Steven Gerrard has insisted that Liverpool can win the Premier League while, for the reigning champions, Wayne Rooney described Manchester United's 3-0 defeat to Brendan Rodgers's rampant side as a "nightmare" and among his worst days in football.

Liverpool last won the championship 24 years ago but after scoring penalties in the 34th and 46th minutes – and missing a later one – to make him the club's highest scorer against United, Gerrard said: "We believe that we can win the league. I've come here many times and been played off the park. They are a fantastic team and this is one of the most difficult places to come to, so to come and dominate from start to finish … and we are still going away disappointed that we didn't score more goals.

"I said before the game it's going to be difficult [to win the title] and we need to take each game as it comes and just try to win them all. We will enjoy tonight but we need to move on very quickly because we know Cardiff [next] are going to be tough. I think we have shown out there that we are genuine contenders and we are going to fight to the end."

With Luis Suárez completing the rout, Gerrard hailed Rodgers's tactical approach featuring Raheem Sterling playing in an unfamiliar role behind the strikers. "You have got to give credit to the manager," said the midfielder. "He keeps switching and tinkering with the formation and the tactics.

"We played a diamond [formation]. We totally bossed the middle of the park. When you come away from home you have got to keep the ball and dominate the middle of the pitch and if we do that we have got two of the best strikers in the world to go and do the damage. I'm sure if you ask the United defenders, I don't think they have ever had a harder 90 minutes than that."

Of his spot-kicks, Gerrard said: "It was strange I maybe got a little bit cocky with the third one. I was confident I was going to score it but I was very pleased I got the two important ones."

Insult was added to injury for United when Nemanja Vidic received a second yellow card for a foul on Daniel Sturridge that gave away the final penalty.

United have allowed a 43-point swing to Liverpool compared with last season and this defeat was a fifth at home in the league. The last time they lost more at Old Trafford was in the 1977-78 season. If David Moyes's team drop one more point they are guaranteed to finish with their poorest return of the Premier League era, having twice managed 75 points, in the 1996-97 and 2003-04 campaigns.

Rooney said: "It's like a nightmare. It's one of the worst days I've ever had in football. It's hard to take. You have to give Liverpool credit – they played well – but it's difficult to take. Nobody wants to lose, especially in this way, in your own stadium. It's not nice.

"We had a game plan for the second half, which went out the window when they got the second penalty so early on. It made it an uphill battle to come back."

Rodgers heaped more pressure on Moyes, who had suggested Liverpool were favourites before the match, saying: "I was probably surprised before the game when I heard we were supposedly coming to Old Trafford as favourites. I would never say that at Liverpool – even if I was bottom of the league. Anfield is Anfield. We expect to win and we have a mentality that has been developing over 18 months which we expect to win home and away and the belief is in the players and you see that in their game."

When this was put to Moyes, he said: "I thought Liverpool were above us in the league and playing well and any average person would have turned around and said that." Pressed if he was surprised a rival manager would question him, Moyes added: "You are entitled to an opinion."

Rodgers also claimed the job he has done since becoming manager two seasons ago could not be compared with that of Moyes on taking charge of United last summer. "I have empathy in terms of the pressures at both of the two biggest clubs in British football but it is incomparable where we were at. He came in and they were champions with world-class players. We were eighth when I came in and there was a hell of a lot of work to do." said the Northern Irishman.

Moyes, as he has been previously this season, was at a loss to offer reasons for the defeat. "It is difficult to explain it," he said. "I just think Liverpool played well. We didn't play as well as we can and we will work to make that better."

Jamie Jackson

Chesterfield profit from numbers game against Oxford to dream on | Jeremy Alexander

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:13 PM PDT

Spireites remain top of League Two after sealing a 3-0 win when the visiting side had been reduced to eight men

Chesterfield had two scares against Oxford United on Saturday. In the second minute David Hunt's 25-yard rocket called for an acrobatic tip-over by Tommy Lee. In the three added on Oxford were down to eight men – two sent off in the previous 10 minutes and Johnny Mullins carried off with all substitutes used. Another red card or injury would render the game invalid. Chesterfield coped by turning 2-0 to 3-0 and underscoring a victory that keeps them top of League Two. The wonky spire had put one over the dreaming ones.

There are no runaways in this division. Last Tuesday, in a full programme, none of the top seven clubs won. The field seemed to be hunching and bunching like middle-distance runners for a 10-game sprint. On Saturday four won while Burton and Southend drew. Oxford, failing to win for the sixth successive match, are losing ground as fast as players, having lost their manager too, Chris Wilder, 11 games ago.

Chesterfield looked confident pacemakers despite only one win in five games since reaching the Johnstone's Paint final, which they won two years ago. Peterborough, their opponents, will give them a taste of what they hope to experience next season. Leam Richardson, assistant manager, said: "We've come through a sticky period but the lads have stuck to it."

Ritchie Humphreys would be glad to be thought of as such. As a teenage prodigy his goals propelled Sheffield Wednesday to the top of the Premiership in 1996. This century, retreating through midfield, he has been a legend at Hartlepool over a dozen seasons. Now, at 36 and left-back, he is chairman of the PFA. He knows more about the Premier League than his scouse manager, Paul Cook, another left-footer who had a top-tier season with Coventry but was more familiar at Wolves and Burnley. League One would be a managerial step up for Cook after Accrington.

This is his first full season and he might have taken the town's former MP, Tony Benn, as a model. "Passionate and uncompromising" were headline words in Chesterfield on Saturday and Cook wears his heart on the touchline as long as he is allowed to stay there. Twice in his last three away games he has been sent to the stands, albeit more tiffs than butts. Proact, whose name defines their stadium, claim to be "leading cloud enablers". Other grounds, it seems, generate red mist.

It is a risky disciplinary example but his demanding enthusiasm has infected team and club favourably so far. He wants players who want the ball, he says, and willing movement from Marc Richards and Ollie Banks up front opened up spells of fine attack, prompted by Samy Morsy and the right-back, Tendayi Darikwa. Two goals in the first 16 minutes helped. Banks, with FC United in September, drove in the first to crown a move started by Humphreys. Mullins, booked for a trip on Gary Roberts, then fouled Ian Evatt from the free-kick, conceding a penalty. Roberts converted that as well as adding the late third after Mullins had left, trying not to be mistaken for Muggins. As the soothsayer said, "Beware the Ides of March." Chesterfield, meanwhile, go to Plymouth on Tuesday.

Jeremy Alexander

Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool | Michael Cox

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:06 PM PDT

Tactically Manchester United versus Liverpool was an unusual affair with the Liverpool manager revisiting last season

In an unusual tactical battle David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers selected formations that were, on paper, extremely narrow. Manchester United continued with Adnan Januzaj and Juan Mata moving inside into central positions, while Brendan Rodgers persevered with his midfield diamond, featuring Raheem Sterling at the top.

With Liverpool clearly dominating possession in the opening stages, neither side had a reliable attacking strategy. United had no serious counterattacking threat and were unable to feed their centre-forwards but Liverpool's dominance was not necessarily good for their attackers, either. Having grown accustomed to counterattacking at devastating speed, Liverpool did not turn their constant possession into scoring opportunities, and there were few clear-cut chances in the first half.

Nevertheless Liverpool were unquestionably on top throughout the game. Sterling darted from side to side, occupying Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini, which allowed the Liverpool midfielders on the outside of the diamond, Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson, into pockets of space between United players. Manchester United's full-backs were reluctant to come out of defence to meet them, primarily because this would open up space for Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suárez to move into in wider areas, exposing the United centre-backs to pace, something that became more obvious later.

Therefore Liverpool always had simple out-balls – diagonal passes into dangerous zones – but in open play they should have capitalised on these situations more. Neither Allen nor Henderson is naturally creative – Allen's a reliable passer, Henderson an energetic runner in this Liverpool side. Sterling is better at running with the ball than playing the final pass, while Suárez was uncharacteristically wasteful in possession.

Instead Liverpool's success was about constant pressure rather than repeated penetration. They won three penalties, each in wide areas of the box, in the channels. Liverpool could have been awarded at least two more, such was United's nervousness at the back.

This was the old-school Rodgers approach, the strategy from the start of last season: constant pressure through possession, with a belief that the more the opposition tire, the more they make mistakes. Only in the final 20 minutes, when United went chasing the game, did we witness the new-style Liverpool, playing on the break, with Suárez and Sturridge more involved.

Not that United's chasing was particularly nuanced: Moyes waited until the 76th minute before making two substitutions, Tom Cleverley for Fellaini and Danny Welbeck for Januzaj, which changed little. There was no attempt to improve the defensive shape, no substitution to help United cope in midfield and no action taken to change the misfiring front two. Moyes did not appear to understand how to fix United's problems, an analysis which also applies in a much broader sense.

Michael Cox

Felix Magath's faith in young Fulham players rewarded against Newcastle

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:04 PM PDT

Felix Magath was so desperate to see improvement in this match that he even tried changing his glasses. He enjoyed the new view so much that he says his new spectacles are "lucky" and he will wear them again next weekend, when he will need all the charms he can get, as Fulham go to Manchester City. "Everything is possible in football, you can always win, even in Manchester," he said.

But what did he really see here? The emergence of a Fulham team who can escape relegation? Or just the visit of uniquely obliging opponents? Newcastle played with all the urgency of a team ensconced in mid-table and the quality of one missing most of their creative players, especially the injured Loic Rémy and Hatem Ben Arfa. They were also missing their manager but Alan Pardew's enforced exile made little difference to the result even if it felt odd to his staff, who must get used to the experience quickly as Pardew has two more matches of his stadium ban to serve.

"The buildup was normal as it is for every game but it was a bit strange getting on the bus without him," said the man who directed operations from the dugout in Pardew's absence, the assistant manager, John Carver. "He's our leader and rightly so but once you get to the stadium and your workload kicks in it was like any other game. We had a couple of conversation on the phone, but it is strange when your boss is not here. But he said he has a lot of faith in his staff. We have a lot of experience in the technical area so the fact he only contacted us twice during the game meant he must have been happy. So I don't think it was detrimental to the way we played."

Newcastle played the way Fulham have done for most of the season: in spurts and without enough quality. Fulham, in an encouraging development, played with energy and cohesion for the full 90 minutes. Magath believes that was partially due to the injection of youth, as five changes to the starting line-up meant Fulham began with only two players over 30, the lowest number in a season where the club had placed most of its faith in veterans. Magath had started with that foundation too but demolished it after last week's dismal loss to Cardiff City.

His decisions were vindicated as David Stockdale performed splendidly in goal in place of Maarten Stekelenburg and the reintegration of Fernando Amorebieta into the defence coincided with a first clean sheet since December. Stockdale and Amorebieta had played many times already this season and contributed as much to some heavy defeats as they did to this victory so it remains to be seen whether the new-found solidity is durable.

The performance of 19-year-old Cauley Woodrow was a clear positive. He led the line with a zest not seen this season from any of the other six strikers Fulham have fielded, including their expensive recruits Kostas Mitroglu and Darren Bent, neither of whom were in the squad. The 17-year-old striker Patrick Roberts was among the substitutes instead.

Magath is now convinced that youthful audacity and dynamism trump craggy wiles. "I thought in this situation the older players would be more confident but the young players like Woodrow are more exciting," he said. "They give us a good mood, good vibrations. They have nothing to lose."

Woodrow's mobility and link-up play helped give shape to a Fulham side who has too often seemed amorphous this season and he almost claimed the goal that his display deserved when he turned the ball into the net early in the second half after Jonny Heitinga's long-range shot crashed out off the crossbar. But no goal was given as Woodrow has ventured offside.

Another feature of this campaign has been Fulham's tendency to shoot themselves in the foot even when playing well and William Kvist risked a relapse when he inadvertently presented Papiss Cissé with a clear shot at goal in the 66th minute. Stockdale saved and Fulham went straight down the other end and scored the winning goal as a mistake by Tim Krul allowed Ashkan Dejagah's 20-yard shot to find the net. Perhaps that change of fortune was more significant than any of the personnel alterations? Maybe Magath is right about his glasses.

Fulham are still four points form a position of safety - five if you factor in their disastrous goal difference - but their remaining fixtures include potentially pivotal clashes with fellow strugglers such as Crystal Palace, Norwich and Hull. And next weekend Woodrow is likely to come up against Martin Demichiles, another creaking veteran whom the youngster could make look bad.

Man of the match David Stockdale (Fulham)

Paul Doyle

Hull City's Steve Bruce rubbishes spitting claims against George Boyd

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:04 PM PDT

• Manager denies his player spat at Manchester City's Joe Hart
• Vincent Kompany awaits decision from Football Association

George Boyd faces an anxious wait to discover whether the Football Association will charge him with spitting at the England goalkeeper Joe Hart during Hull's defeat by 10-man Manchester City.

If the referee, Lee Mason, did not witness the alleged action during the 69th-minute confrontation between the two players – Hart was cautioned for shoving his head towards Boyd's face and will therefore face no further punishment – then retrospective disciplinary measures could be taken. Tempers frayed after substitute Boyd went to ground in trying to round the goalkeeper.

Mason's report is now key but Steve Bruce leapt to Boyd's defence and insists he has no case to answer. "No, that's a load of rubbish. He's tried to talk and something has come out. That's what I've seen. George Boyd wouldn't do that, definitely wouldn't do that. No chance," the Hull manager said.

Hart, incensed by what he perceived to be a dive by Boyd, had to be hauled away by his team-mates but Bruce said: "Look, George is as honest as they come. He was playing non-league six years ago. If you're a football player and you're in that situation, with the goalkeeper hurtling towards you, what are you going to do? Stand there and say 'go on then, whack me'?

"I genuinely think the referee got it right. Boydy was going at full tilt, he's expecting to get clattered. To be fair to Joe, he's done what every experienced goalkeeper does, he's pulled himself out of the road. If he has got an arm out, he's going to hit George with it. He's [Boyd] tried to take evasive action rather than simulate to try and win a penalty."

In contrast, however, Boyd questioned the colour of the card produced by Mason, who had brandished a red to the visiting captain, Vincent Kompany, in the 10th minute for hauling back Nikica Jelavic as he bore down on goal. "He said afterwards he didn't touch me but I thought he touched me a little bit. His reaction was over the top. He didn't nut me but he's put his head in, so he should have got sent off, really," Boyd said.

Kompany may also be concerned by feedback from the fourth official, Anthony Taylor, after a suggestion that the player made a hand gesture before kicking a wall on his way down the tunnel. If such an incident does not feature in Mason's report, the FA can act independently by studying video footage. Any further suspension on top of the one-game ban for the red card would rule Kompany out of the derby against Manchester United on 25 March.

Without their captain, the visitors made light of their numerical disadvantage on what was a tempestuous, and potentially decisive, weekend of this Premier League season. A virtuoso display from their Spanish conductor David Silva – who exchanged passes with Yaya Touré to bend in a wonderful opening goal four minutes after they went down to 10 men and then teased the ball through the home defence for Edin Dzeko to end a nine-match goal drought – suggested City have an individual in the kind of form to make good their standing, six points behind leaders Chelsea with three games in hand.

"Is he the main man? When Kun [Sergio Agüero] scores you say it's him, when Vinnie scores it's Vinnie, when Yaya scores you say it's Yaya," Samir Nasri said. "But I think we're a team with plenty of players and if you want to win the league then you have to think about the team rather than just one player who can make a difference. You cannot win a title with just one player. Does this game make champions? Yes, it does, but sometimes you can win games when you are lucky and that can make you a champion as well. We know if we win our last 11 games we are going to be champions."

The collective resolve was typified by their makeshift central defensive pairing of the much-maligned Argentinian Martín Demichelis and Javi García: boots and heads were offered with precision timing whenever necessary and the pair moved in unison to repeatedly catch Hull's forwards offside.

If that was a good sign in the present – Kompany will now miss Saturday's visit of Fulham – there was also a good omen to be dug up from the past. This was City's first league win in Hull since 1909 – a season in which they were crowned champions, albeit of Division Two.

Man of the match Martín Demichelis (Manchester City)

Richard Gibson

Chris Hughton denies losing the heartbeat of Norwich at St Mary's

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:03 PM PDT

• Manager says he understands supporters' frustrations
• Norwich sliding into danger after defeat by Southampton

His words were emphatic enough that you could practically have punctuated each one with a full-stop. But Chris Hughton, the Norwich manager, is kidding himself if he really believes them.

"No, we are not losing the fans," was his response to another thrashing on and off the pitch. Norwich conceded four times as Southampton swept them aside at St Mary's and Hughton suffered the ultimate indignity as the travelling fans turned on him, branding him clueless as he made a triple substitution in the second half.

Not losing the fans? Maybe Hughton should check out Norwich's local message boards: the opinions there are colourful and cruel. "Can we put on a video of best 1-0 wins ever to distract him in the dressing room, and the team can get on the coach quickly and leave him behind?" asked one poster, capturing the lighter side of an overwhelming sense of desperation.

"The fans are the heartbeat of the club," Hughton said. "There'll be occasions when they like what they see and occasions when they don't.

"I absolutely understand their frustrations and, as a manager, if there's any criticism towards stuff that's going on then I have to accept it."

But no amount of pandering will placate them now. Norwich looked awful against Southampton and their remaining fixtures – ending with Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal in succession – look even worse. The Canaries have won just two of their last 15 league matches and their cushion over the bottom three is being whittled away at an alarming rate.

Nonetheless, Hughton denies he has already privately acknowledged his fate is sealed. "I can only deal with the things that are facts," he said. "It's a tough period, there's no getting away from it, but if I think back to last season we finished 11th but with three games to go we could mathematically have gone down. When you have tough periods you just have to show resilience and character, and you have to be as calm as you can."

Southampton, who had been in fitful form recently, won the match with a fine team goal finished by Morgan Schneiderlin in the first half and further efforts from Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez and Sam Gallagher in the second. It was the 18-year-old Gallagher's first Premier League goal for the club.

Bizarrely, Norwich almost clambered back into the match by sheer fortune. Johan Elmander and Robert Snodgrass scored late on, briefly making it 3-2, when chances were gifted to them as the home side switched off. Anything but defeat would have been an injustice.

Man of the match Rickie Lambert (Southampton)

Jonny Weeks

Sunderland's Wes Brown rues lack of finishing touch against Crystal Palace

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:02 PM PDT

• Goalless draw was an opportunity lost, says defender
• Mission accomplished for Tony Pulis in 'must not lose game'

From Sunderland's viewpoint there are a few what ifs. Who knows what might have been had Gus Poyet facilitated Fabio Borini's shift into a central attacking role by switching his formation from 4-1-4-1 to 4-4-2 a little earlier? Or preferred Jack Colback to Sebastian Larsson in central midfield? Or not excluded Italy's Emanuele Giaccherini from the substitutes' bench? Or even started Jozy Altidore ahead of a less than fit looking Steven Fletcher?

There is a case for arguing that Sunderland's manager made at least four mistakes – Lee Cattermole's advocates maintain his demotion to the bench represented a fifth – but there was also a sense that Palace would have sneaked a point regardless. Tony Pulis, who seemed to be patenting a 6-3-1 formation and rarely encouraged his team to emerge from their own half, dubbed it a "must not lose game", and flew back south celebrating mission accomplished.

Standing 17th – one place and three points better off than Sunderland – Palace are anything but out of danger, particularly as Poyet's team hold two games in hand. Yet if the statistics suggest all is far from lost for the Wearsiders, their alarming mental blocks in the creative and goalscoring departments threaten to ensure survival slips from Poyet's grasp.

"It was an opportunity lost," acknowledged Wes Brown who, assured as ever in central defence, was rarely stretched. "We put a lot of pressure on them but maybe we just missed that finishing touch."

The mood among the near 44,000 crowd would have been even more downbeat had Palace's Kagisho Dikgacoi not shot wide from seven yards in the final minute, with only the otherwise embarrassingly underemployed Vito Mannone to beat. Yet if defeat would have been horribly harsh on a dominant, if blunt-edged, Sunderland, the moments when Altidore forced Julián Speroni into a tremendous save and Borini's shot rebounded off the woodwork represented extremely isolated attacking highlights.

"It's not an ideal situation," agreed Brown. "The only good thing is that everyone down at the bottom is still so close."

Man of the match Fabio Borini (Sunderland)

Louise Taylor

Pepe Mel enjoys stay of execution as West Brom finally get his message

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:02 PM PDT

They came to bury Pepe, not to praise him, but West Bromwich Albion's third manager of a dire season survived his crisis and the team are well placed to do likewise after a gutsy fightback and long-awaited win – only their second in the past 19 Premier League matches.

The Midlands media arrived with Pepe Mel's obituary prepared. The Spaniard was still searching for his first victory after eight attempts, and the word was that he would be gone after another defeat. Instead the Fourth Estate were confounded by the Third Man – after Steve Clarke and the caretaker Keith Downing – who was not about to melt away like Harry Lime. In common with beleaguered managers everywhere, Mel sought deliverance in the wing-back system, which offers a five-man defence or a five-man midfield, according to needs.

In the first half Albion played it so badly that many of us mistook the deployment for a disorganised back four but the improvement after Mel's half-time ministrations was such that they were able to turn a 1-0 deficit, that should have been more, into a 2-1 win.

The spiky spirit they showed in doing so augurs well, and their next three games, against Hull, Cardiff and Norwich, offer realistic hope of further progress away from the bottom three. On this evidence Mel clearly has the players behind him, which was something his captain, Jonas Olsson, confirmed afterwards. The experienced defender said: "It has been tough for the gaffer and I'm very happy for him and the coaching staff. The feeling in the dressing room is that everyone is on board and pulling in the right direction. The next three games are going to be crucial, everyone can see that. With the squad we have I felt it was going to turn for us eventually but it was important to get some confidence."

Contrast this with the thoughts of Michel Vorm, the Swansea goalkeeper, who said: "West Brom showed so much heart and we didn't. We let ourselves down and we have no excuses. We can't afford to lose games like West Brom at home. It doesn't matter who you play, you have to fight for the points. Playing Everton and Arsenal away [their next two matches] is going to be tough and we have to show more character."

Spot on. The Welsh team's passing game is universally admired but they are without a win in their last seven under Garry Monk's interim management and significant improvement is needed if the Swans are to navigate out of the relegation whirlpool and if Monk is to get the job on a permanent basis.

They should have had the points in the bag by half-time on Saturday but failed to translate total superiority into more than the one excellent solo goal Roland Lamah scored in the second minute, from a testing angle on the left. During the interval Mel lectured his charges on "their future" and on the need to "win more second balls" and the transformation was startling. It was West Brom who won the 50-50s now and two handsome strikes from Stéphane Sessègnon and Youssouf Mulumbu, both from outside the penalty area, turned deficit into heartening profit.

Man of the match James Morrison (West Bromwich Albion)

Joe Lovejoy

Saving Cardiff's skin would be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's greatest success

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 03:00 PM PDT

• Champions League winner has fight to keep Cardiff up
• Breezy optimism has echoes of Roberto Martínez at Wigan

Winning eight league titles and the Champions League was, it transpires, the easy part. Keeping Cardiff in the top flight could be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's greatest achievement. "It would rank as the highest," said the Norwegian, before stating with absolute certainty: "And it will. The bulk of my career has been winning trophies, yes, but you can look and say 'what is success for Cardiff this year?' It is staying up and we are so close."

Cardiff's hope must be that his confidence is infectious and justified. The bare facts are that they have lost 10 of their last 14 league games and won only two. They have not taken a point on their travels for three months. They are the Premier League's second lowest scorers and only Fulham have conceded more goals. Given their inferior goal difference, they are in effect four points – rather than three – from getting out of the bottom three.

Yet if their manager's breezy optimism felt familiar, it was because it echoed the innate positivity his Everton counterpart used to exhibit in Wigan's annual relegation battles. Roberto Martínez and Solskjaer are kindred spirits, Anglophile imports who have replaced austere Scots and introduced a more ambitious style of play.

Now Solskjaer has a high-profile admirer. "What is significant is Cardiff's performance,"Martínez said. "I never saw a team at the bottom of the table. I saw a unit with a real togetherness, a real knowhow. Ole has brought a tactical flexibility."

It is a shared interest. Martínez used to switch between three- and four-man defences. Solskjaer started on Saturday with both a back five and a midfield diamond, changed to 4-1-4-1 and made a Martínez-esque attacking gambit when bringing on Wilfried Zaha for Fabio da Silva. Had the substitute been awarded a penalty when Sylvain Distin fouled him, Cardiff may have secured a first win at Goodison Park since 1926.

"He was fantastic when he came on," Solskjaer said. "He has something different. I thought he did enough to win the game but never got the decision."

Everton's reprieve preceded Seamus Coleman's looping, lucky winner while, some 200 miles south, Cardiff's relegation rivals West Bromwich scored a late decider at Swansea. "They might be the defining minutes," Solskjaer said.

It may be the difference between playing at Goodison Park and Griffin Park next season. Two years ago, Martínez kept Wigan up with an improbable run of seven victories in the final nine games. If Cardiff's plight is not quite as desperate, Solskjaer admitted: "We definitely need heroes now."

Everton have a habit of finding them, especially when they are drawing in the final few minutes of games at Goodison. Coleman was the latest to oblige, slicing in his sixth goal of the season. "It is quite difficult to find a better full-back than him," said Martínez. Coleman's capacity to arrive in the 18-yard box belies the job description. The all-action Irishman is more the Irish Cafu than the new Tony Hibbert but the scuffed finish, which also brought him a goal against Stoke, is becoming his party trick.

Man of the match David Marshall (Cardiff City)

Richard Jolly

Tim Sherwood loses his coat and his cool and insists Tottenham were better

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 02:37 PM PDT

• Spurs manager defends heated moments on touchline
• He says result will paper over cracks for Arsenal

Tim Sherwood felt his side had "outplayed" Arsenal after Spurs went down 1-0 in the north London derby yesterday, and that the victory secured by Tomas Rosicky's sensational early goal, would "paper over a lot of cracks".

The result appeared to end Tottenham's hopes of a top-four finish but it fired Arsenal's title dream, on the back of Chelsea's surprise 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.

It was a passionate occasion, with Sherwood losing his composure on the touchline. He hurled his gilet back at the substitutes' bench in the first half while he clashed towards the end with the Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna, when he threw the ball at him to encourage him to hurry up over a throw-in.

"I think we were better than them, we deserved to win," Sherwood said. "It was a wonder strike and I'm willing him to shoot from that distance. But he sticks it in the top corner and there is nothing we can do about that.

"We showed character, absolutely. If you give me that between now and the end of the season, no problem. We will be where we are meant to be. The result for Arsenal will paper over a lot of cracks. They were outplayed today and they're title contenders." Sherwood was unapologetic over his loss of cool and joked that "it was too hot for that gilet anyway".

"I can't apologise for it," he continued, "and I can't say it won't ever happen again. I don't even know why I was angry. It's probably something we worked on in training. I would say if I remembered but when it's not applied it winds me up. Every manager would be the same but I suppose I show it more than others. If we were all the same, then this world would be very boring. I've got to show my emotions. If I didn't, then I'd be acting and there's too many actors in this game. I just want to wear my heart on my sleeve, when I wear them.

"With Sagna, I just tried to get the ball back to him as quickly as possible and he obviously chose not to catch it. But we shook hands. It was heat of the moment."

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, said Rosicky's blast would "go down in my collection of great goals" while he praised his central defenders, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker who, he said, were "exceptional".

"We were under pressure to win and it was a huge result," Wenger said. "We needed the three points after our recent defeat at Stoke. That was still on our minds. To stay in the title race we knew it was vital to win. The early goal influenced the way we played too much. We wanted to protect the lead. Tottenham were absolutely up for it and we needed some special resilience to get away with it."

David Hytner

Full-throttle Tottenham fail to calm Tim Sherwood's sound and fury | Barney Ronay

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 01:33 PM PDT

Their season is all over bar the shouting after 1-0 defeat by Arsenal – and there was a lot from the Spurs dugout

At times during this furiously entertaining, furiously committed and often simply furious north London derby there was a sense of having being transported down some beautifully sunlit, early-springtime tunnel into English football's pre-modern recent past.

Not only did Arsenal win 1-0 at White Hart Lane with a George Graham-style tribute performance of deep-lying defensive resilience but Tottenham also produced in defeat a display of unrelenting, full-throttle, old-school commitment. They launched the ball long and early towards Emmanuel Adebayor in the first half and generally contributed to the nagging sense of watching a particularly whole-hearted Premier League match from some time in the early 1990s.

The paradox here was that the Spurs manager, Tim Sherwood, had accused his team in midweek of lacking spunk, verve, spirit, commitment and all the rest of it. Here, though, they produced a performance of relentless energy that, rather than reinforcing their manager's position as is the usual way of these things, seemed almost to undermine it. Spurs played like lions at times but were let down, if anything, by their own linear attacking patterns, producing on demand a harum-scarum performance in which they tried from first minute to last to blow the bloody doors off – when a little more craft and patience might have done the job better – while remaining hostage to the perilously high defensive line that led to the only goal of the game in the opening minutes.

On this evidence Sherwood has not lost the dressing room but is instead leading it very eagerly and at high speed down a dead-end country lane with a crate full of energy drinks in the boot of the car.

For all that, Spurs really did not deserve to lose this game. "I'm a winner. I want to win so bad. Anyone who's seen that game knows we didn't deserve to lose that game," Sherwood said, rightly pointing to Spurs' territorial dominance of the second half. And yet the fact remains that in the space of four days his team's season has effectively ended. Trailing 3-1 to Benfica and now seven points off fourth place, for Spurs and Sherwood it is realistically now all over bar what seems sure to be an incredible amount of shouting.

There was credit for Sherwood in the performance here of Adebayor who remains, when focused, a hugely talented, gracefully controlled, rambling beanpole of a centre-forward. Goaded continuously by the pocket of Arsenal supporters in the away corner, Adebayor leapt and wrestled gamely and with no little skill beneath the succession of high passes lofted his way from midfield and full-back positions. His first act was to hold off Kieran Gibbs by the corner flag and rag him out of the way with a swing of the hips. His second was to pull down a long pass in the right channel with a levitating kung fu pirouette. His third a pinpoint, 10-yard chest-off to Christian Eriksen.

And yet, as English football surely knows by now, things tend to fall through the cracks when the game is played at this speed and trajectory. Here Sherwood resisted the chance to play his best No10, Eriksen, in the No10 position, instead stationing his attacking left midfielder Nacer Chadli there, where the Belgian had a horribly ill-fitting game.

Chadli was presumably picked to play in the centre because of his greater speed and power. But he lacks the Dane's fine footballing motor skills, wasting plenty of excellent, hard-won possession in tight areas and displaying all the refined peripheral vision of a bolting horse. His game was summed up by an extraordinary episode at the start of the second half as Wojciech Szczesny twice spilled the ball under a high cross. Both times Chadli dithered and fluffed the opportunity.

Throughout all of which Sherwood appeared absolutely, inconsolably furious on his touchline, at one stage hurling his gilet violently in the direction of the home dugout, like a matador swirling his cape into the crowd.

It is tempting to wonder about this kind of thing. Talk quietly and carry a big stick seems like a pretty good motto when dealing with the modern elite-level footballer, but Sherwood takes the opposite approach, berating his players in public while bemoaning his own lack of apparent muscle within the club.

To their credit and his, Spurs continued to play with great energy against an Arsenal team who were out-hustled and looked generally low on gas, but will be hugely encouraged at this stage in the season by the degree of resilience shown.

The only goal of the game was brilliantly finished by Tomas Rosicky, one of several alarmingly clean and simple breaks in the first half of this thrilling, error-strewn, Sunday afternoon tear-up of a Premier League game.

Adebayor continued to menace both centre-halves. Chadli ran and ran. Andros Townsend ran and ran and ran. And for the final half hour Spurs battered Arsenal, albeit at a level of football where battering quite often loses out to fine-point incision and where – with Sherwood providing a non-stop display of air-taekwondo on the touchline – Spurs looked like a team very in their manager's image.

Barney Ronay

Premier League struggles to punch its weight among European elite | Sean Ingle

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:25 PM PDT

The decline of English clubs in Europe may be overstated as their win ratio is bettered only by representatives of La Liga

Arsenal and Manchester City last week, possibly Manchester United and Tottenham this. You can hear the sound of blade on whetstone: if four Premier League sides go out of Europe in 10 days the backwash will be bloody.

So what if José Mourinho points out that an "uncaring" schedule often means English teams have a day less to prepare than opponents? Or that, as others have suggested, cumulative fatigue, due to no winter break, is a factor too. Many will instinctively concur with Roy Keane: we have been "brainwashed" into thinking the Premier League is the best in the world, when it is merely the best brand.

You can understand why. Springtime Champions League matches have become the equivalent of a Test Your Strength fairground machine for Europe's top leagues. This season and last, English clubs have lifted the rubber mallet over their heads, huffed and heaved and swung, but the end result has been no pulsing lights or ringing bell. Just a few guffaws at the ostentatious rich kids struggling.

But before debating which league is best, we should ask a most basic question: how do you define "best?" Bayern Munich are runaway leaders in Germany and the reigning European champions: does that make the Bundesliga best? This season in the Premier League, only Newcastle and Southampton have little to play for in the home straight: does that make English better?

You could argue all day yet, inevitably, we base our judgments on these grand but infrequent skirmishes between European elites. And increasingly they lead us into seeing a Premier League that is a step behind.

This supposed decline fits a broader narrative, which goes something like this: there was a golden period for English clubs in the Champions League between 2004-05 and 2008-09, when they reached the final every year and won the competition twice. But since the Guardiolisation of Barcelona and the re-emergence of Bayern Munich, they have been overtaken and diminished.

It is a Cinderella's shoe of a theory: instinctively it fits. It is broadly right, too. Since 2009-10, English teams have reached the Champions League semi-finals twice in four years, while La Liga sides have done so seven times and Bundesliga sides five.

But this decline might be overstated. During the golden age of 2004-09, English sides won exactly half their Champions League matches – a win ratio higher than Serie A (47%), La Liga (45%), Germany (39%). But from 2010 onwards, English clubs won 52% of Champions League games – higher than their golden age and similar to La Liga (53%) and the Bundesliga (51%), with Serie A on 42%.

That increased win percentage could be down to the Uefa president, Michel Platini, allowing more league winners into the Champions League proper, and then English sides flat-track bullying them. It doesn't disguise the fact that, in the handful of pivotal games in recent years, the very best Spanish and German teams have often been better than English counterparts. That said, there are mitigations. Manchester City faced Barcelona without Sergio Agüero in the first leg and had 10 men for most of the game; Arsenal and Spurs were expected to go out given the superiority of the opposition. Only Manchester United's white-feathered defeat at Olympiakos was a surprise; a surprise that might yet be reversed.

Mourinho is also right that English teams are disadvantaged by sometimes having less time to prepare: there is strong evidence that players who have only two days' rest compared to three make fewer sprints during the next match, take longer to get up to full speed, and need more time to recover between sprints.

But the evidence that Premier League players are cumulatively more tired at this stage of the season doesn't seem to be there. According to Prozone's Omar Chaudhuri, when you look at league-wide comparisons of physical data during matches in the spring across Europe "there isn't a great deal of difference".

You might expect added fatigue to lead to more mistakes: as a broad rule, one follows the other as surely as wedding bells follow confetti. Yet in all four of the major European leagues, turnovers actually decline between March and May. As Chaudhuri points out, either fatigue doesn't manifest itself in increased turnovers, or teams play more cautiously towards the end of the season.

You could argue that Premier League clubs shouldn't be worried about fatigue given the size of their squads or their £5.5bn global TV rights deal for 2013-16, far in excess of any other league. Indeed, it is £2.1bn more than their last deal – a figure that, if they wanted to, could allow them to reduce every ticket over the next three seasons by £51.30.

Still, despite English clubs' recent defeats, when you step back a more sympathetic panorama emerges. During the past 10 years English clubs have reached the Champions League semi-finals 15 times, La Liga sides on 12 occasions, Bundesliga sides five and Serie A teams four.

That does not mean Keane is not right about slipping standards in the Premier League but it perhaps provides perspective. It will probably be Spain or Germany's year in the Champions League, but arguably it has been England's decade. Whether any league has been best over that period, however, is an open – and perhaps impossible – question.

Sean Ingle

Messi becomes Barça's record scorer

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 11:44 AM PDT

• Barcelona 7-0 Osasuna
• Messi reaches 371 goals, surpassing Paulino Alcántara

Lionel Messi hit a hat-trick to surpass Paulino Alcántara's record of 369 goals for Barcelona, as they warmed up for the Clásico with Real Madrid next weekend with a 7-0 victory over Osasuna that put them four points off the top of La Liga.

Barcça knocked Manchester City out of the Champions League last Wednesday but went into the Osasuna clash on the back of two defeats from their past three league games. The Argentine struck the opener after 18 minutes in a morale boosting victory for the Catalan side ahead of the crunch game at the Bernabéu. Alexis Sánchez pounced to double the lead after 22 minutes and Andrés Iniesta hit a fine left-footed drive from 20 yards with little over half an hour gone.

Chances continued to come and go before Messi bagged another with a shot into the roof of the net from close range just after the hour before substitute Cristian Tello netted with a powerful strike. Messi was given time in the area to score his third late on, his 18th of the season, and then he set-up Pedro to complete the rout in stoppage time.

Brazilian Neymar was a surprise absentee from the starting lineup in a win that left Barça on 66 points from 28 matches, four behind Real and one behind Atlético Madrid who beat Espanyol 1-0 on Saturday.

Real Sociedad boosted their Champions League hopes as Imanol Agirretxe gave them a 1-0 win over Valencia which put them in fifth on 46 points.

It was their first win in three attempts and Valencia had more of the ball but they were missing in-form striker Paco Alcacer through suspension and struggled to create chances.

Jonas did shoot wide for the visitors before the break but Agirretxe flicked a header into the top corner on the hour mark and Antoine Griezmann wasted the chance to give them a more comfortable win as he was denied by Diego Alves when through on goal.

Elsewhere, Sevilla beat Valladolid 4-1 while Elche and Real Betis drew 0-0.

Aberdeen 0-0 Inverness CT; aet Aberdeen won 4-2 on pens | Scottish League Cup final

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 11:39 AM PDT

The Jam's That's Entertainment played as Aberdeen completed their lap of honour at Celtic Park. At least someone at the stadium displayed a sense of humour.

This was an awful League Cup final, hallmarked by the fear of losing rather than anything tactically positive. Not that Aberdeen will care; the Pittodrie club's 19-year wait for a trophy has ended, courtesy of this 4-2 penalty shootout win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

How Aberdeen enjoyed their celebrations, as they were fully entitled to after year upon year of abject failure in cup competitions. They won this trophy without conceding a single goal in the tournament.

Earlier, it looked as if Aberdeen might again wilt under the weight of expectation. They had 40,000 supporters here, thereby dwarfing the visiting contingent of only 7,000, but fans do not win matches; Aberdeen's status in Scottish football has been contradicted by recent underachievement.

"Whether we won by four or five goals, playing sparkling football, or we won the way we eventually did it; I said beforehand that it was all about winning," said the Aberdeen manager, Derek McInnes. To be fair, McInnes had been hampered by the absence of Peter Pawlett through injury. Aberdeen's creative presence was further restricted as Jonny Hayes departed the final scene with a damaged shoulder, only five minutes into the match.

Those problems should have been offset by the award of a 35th-minute penalty after Adam Rooney was fouled by Josh Meekings. John Hughes, the Inverness manager, cited a "stonewall" claim of his own during the second half after Richie Foran toppled under an Andrew Considine challenge. Foran later concurred. "I'll be expecting a call from the referee through the week to apologise," said the Inverness captain.

The only clear-cut opportunity of regulation time fell to Niall McGinn, who blazed wildly over after capitalising on a mix-up in the Inverness defence. Extra time was similarly lacking in incident, save free-kicks for both teams in the dying moments which were both, fittingly, lashed over the crossbar.

Inverness missed their first two kicks of the shootout, thereby giving Aberdeen impetus they never looked like giving up. Rooney, a former Inverness player, scored the decisive penalty.

"We have tasted success now and it's important we have that success again," added McInnes. "This is a special day."

Indeed it was; if the culmination of an instantly forgettable game.

Man of the match Russell Anderson (Aberdeen)

Ewan Murray

Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 11:26 AM PDT

It seems a long time ago that Tottenham Hotspur were winning this fixture and the then manager, André Villas-Boas, was talking about Arsenal as being in a "negative spiral". It was 3 March of last year and Tottenham could look down in the Premier League table and see their neighbours seven points below them.

Now it is Tottenham who are labouring, despite the blood and guts of the Tim Sherwood era and Arsenal who scent what would be the crowning moment of their renaissance. In the season where nobody appears ready to strike out for the title, Arsenal continue to sit pretty.

This victory, secured by Tomas Rosicky's sumptuous early blast, brimmed with significance and one benefit was that it moved them clear of Tottenham in fifth – the margin is now nine points. They look certain to renew their membership of the Champions League elite for another year.

But Arsenal have grander targets and they fired their dreams with a ballsy victory, which was defined not only by Rosicky's rocket but their refusal to yield to a second-half assault by Tottenham. Sherwood's team had the chances to tip the balance but they found the Arsenal centre-halves, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, in smothering form.

Arsenal's celebrations at the end were loud and giddy. Wojciech Szczesny filmed the travelling fans on his mobile phone while he and his team-mates posed for selfies, which were later uploaded to Twitter. For Arsène Wenger, match No999 at the club went to plan. The landmark comes at Chelsea next Saturday. The possibilities are tantalising.

Tottenham cannot win the very biggest matches these days and, even if there were positives here, chiefly the performance of the centre-forward Emmanuel Adebayor, who did everything but score, they were undercut by bitter frustration.

Sherwood did his now usual angry man on the touchline routine, hurling his gillet at one point and picking a fight with Bacary Sagna towards the end and the home crowd moaned at him when he introduced Roberto Soldado for Christian Eriksen in the 82nd minute. They had wanted to see Soldado, ideally much earlier, but Eriksen, in their eyes, should not have made way. It rather summed up the angst. Tottenham's top-four ambitions feel dead.

There is a reason why Wenger tends to trust Rosicky in the biggest matches and there was further proof in the opening exchanges here. After a quick break and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's slightly scuffed lay-off, Rosicky exploded a first-time right-footed drive that was still rising as it ripped into the far top corner. Goalkeepers do not save those. It was only Rosicky's third of the season, although one of the others had come in the FA Cup win over Tottenham.

Tensions bubbled throughout and for the third consecutive match Sherwood struggled to keep a lid on his emotions from his position at the very edge of the technical area. After the spats with Chelsea's Steve Holland and Jorge Jesus of Benfica, Sherwood went crackers in the 15th minute after Oxlade-Chamberlain burst clean through. Where were Tottenham's central defenders? Oxlade-Chamberlain fluffed the one-on-one with Hugo Lloris but Sherwood tore off the gilet and flung it low at where his substitutes were sitting.

The fury was directed at Jan Vertonghen and Younès Kaboul, with both looking shaky and the latter, not fully fit, but it was surely Sherwood's decision to ask them to play such a high line. Arsenal threatened to expose them with smart through-balls or breaking runners; Lukas Podolski flickered and it was all pretty nervy for Tottenham in the first half.

Tottenham, though, showed their character and Adebayor had three sniffs in the first half – the third, when he touched narrowly wide of the far post from Kyle Naughton's cross. Adebayor was a rampaging presence and he even drew post-match praise from Wenger.

Arsenal could have been out of sight at the interval with greater ruthlessness but Tottenham were even more pumped for the second half, in the image of their manager. They looked ready to bludgeon Arsenal into submission, though the plan did not factor in Koscielny and Mertesacker.

Tottenham threatened the equaliser immediately after the interval, when Szczensy suffered two lapses. On the second, Nacer Chadli worked himself a little room and looked set to score only for Koscielny, with the goalkeeper out of play, to make a heroic goal-line block. The home crowd howled.

If the gilet went in the first half, it was the kitchen sink in the second. Tottenham came to dominate in territorial terms and it became a question of whether they could wear Arsenal down. Sherwood tinkered in an attacking sense with his substitutions, although the delay in Soldado's introduction was unpopular while all three of Wenger's changes were defensive. There were further chances, with Adebayor muscling above Koscielny to head just wide and, in the closing minutes, opening up his body to curl a shot that worked Szczesny. At the other end Koscielny might have had a penalty for a pull by Vertonghen and Lloris saved brilliantly from Mertesacker.

Sherwood finished by getting in a funk with Sagna and returning the ball to him for a throw-in with feeling. Tempers flared all round. Arsenal, though, edged home.

Man of the match Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)

David Hytner

Tottenham v Arsenal – as it happened! | Ian McCourt

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 10:53 AM PDT

Minute-by-minute report: Can Arsenal stay in the title race or will Tim Sherwood's Spurs be the latest to put a dent in their season? Find out with Ian McCourt

Ian McCourt

Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal: the north London derby – in pictures

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT

It's the north London derby as Spurs take on Arsenal under blue skies at White Hart lane. We bring you the best images

Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool: five talking points | Jamie Jackson

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 09:20 AM PDT

Brendan Rodgers' words of warning for the Old Trafford club seemed prescient as his three amigos lived up to their billing as lethal entertainers

1 Swaggering Liverpool walk their talk

Eleven minutes into the second half, with the visitors leading after two Steven Gerrard penalties, their manager was regaled with "There's only one Brendan Rodgers".

At this moment the Northern Irishman's words in the build-up to the 190th encounter between the clubs felt sagacious, not hubristic. Then, Rodgers had warned Manchester United would struggle to attract top-line players if they failed to qualify for the Champions League this season, as Liverpool have since 2009-10.

For Moyes, his own pre-game offering was left sounding hollow. "From what I see every day positivity is growing around the AON Training Complex. What goes on there is completely different to what people perceive the situation to be at Manchester United."

2 Robin van Persie goes missing again

After last week's interview in which the Dutchman gave assurances he would be at United next season and wanted to stay beyond his current contract, Van Persie turned in another unconvincing display to follow that at West Bromwich Albion last week.

As then, Moyes must have been tempted to replace him with Danny Welbeck, but when he finally decided to change things on 75 minutes it was Adnan Januzaj who was hooked for the England striker.

Before kick-off Van Persie said: "My target now is to get stronger, better and more productive each game. Most importantly, I want to help the team win games as that's what this club is all about."

With nine games remaining, time is ticking on this ambition.

3 Liverpool's three amigos shine

Luis Suárez, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge are players who illustrate the gulf in pace, intelligence and quality between Liverpool and United.

This campaign's headline story at Anfield has been how Sturridge has finally turned potential into consistent contribution. Yet less heralded but as exciting for Liverpool fans has been the re-emergence of Sterling on an upward trajectory that, at 19, had him trusted by Rodgers with the No10 berth for English football's most seismic encounter.

This was further evidence of how Liverpool have become English football's must-see act due to the fluidity allowed the manager by this trio, with the move that led to Liverpool's opening penalty showcasing this: Sterling passed to Sturridge whose cross was collected by Suárez before Rafael da Silva handballed.

4 Moyes has to get transfers right this summer

On show were Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata, two players recruited by the manager for £64.1m who, not for the first time this season (and probably not the last), wandered around like two kids in a game played by adults. Most of the latter were on the Liverpool side so the Belgian and Spaniard can hardly carry the can for another toothless United display. But their disappointing contribution illuminated how poor Moyes's recruitment has been and how, if he wishes to keep his job, he dare not make a mess of his buying in the close season.

Both Fellaini and Mata look like what the advance notices said they would be: square pegs in a round hole and the sight of Fellaini being replaced in the second half was no surprise.

5 The curious case of the United high ball

Missing In Action: the midfield of the 20-times champions. Last definite sighting – last season as United romped to the title by 11 points. As the contest developed and Liverpool dazzled United with their ever-morphing pass-and-move, the eye searched for any sign of encouragement for the David Moyes project. Yet all that was seen consistently were high balls punted in hope rather than conviction.

What the watching Diego Maradona thought of the route-one stuff would be fascinating. More pertinent to United's cause is what Moyes's thinking is with this tactic. On Friday he said: "Overall, we won't change the traditions, the style, what's expected here at Manchester United. We'll try and follow all of them through." This display belied the claim.

Jamie Jackson

Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool – as it happened

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 08:55 AM PDT

Minute-by-minute report: Steven Gerrard scored two penalties and missed another as Manchester United were overrun at Old Trafford

Simon Burnton

Man Utd 0-3 Liverpool

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 08:50 AM PDT

• View the best images from Old Trafford here
• Five talking points

For Manchester United and David Moyes there is probably only one redeeming feature and it is that the club's supporters have not been tempted into open mutiny. Not yet anyway. Even now, outplayed by their oldest rivals and drifting further into mediocrity, the frustration and anger manifested itself only in a loud, defiant show of support. Moyes is a lucky man. At another club they would be hounding him out by now.

Increasingly, though, there is the sense they are supporting the team, rather than necessarily the manager. United, once again, were abysmal, completely out-done by a Liverpool side that passed the ball with speed and intelligence and could easily have made it a more harrowing ordeal for their opponents.

Steven Gerrard struck the right-hand post when he had the chance to make it a hat-trick of penalties and a game Wayne Rooney later described as a "nightmare" can be accurately gauged by the fact David de Gea was the one man in United's colours to emerge with any distinction. Rooney, like Moyes, praised United's crowd for sticking by the team, bar that moment when Marouane Fellaini was substituted to rebellious cheers. Yet it was probably a good deal to do with the fact the fans here would not want to lose face in front of the old enemy. The interesting thing will be if there is another performance like this against Olympiakos on Wednesday.

Brendan Rodgers was certainly not exaggerating when he said Liverpool's dominance deserved more than just one other goal, clipped in by Luis Suárez after Nemanja Vidic's red card had left United in even more disarray. There is now a 43-point swing in Liverpool's favour between these sides over the last year and, on this evidence, nobody should assume their title challenge will simply melt away. Rodgers' team are four points behind Chelsea, with a game in hand and still have to play them at Anfield. He is right, strictly speaking, to cite Chelsea and Manchester City as more likely champions but Liverpool have confidence and momentum. "We're going to win the league," their supporters were singing.

Tactically superior, Rodgers had set up his team with a midfield diamond, with Raheem Sterling operating at its tip, just behind Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, because the Liverpool manager had noticed United's centre-halves "tend to drop off", leaving space to run at them. That front three wreaked havoc and the astonishing thing is Liverpool might actually have had four penalties given that early attack when Phil Jones and Fellaini had a nibble at Suarez's ankles.

Gerrard was superb in a team shimmering with confidence but Rodgers also identified Jordan Henderson and Joe Allen for special acclaim and his eyes lit up when Jon Flanagan's name was mentioned. At one point Liverpool's young, raw full-back could be seen dribbling round Juan Mata.

United did not even look close to being a fully coherent team and, in the worst moments, seemed to have forgotten everything that is expected of them inside this stadium. No side with Rooney, Mata, Robin van Persie and Adnan Januzaj in its frontline should be this bereft of ideas, or poor on the ball. Yet this is not a one-off. It was both shocking, yet not absolutely surprising, and the indignities piled up. "David Moyes is a football genius," could be heard from the away end. It has been the soundtrack to United's season and it was followed by Rodgers bringing up the fact Moyes had billed Liverpool beforehand as favourites. "I would never say that at Liverpool even if we were bottom," he said. Nor would Sir Alex Ferguson.

United had legitimate grievances about Vidic's red card but they finished the match with greater concerns. They were lucky, too, that the referee, Mark Clattenburg, opted to show leniency to Rafael da Silva after his handball had given Gerrard his first chance from 12 yards. Rafael had already been booked for a scything challenge on the Liverpool captain. Handball is not a mandatory yellow card but a deliberate one, preventing Suárez from going round him, really ought to have seen Clattenburg reaching for his pocket again.

For Liverpool, it did not hugely matter. Mata and Fellaini, Moyes' two big signings, were overrun whereas Januzaj had his worst game of the season. Rooney kept going but it defies belief that his partnership with Van Persie is so disjointed. Liverpool were superior in every department.

Gerrard's second penalty arrived inside the opening minute of the second half, after Jones had barged over Allen, running on to Henderson's pass. Just like the first, Gerrard took it brilliantly to De Gea's left, narrowly inside the post. On the third occasion he went the other way and misjudged his shot.

United were incensed because Sturridge appeared to dive over Vidic's sprawling challenge and Rodgers admitted it was "harsh" on the defender. But the real story here was not of injustice or anything to do with Clattenburg's officiating. It was of the confirmation that Liverpool have caught, and overhauled, the team they dislike the most and are now in the process of leaving them behind. United were hopelessly lost in those final exchanges, culminating in Suárez controlling Sturridge's miscued shot to complete the home side's misery. The volume inside Old Trafford actually went up. But the crowd will not always be this kind.

Man of the match Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)

Daniel Taylor

Manchester United v Liverpool – in pictures

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:33 AM PDT

David Moyes's struggling side take on Liverpool at home, with the away team battling for points to keep them in the title race

Vincent Kompany may face further action for 'obscene hand gesture'

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:28 AM PDT

• City captain appeared to make gesture to Hull fans
• Kompany already facing ban for red card
• Read Richard Gibson's match report

Vincent Kompany may face Football Association action for making an obscene hand gesture following his red card at Hull City that could rule the Manchester City captain out of the Manchester derby on 25 March.

The FA will wait to see if Lee Mason, the referee, mentions an incident that appeared to feature Kompany making the gesture at the fourth official on leaving the field. If it does not feature in the report when the governing body receives it on Monday, the FA can act independently by studying video footage.

Liverpool's Luis Suarez received a one-game ban for a similar act at the close of a 1-0 defeat at Fulham in December 2011. Earlier this season Arsenal's Jack Wilshere got a two-match sanction for a hand gesture aimed at City fans when his team were beaten 6-3 at the Etihad Stadium.

Kompany is already banned for one match for the red card he received for pulling down Hull's Nikica Jelavic in the 10th minute of Saturday's 2-0 win at the KC Stadium.

Jamie Jackson

FA to request Anelka ban transferred

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 06:55 AM PDT

• Anelka sacked by West Brom on Friday
• French striker still has full five games of ban to serve

The Football Association will seek to ensure Nicolas Anelka serves his 'quenelle' suspension wherever he goes next.

The controversial French forward was sacked by West Brom on Friday for "gross misconduct", both for making the 'quenelle' gesture - widely considered to be anti-Semitic - in a game against West Ham on December 28 and for failing to make an apology for it or to accept a club fine over the incident.

It is understood that the FA will write to world governing body FIFA on Monday to ask that the five-match ban it imposed for the gesture is served by Anelka at whichever club he may choose to go to next.

Anelka cannot play for another club until next season, because the transfer window is currently closed.

West Brom played Swansea on Saturday but, because Anelka's contract had been terminated prior to that game, he still has the full five matches of the ban to serve.

The FA will also request that the punishment only be considered complete once the player has paid the £80,000 fine issued alongside the ban, and once he has completed an education course.

FIFA would be expected to agree to the FA's request, but the FA could withhold the player's registration in the event that FIFA did not extend the ban worldwide.

On Friday Anelka announced on Twitter that he had terminated his agreement with the Baggies, saying he was not prepared to accept the conditions being imposed on him by the club.

Later that evening the club announced he had been sacked for gross misconduct, both in relation to making the gesture in the first place and by then announcing his departure via social media.

The statement added: "The club notes Nicolas Anelka is unwilling to agree to the conditions set by it which may have enabled his suspension to be lifted and for him to resume training.

"These conditions were, firstly, that the club required Nicolas Anelka to apologise to it, its supporters, sponsors and the wider community for the impact and consequences of his gesture made on December 28 and secondly, that he accept a substantial fine."

The FA announced on Thursday that it would not appeal against the length of Anelka's suspension, which was imposed by an independent panel.

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Monday, 17 March 2014

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

06:45

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

1 Swaggering Liverpool walk their talk

2 Robin van Persie goes missing again

3 Liverpool's three amigos shine

4 Moyes has to get transfers right this summer

5 The curious case of the United high ball

Written by TBMU Admin

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