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Arsenal beat Newcastle United 3-0 for the second time in four days today to edge ahead of Manchester United in the Premier League title race.
Goals from Emmanuel Adebayor, Mathieu Flamini and Cesc Fabregas underlined Arsenal’s superiority and took the Gunners three points above champions United, who can regain top spot with a win at home to Portsmouth tomorrow.
Newcastle, beaten by the same score at the Emirates in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, are still looking for their first goal since Kevin Keegan returned as manager earlier this month and remain just seven points above the relegation zone.
“The players were genuine tonight and kept chasing the ball even when they were 3-0 down,” Keegan told the BBC.
“3-0 looks bad but we didn’t deserve to lose 3-0.
“Michael Owen was wrongly flagged offside when it was only 1-0, Flamini scored a wonder goal and their third goal was definitely offside.”
The three other matches today all involved teams fighting to stay in the top flight.
Sunderland gave their survival hopes a huge boost, beating Birmingham City 2-0 at home to move out of the relegation zone and up into 14th place.
Wigan Athletic drop into the bottom three after losing 1-0 at Middlesbrough while Fulham stay second from bottom after a 0-0 draw at fellow strugglers Bolton Wanderers.
Newcastle, without a league goal this year, looked solid for 40 minutes against Arsenal but did not pose any attacking threat.
Adebayor then headed in a cross from the outstanding Flamini for his 16th league goal of the season and there was no way back for shot-shy Newcastle.
Flamini struck with a powerful right-foot shot after 72 minutes and Fabregas rounded off the victory after being put clear by Nicklas Bendtner.
The closest Newcastle came to scoring was a Nicky Butt free kick that struck the bar late on.
Midfielder Joey Barton came on as a substitute for Newcastle, his first appearance since being charged with assault and affray last month. He was cleared to play after his bail conditions were changed.
Debutant Rade Prica scored for Sunderland to seal a crucial victory over Birmingham after Daryl Murphy opened the scoring. That took Sunderland to 23 points, three above the bottom three.
Middlesbrough are five points clear of the drop zone after former Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere got the winner against Wigan who drop into the relegation places on goal difference.
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