Eto’o shines as Chelsea tops United
Print Edition
Manchester United’s title defense faltered further as Samuel Eto’o scored a hat trick as Chelsea cast the defending champions further adrift in the English Premier League with a 3-1 victory on Sunday in London.
While Chelsea stayed two points behind leader Arsenal, seventh-place United slipped 14 points from the summit.
And the gap from the Champions League places is growing as well, with Liverpool six points ahead in fourth. Tottenham is level on points with Liverpool, but behind on goal difference after beating Swansea 3-1 in Sunday’s other game.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho suggested United’s title defense was effectively over, but Manchester manager Moyes said his side would fight on.
“What we won’t do is throw the towel in until we can’t get there,” said Moyes, whose side replied through Javier Hernandez.
Moyes has now overseen seven league losses this season after succeeding Alex Ferguson — two more than last year’s title-winning campaign.
“It’s a difficult task, but (it’s about) perseverance and keeping doing what’s right,” Moyes said. “I thought we did a lot of good things today. We have players to come back, and this is a project I know that I’m going to improve as it goes along.
“I was hoping to win more and be competing a bit more than we’ve been, but that’ll come.”
Having made a strong start, United was stunned by Chelsea going ahead against the run of play in the 17th minute.
Eto’o cut in from the right, swept past Phil Jones and unleashed a shot that took a heavy deflection off Michael Carrick’s boot before looping over goalkeeper David de Gea into the net.
“They started the match better than us and they were a bit unlucky that we scored in that moment,” Mourinho said. “When you are better than the opponent, you have to go and try to kill the game.”
United squandered a chance to level in the 38th. Adnan Januzaj’s cross reached Danny Welbeck in a central position but the striker couldn’t produce a clean shot.
Oscar then tried to double the lead with a bicycle kick that flew over from right in front of goal, and instead Chelsea’s second came from the boot of Eto’o again.
Welbeck only half cleared, Ramires seized possession and fed the ball to Hazard on the right flank. The winger then squared to the unmarked Eto’o to sweep a shot into the net as halftime loomed.
Eto’o celebrated his first treble in English football early after the break.
United pulled one back when Jones’ scuffed shot was stabbed into the net by Javier Hernandez.
United captain Nemanja Vidic was sent off for lunging at Eden Hazard and now faces a three-game ban.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
