LONDON, 28 November 2004 — Chelsea returned to form and extended their lead at the top of the English Premiership with an impressive 4-0 win at Charlton Athletic yesterday.
Jose Mourinho’s side were stung by a late Bolton equalizer a week ago and were held to a goalless draw by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League midweek but refound their goalscoring touch to go five points clear of champions Arsenal who play at Liverpool today.
Manchester United continued their creep up the Premiership table with their fifth consecutive win as they swept West Bromwich Albion aside 3-0, while Blackburn got off the bottom rung with a 2-0 win at Fulham.
Republic of Ireland winger Damien Duff took just four minutes to set Chelsea on their way at The Valley with a left-footed shot from six yards out.
Blackburn Rovers finally got their first away win of the season, beating Fulham 2-0 at Craven Cottage.
Pompey had previously lost three consecutive games before Arjan de Zeeuw’s header gave them a 1-0 win at Bolton Wanderers’ Reebok stadium.
Birmingham City drew 1-1 at home to Norwich City in the first top-flight match between the sides in 20 years.
Premiership strugglers Southampton and Crystal Palace drew 2-2 at St. Marys.
Aberdeen Consolidate Third Place With 1-0 Win
In Glasgow, Aberdeen closed the gap on Glasgow’s ‘big two’ with a 1-0 victory over Dundee United at Pittodrie in the Scottish Premier League yesterday.
With leaders Celtic and second-placed Rangers in action today, Aberdeen consolidated third spot thanks to a first-half strike from Steve Tosh.
Hibernian stay in fourth place after coming from behind to beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 2-1.
Struggling Livingston ended a seven-game losing streak as Jim Hamilton’s double helped them to a 3-1 win at Kilmarnock, while mid-table Motherwell beat 10-man Dunfermline Athletic 2-1.
Leaders Munich Beat Mainz, Wolfsburg Crash
In Hamburg, Bayern Munich took command of the Bundesliga standings yesterday as they defeated Mainz 05 4-2, while rivals VfL Wolfsburg were brought down to earth with a defeat at home.
The long-time season leaders Wolfsburg, by contrast, lost 3-2 at home against Berlin from Marcelinho’s hat trick and seem to have run out of steam.
Champions Werder Bremen climbed to fifth place with a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund as French playmaker Johan Micoud tapped in the first in the 32nd and fed compatriot Valerien Ismael for the second in the 57th.
Bottom club Hansa Rostock lost their eighth straight home game, 2-0 against Bayer Leverkusen from Dimitar Berbatov and Andrei Voronin, to equal the league record of Tasmania Berlin from the 1965 66 season.
VfL Bochum beat Nuremberg 3-1 and Kaiserslautern defeated SC Freiburg 3-1.
