Liverpool beats Man U 2-0 in Premier League; Dempsey nets for Fulham at Man City

Liverpool beats Man U; Dempsey stars for Fulham

LONDON — Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 to end its four-game losing streak and keep Chelsea at the top of the Premier League on Sunday, while Arsenal and Manchester City threw away two-goal leads and were held to draws.

Arsenal tied West Ham 2-2 but still moved above Tottenham into third, while Clint Dempsey’s equalizer gave Fulham a 2-2 tie with Man City.

Goals by Fernando Torres and David Ngog earned Liverpool its third straight Premier League victory over Manchester United, which has become its closest rival and last season tied its record 18 league title triumphs.

“The players have answered a lot of questions and that’s the most important thing,” said Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez. “We have to keep going. We can’t get too excited about today.”

United’s second defeat means it is two points behind Chelsea, which outplayed Blackburn 5-0 on Saturday. Liverpool moved up three spots to fifth.

Dempsey headed home Jonathan Greening’s free kick in the 68th minute to deny Man City the win at City of Manchester Stadium and prevent the home side climbing to third.

City appeared in control after strikes by Joleon Lescott (53rd) and Martin Petrov (60th). But Damien Duff replied in the 62nd and Dempsey knotted the score.

“At 2-0 up, we should see the game off,” Manchester City manager Mark Hughes said. “We acknowledged before the game that Dempsey was a good header of a ball and told the guys but we allowed him to score.”

First-half goals by Robin van Persie and William Gallas gave Arsenal a comfortable lead at next-to-last West Ham, but Carlton Cole and Alessandro Diamanti forced the tie.

Arsenal still moved to third above Tottenham, which lost 1-0 at home to Stoke on Saturday. The Gunners also have a game in hand on Tottenham and Liverpool.

In Sunday’s other game, Bolton edged Everton 3-2.

FRANKFURT (AP) — Ten-man Hamburger SV forced a 3-3 tie at Schalke to move into a tie with Bayer Leverkusen atop the Bundesliga.

Unbeaten in the league, Leverkusen drew 1-1 with Borussia Dortmund on Friday and has an edge on goal difference. Both teams have 22 points.

In other games Sunday, Werder Bremen rallied for a 4-1 win in Bochum and last-place Hertha Berlin ended an eight-game skid by holding champion Wolfsburg to a 0-0 draw.

Bremen moved above Schalke into third place.

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — First-half goals by Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald gave Celtic a 2-1 victory at Hamilton and helped the club move back on top of the Scottish Premier League.

Defending champions Rangers were held 1-1 at home by Hibernian on Saturday and the result opened the door for Celtic to regain top spot.

Celtic’s sixth victory in nine games means Tony Mowbray’s team has 20 points. Rangers, unbeaten with five wins and four draws, have 19.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — FC Twente beat FC Groningen 4-0 to stay atop the Dutch league and extend its unbeaten run to 11 games, while Ajax beat defending champion AZ Alkmaar 4-2 to move into second place in the standings.