Man United routs Wigan 5-0 and Arsenal beats Portsmouth 4-1 to trim Chelsea’s lead
By APWednesday, December 30, 2009
Man United, Arsenal win to trim Chelsea’s lead
LONDON — Manchester United routed Wigan 5-0 and Arsenal beat Portsmouth 4-1 Wednesday to cut Chelsea’s English Premier League lead entering 2010.
Wayne Rooney’s 15th goal of the season started the rout that moved second-place United within two points of Chelsea. Michael Carrick, Rafael Da Silva, Dimitar Berbatov and Antonio Valencia added goals.
Eduardo da Silva opened the scoring for Arsenal in the 28th minute against last-place Portsmouth, and Samir Nasri, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Song also scored for the Gunners. Nadir Belhadj, a member of the Algerian national team that plays the United States in the World Cup, scored for Portsmouth.
Arsenal, chasing its first league title since 2004, is two points behind United but has played one less game than the top two teams.
Portsmouth is fighting for financial survival. The club faces bankruptcy unless it can clear debts to the British government by February.
