By DPA,
London : Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that his side are in danger of losing their way in the league title race after suffering a 0-3 humbling against Fulham in the English Premier League.
The champions lost for the second time in a week thanks to goals from Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff in their away loss Saturday, leaving them still three points adrift of leaders Chelsea.
Off the field, the day was dominated by Manchester City’s sacking of manager Mark Hughes, replacing him with Italian Roberto Mancini.
On the pitch, Arsenal stayed third after a 3-0 win over Hull, while Aston Villa remained fourth thanks to a 1-0 win over Stoke City, but struggling Liverpool were dealt their seventh league defeat of the season as they went down 0-2 aagainst bottom side Portsmouth.
Tottenham Hotspur moved up to fourth with a 2-0 win at Blackburn, while Manchester City edged out Sunderland 4-3.
At Craven Cottage, United’s defensive problems left them exposed and Fulham destroyed them with a stunning performance, taking the lead after 22 minutes with a fine shot by Murphy.
Zamora doubled their lead early in the second half and with United struggling to put any kind of passing together, Duff fired in a brilliant volley with 15 minutes to go to complete a famous win for the London side.
“The way the league is at the moment I hope today is not too damaging. I hope it doesn’t cost us the league,” Ferguson said.
“We’ll have to get our defenders back to give us a proper chance of going for the league, there’s no question of that. But if we get them back we’ll be back in it.
“The quicker they’re back the better. They’re doing their best. The medical team and physios are working overtime to get them back. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel at the moment, that’s for sure.”
With Nemanja Vidic again out, United had midfielders in their defence and Ferguson admitted: “The players are maybe feeling a bit sorry for themselves at the moment because of the situation they’re in. But the quality of the football wasn’t as good as it normally is.
Abou Diaby scored twice as Arsenal saw off Hull City 3-0. Denilson put them ahead with a superb free kick on the half-time whistle but Geovanni missed a penalty that would have levelled it for the visitors.
Diaby doubled Arsenal’s lead soon afterwards and then finished off a slick move to complete a comfortable victory.
John Carew scored the only goal of the game on 61 minutes as Aston Villa edged out Stoke 1-0 to move up to third, while two goals by Peter Crouch secured a 2-0 win at Blackburn for Tottenham, who climbed to fourth.
Roque Santa Cruz scored what turned out to be the winner as he fired in his second goal of the day to help Manchester City beat Sunderland 4-3 in an entertaining battle.
Sunderland hit back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 and then from 3-2 down to equalize once more at 3-3 but Santa Cruz snatched the winner with 21 minutes to go.
Liverpool’s season went from bad to worse with a 2-0 loss at Portsmouth, compounded by the sending-off of Javier Mascherano late in the first half.
Nadir Belhadj and Frederic Piquionne scored the goals as Portsmouth moved alongside West Ham on 14 points, leaving Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez cursing his luck.
“I think we had plenty of possession in the first half and we were controlling it, but we conceded a goal from a mistake and after that the sending-off changed the game,” Benitez said.
“In the second-half, with the 10 players you have to go forward and attack. We left spaces and they have pace and worked hard, so credit to them, they did well.”
Argentina captain Mascherano also looked to have suffered a nasty knee injury when making the challenge on Tal Ben Haim that saw him sent off.
“For me it’s not a sending off and Javier is injured,” Benitez said. “But anyway, the referee was perfect, he didn’t make any mistakes.”
By that time, Portsmouth were already 1-0 up thanks to a stunning volley from Belhadj and Piquionne added to their misery with a fine right-foot volley for the second late on.