English Clubs

Arsenal comfortably dispatched Crystal Palace 4-1 at the Emirates on Sunday to open up an eight-point lead on Manchester City heading into March's international break. The Gunners are now just 10 tantalizing matches away from a first Premier League title in 19 years. 

The main concern for Mikel Arteta was how his side would respond to Thursday's shock Europa League elimination to Sporting and that 46-yard Pedro Gonçalves worldie. It's still worth another watch.  

LONDON — Crystal Palace sacked manager Patrick Vieira after 20 months in charge on Friday following the 1-0 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion that left the south London club three points above the Premier League relegation zone.

Palace are the only side in the league without a win in 2023, having drawn five and lost six of their games. Their last league victory came on Dec. 31, 2-0 at Bournemouth, and they are 12th on 27 points with 11 games to play.

NYON — Holders Real Madrid will play 2021 winners Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals while Manchester City's Pep Guardiola will visit his former club Bayern Munich after the teams were drawn together on Friday.

Reigning Serie A champions AC Milan will face this season's runaway leaders Napoli in an all-Italian clash while Inter Milan play Portuguese side Benfica.

The year of Marcus Rashford continued Thursday as the Manchester United forward scored the lone goal against Real Betis at Estadio Benito Villamarín, giving the Red Devils a 5-1 aggregate victory and easy passage to the Europa League quarterfinals.

Before the World Cup, Rashford had a total of eight goals in 19 appearances across all competitions. Since the tournament in Qatar, the 25-year-old has found the back of the net 18 times in 24 games. The total of 26 from 43 is already a career best and the Red Devils are still competing on three fronts.

The USMNT's ongoing quest for a dependable, goalscoring No. 9 took a dramatic turn on Wednesday with the release of the Nations League squad: the World Cup trio of Jesús Ferreira, Josh Sargent and Haji Wright were all omitted while Daryl Dike and Ricardo Pepi got call ups.

As Erling Haaland watched the fourth official slowly put up his board and tell the world the Nowegian’s day was done, Haaland left his short conversation with Kevin De Bruyne to make way for Julián Álvarez. It was a completely fair decision by Pep Guardiola. Álvarez is a fantastic striker, and a World Cup winner lest we forget, but his one crime is not being Erling Haaland.

MANCHESTER, England - Pep Guardiola has won nine major trophies at Manchester City but the Spaniard said his managerial era at the Premier League club will be defined by whether he delivers their first Champions League title.

Guardiola has won four Premier League titles, one FA Cup and four League Cups at City but European success has eluded the manager who won the trophy twice as Barcelona manager, with the English club's best finish being runners-up in 2021.

LONDON - Arsenal restored their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Fulham on Sunday and carved out a small slice of top-flight history in the process.

Gabriel Magalhães, Gabriel Martinelli and captain Martin Ødegaard all scored in the first half as the Gunners became the first team to win five consecutive away London derbies without conceding a single goal.