City fires Hughes, Fulham whip Man U
LONDON (AP) — Manchester City fired manager Mark Hughes, Fulham swept to a stunning 3-0 victory over Manchester United and last-placed Portsmouth beat Liverpool 2-0 on a day of shocks in the Premier League yesterday.
Although Man City beat Sunderland 4-3 to climb to sixth in the standings, they announced less than two hours after the game that Hughes had been sacked and replaced by former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini who will be unveiled as the new manager tomorrow.
“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set,” chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement.
Hughes’ departure was despite the victory over Sunderland with Roque Santa Cruz scoring twice after he had left Robinho and Emmanuel Adebayor on the bench.
City, who lost 3-0 at Tottenham on Wednesday, now have 29 points from 17 games, 11 fewer than leaders Chelsea who have 40 and visit West Ham today.
Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff punished United’s makeshift defence at Craven Cottage and denied the defending champions any chance of drawing level on points with leaders Chelsea.
United’s fifth loss of the season could now leave the team six points off the pace if Chelsea win at Upton Park.
Murphy dispossessed United’s Paul Scholes and shot Fulham into a 22nd lead from 30 metres and the second half was only seconds old when Zamora fired home after Clint Dempsey’s headed pass.
Duff added the third with a left foot volley in the 75th minute against a United defence which was missing four central defenders through injury.
Nadir Belhadj and Frederic Piquionne fired home angled shots as Portsmouth stunned 10-man Liverpool to put more pressure on manager Rafa Benitez.
Making his first league start for three months, Algerian international Belhadj struck the first in the 33rd minute before Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano was sent off for an ugly foul on Tal Ben Haim.
Piquionne added the second in the 82nd to improve Portsmouth’s chances of avoiding relegation. It was Liverpool’s seventh league loss from 18 games and the defeat pushed the Reds further out of title contention.
“If you analyze the first half I think we were doing well,” Benitez said. “We conceded a goal and then the sending off of Mascherano changed everything.”
Asked if he thought the red card was justified, the Liverpool manager, who appeared furious about the decision at the time, replied: “The referee was perfect, in everything. He never made mistakes.”
Asked if he was worried about losing his job, Benitez replied: “I’m worried about winning the next game.”
Two goals by Peter Crouch steered Tottenham to a 2-0 victory at Blackburn and substitute John Carew gave Aston Villa a 1-0 victory over Stoke, a fifth straight win for Martin O’Neill’s team.