Premier League: Ronaldo brace moves United clear

Cristiano Ronaldo played the captain's role to the full with another superb display to hand Manchester United the advantage in the Barclays Premier League title race.
Ronaldo, given the skipper's armband for the first time by Alex Ferguson, responded with a virtuoso display. The 23-year-old opened the scoring with a mis-hit shot then ended the contest with another of those stunning long-range free-kicks.
Victory took United three points clear of Arsenal and was just the cushion needed ahead of the weekend's clashes of the big four.
Bolton may never have expected a result but apart from a ten-minute spell in the second half they barely put up a fight. Even without Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs in the starting line-up, United simply swept away Wanderers, the poor crumbs on a rich man's table. Ferguson's confidence was plain from the start as he made seven changes while Bolton boss Gary Megson made four alterations from the disastrous defeat by Wigan on Sunday.

Goals: Ronaldo (9) 1-0; Ronaldo (19) 2-0.
Manchester United :Kuszczak; O'Shea, Vidic (Brown, 59), Pique, Hargreaves; Ronaldo, Anderson (Scholes, 70), Fletcher, Nani; Tevez, Saha (Rooney, 70).
Bolton Wanderers :Al-Habsi, Steinsson, A O'Brien, Méité (Hunt, h-t), Gardner; J O'Brien, McCann, Guthrie (Stelios, 81), M Taylor; Diouf Davies.


Spurs Hold Chelsea in epic

Chelsea lost ground in the Premier League title race after Robbie Keane's dramatic late equaliser earned a point for Tottenham in a thrilling 4-4 draw at White Hart Lane.
In a game that never stopped for breath, Didier Drogba's opener was cancelled out by Jonathan Woodgate before Michael Essien and Joe Cole established a two-goal cushion for the visitors.
Spurs staged a comeback and levelled through Dimitar Berbatov and Tom Huddlestone, then Cole grabbed another 10 minutes from the end.
They were denied maximum points, though, when Keane found the top corner in the 88th minute before Berbatov was denied a late winner by a superb Carlo Cudicini save.
With Spurs naming the same side that defeated Chelsea in the Carling Cup final, Avram Grant's team could not gain revenge for their Wembley defeat.


Tottenham 4 - Chelsea 4
Jonathan Woodgate (12) - Didier Drogba (3)
Dimitar Berbatov (61) - Michael Essien (20)
Tom Huddlestone (75) - Joe Cole (52)
Robbie Keane (88) - Joe Cole (80)