London, Jan 11: Arsenal beat Middlesbrough 4-1 and go top of English Premiership. Arsenal knocked champions Manchester United off the top of the premier league on Saturday (January 10) with a convincing 4-1 win over Middlesbrough at Highbury. Early in the first half Boro's Guidoni Junior Doriva hit a great shot, but Jens Lehmann pulled off a save to match. The rest of the game was nearly all Arsenal's.
Captain Patrick Vieira was brought down in Middlesbrough's penalty area and -- after a brief argument with Boro's Danny Mills -- Thierry Henry scored from the spot. Henry effectively got number two as well when he took a free kick which Middlesbrough defender Franck Queudrue deflected into the net. In the second half, Robert Pires picked up a poor Boro clearance and passed to Henry, whose cross was again poorly cleared, so Pires pounced and scored.


Arsenal substitute Kanu found himself surrounded by four Boro players in the penalty area but still managed to pass to Freddie Ljungberg, who got his 50th goal for Arsenal.


Boro pulled one back from the penalty spot after Lehmann brought down Danny Mills, with Massimo Maccarone getting his name on the scoreboard.


With United hosting Newcastle on Sunday, Arsenal are top on alphabetical order. The win, which gave Arsenal 49 points and identical goals scored and conceded to United, was a setback for third-place Chelsea, who are now seven points adrift of both their title rivals ahead of their match against Leicester City on Sunday.


English league soccer standings after matches played on Saturday: Premier league P W D L F A Pts 1. Arsenal 21 14 7 0 40 14 49 2. Manchester United 20 16 1 3 40 14 49 3. Chelsea 20 13 3 4 36 17 42 4. Charlton Athletic 21 9 7 5 30 23 34 5. Liverpool 20 9 5 6 30 21 32 6. Fulham 21 9 4 8 33 29 31 7. Newcastle United 20 7 8 5 27 22 29 8. Birmingham City 20 8 5 7 19 25 29 9. Southampton 21 7 6 8 19 17 27 10. Aston Villa 21 7 6 8 21 25 27 11. Bolton Wanderers 21 6 8 7 25 33 26 12. Everton 21 6 6 9 25 28 24 13. Tottenham Hotspur 21 7 3 11 24 30 24 14. Middlesbrough 20 6 6 8 17 23 24 15. Manchester City 21 5 7 9 30 32 22 16. Blackburn Rovers 21 6 4 11 31 35 22 17. Portsmouth 21 6 4 11 25 32 22 18. Leicester City 20 4 7 9 28 31 19 19. Leeds United 21 4 5 12 18 42 17 20. Wolverhampton Wanderers 20 3 6 11 18 43 15


Bureau Report