Pro Eleven Headline News
Liverpool Heads Into 2009 With 3-Point Lead Atop Premier League 
Liverpool will enter 2009 with a three-point lead atop English soccer’s Premier League after it routed Newcastle 5-1 and nearest rival Chelsea drew 2-2 at Fulham.
Captain Steven Gerrard scored twice at St. James’ Park yesterday, while Sami Hyypia, Ryan Babel and Xabi Alonso got the other goals as Liverpool secured its biggest win this season.
Liverpool, seeking a record-extending 19th league championship and its first since 1990, has 45 points to Chelsea’s 42 through 20 matches. The Reds last headed the Premier League at the turn of the year in 2002.
“If we want to stay at the top and get involved in the title race then we’re going to have to deal with the pressure,” Gerrard told Liverpool’s Web site. “If we keep playing as we did today we will be there at the end.”
Defending champion Manchester United, Arsenal and Aston Villa have 35 points each, though United has played three fewer games than the top two and hosts Middlesbrough today.
Also yesterday, Arsenal beat Portsmouth 1-0 to move ahead of Villa into fourth place on goals scored, with goal difference unable to split the teams. Villa visits Hull City tomorrow.
In other games, last-place West Bromwich Albion beat 10-man Tottenham 2-0, Blackburn drew 2-2 against Manchester City, Everton beat Sunderland 3-0, Wigan defeated Bolton 1-0 and West Ham beat Stoke 2-1.
Liverpool dominated Newcastle, with home goalkeeper Shay Given making a string of saves to stop the Reds scoring even more.
Gerrard got his team’s first goal after 31 minutes, then Hyypia headed into the net five minutes later. David Edgar got Newcastle’s goal in first-half injury time.
‘Clinical’
Liverpool re-established its two-goal advantage when Babel stabbed in from close range early in the second half. Gerrard lifted a shot over an advancing Given and Alonso converted a penalty to complete the rout.
“We’ve been threatening that sort of scoreline for a while,” Gerrard added. “We’ve had a lot of chances in games without being clinical but today we were.”
Clint Dempsey denied Chelsea the victory over Fulham with a last-minute header at Craven Cottage. The U.S. international had put the home team ahead after 10 minutes before Frank Lampard replied with two second-half goals for Chelsea.
Chelsea, which has won one of its last four league games, had only allowed one away goal before yesterday.
William Gallas’s 81st-minute header gave Arsenal the home win over Portsmouth, while Dan Gosling’s first Everton goal helped his team to its second victory at Goodison Park this season.
West Brom Wins
West Brom recorded its second straight home win, with goals from Roman Bednar and Craig Beattie, though it wasn’t enough to move out of 20th spot after Blackburn drew. Spurs played a man down for 65 minutes following a red card for Benoit Assou-Ekotto.
Blackburn led 2-0 against Manchester City after 84 minutes, Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts scoring at Ewood Park, before the visitors rallied on strikes from Daniel Sturridge and Robinho.
Blackburn and West Brom have 18 points, with Blackburn keeping 19th spot because of a superior goal difference. Stoke, in 18th, is tied with Middlesbrough and Tottenham at 20 points. Bloomberg
Alkmaar top Dutch standings as Pelle scores
A 75th minute strike by striker Graziano Pelle gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over NEC Nijmegen on Sunday to leave his side top of the Dutch standings.
The Italian's decisive goal means Louis van Gaal's men will head into 2009 with a three-point lead over Ajax Amsterdam after 17 rounds.
The Eredivisie is set to resume on January 16 after a three-week break.
Earlier, Dario Cvitanich scored a hat-trick as Ajax beat ADO Den Haag 3-0 to temporarily draw level on points with the leaders.
But AZ, who are unbeaten in 15 games, then saw off Nijmegen, who had also been on a fine 14-game unbeaten run.
AZ have 41 points, with Ajax on 38.
Steve McClaren's FC Twente are in third place, seven points adrift of AZ, after holding defending champions PSV Eindhoven to a goalless draw on Saturday.
PSV are fourth with 30 points and looking set to relinquish their league title.
On Friday, Feyenoord snapped a run of three successive losses by beating NAC Breda 3-1, but the struggling Rotterdam giants are in 12th spot.
