Manchester United close in as Chelsea falter

Chelsea’s hopes of closing to within a point of English premier league leaders Arsenal were dashed when they lost 0-2 at resurgent Leed...

Chelsea’s hopes of closing to within a point of English premier league leaders Arsenal were dashed when they lost 0-2 at resurgent Leeds United on Saturday.

Chelsea were unbeaten in 11 league games but first-half goals by Jonathan Woodgate and 16-year-old James Milner, who became the premier league’s youngest scorer on Thursday, proved too good for the Londoners.

Chelsea remained second on 38 points, four behind champions Arsenal, who play fifth-placed Liverpool at Highbury on Sunday.

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Manchester United stayed third, also on 38, after they outclassed Birmingham City 2-0 at Old Trafford. Diego Forlan scored the first after 37 minutes and David Beckham chipped a sublime second in the 73rd.

In Saturday’s other games, bottom club West Ham United battled to a 2-2 draw at Blackburn Rovers, and there were narrow wins for Southampton, Charlton Athletic, Aston Villa and Manchester City.

Leeds, after two victories in their previous three games, made a superb start against Chelsea at Elland Road.

Woodgate, whose last goal was in December 2000, put Venables’ side in front with a decisive header from Jason Wilcox’s 30th-minute cross.

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On the stroke of halftime Milner, on as a replacement for Harry Kewell, capped a slick Leeds move by collecting Eirik Bakke’s pass and slamming it past stand-in Chelsea goalkeeper Ed de Goey in fine style.

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson shuffled his pack at Old Trafford after two damaging defeats but was without Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy due to a toe injury.

Forlan fired the home side in front after Beckham headed back Mikael Silvestre’s cross eight minutes before the break. (Reuters)