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Upper hand Liverpool aims for four in a row against Man Utd
Updated: Thursday November 01, 2001 2:50 PM
LONDON (AP) -- Liverpool vs. Manchester United. It's the most eagerly awaited game of the Premier League season so far, with the two giants meeting Sunday at Anfield. Fourth-placed Liverpool takes on fifth-placed United after both teams warmed up with midweek Champions League games. While Manchester United rested its stars in its 1-1 against Lille, Liverpool needed its 2-0 win against Borussia Dortmund to join United in the final 16. Liverpool has the upper hand over United, winning the last three matchups. Aston Villa is enjoying life at the top of the Premier League for the first time in nearly three years. Villa travels to Newcastle with a slender one-point lead over second-placed Leeds. Leeds, the only unbeaten club left in the Premier League, hosts Tottenham on Saturday. Manchester United was boosted by news it would be able to play midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron on Sunday. Veron was due to fly out Friday for Argentina's World Cup qualifier against Peru on Nov. 7, but FIFA ruled Thursday he could travel after Sunday's game. Veron, midfielder Ryan Giggs and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy were rested against Lille in preparation for Sunday. Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Wes Brown, Ronny Johnsen and Fabien Barthez also missed the Lille game, as did defender Laurent Blanc. Liverpool is dedicating every game to manager Gerard Houllier, who is recovering from heart surgery. Since assistant manager Phil Thompson took over on Oct. 13, Liverpool has not lost in five games. Liverpool is likely to field Michael Owen, continuing his return from a hamstring injury, on Sunday. "My injury feels fine but it can be a bit frustrating not being able to complete 90 minutes yet," he said. "When you have been out for five weeks, that's always going to be a problem when you do make your comeback." Aston Villa manager John Gregory knows the club's ascent up the table will be difficult to maintain. "We have given ourselves a good start to the season -- but no more than that. The difficult bit is now to try and stay in the top four," he said. "I hope we don't sit still and rest on our laurels now." Newcastle won its last game 3-1 against Everton to sit one place below Manchester United in the standings. Arsenal hosts Charlton hoping to solve the defensive and disciplinary problems that led to its 3-1 defeat by Schalke in the Champions League on Tuesday. Arsenal has not won an away game in Europe since February. Manager Arsene Wenger rested Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Dennis Bergkamp against the Germans. "I know our record in Europe looks strange when you consider we are still unbeaten away from home in the Premier League this season," Wenger said. Charlton has only two wins this season and hasn't won in the Premier League since Sept. 29. Its troubled defender Andy Todd has been told to stay away from training for 14 days after a fight with goalkeeper Dean Kiely. Todd has been transfer listed. On Saturday, Leeds plays a resurgent Tottenham, whose veteran strikers Les Ferdinand and Teddy Sheringham have lifted Spurs to the top half of the table. Bolton plays Everton in a mid-table clash, with both teams coming off defeats. Bottom table Leicester took heart from its 0-0 draw with Blackburn on Monday, and will attempt to win its first home game of the season against Sunderland. Middlesbrough will be without captain Paul Ince for more than a month after he failed in his appeal against a sending off against Sunderland. 'Boro hosts Derby, which is struggling at third from bottom. Southampton will search for its first win at its new St. Mary's Stadium against Blackburn, while a resurgent West Ham hosts Fulham. On Sunday, Chelsea hosts Ipswich. In the English first division, Wolverhampton has a three point lead over Coventry. Wolves travel to fourth-placed Norwich, while Coventry plays Millwall. Third placed Crystal Palace is home against Walsall. Celtic continues its dominance in the Scottish Premier League, with a seven point lead over Rangers, with Livingston third. Celtic travels to St. Johnstone, while Rangers hosts Aberdeen. Turin cloud still hangs over UEFA Cup-bound CelticGLASGOW -- Celtic plan to take the advice of Marcello Lippi after their agonising exit from the Champions League by making the most of their consolation prize of a place in the UEFA Cup. The Juventus coach said that the Scottish champions could make a real impact in the UEFA Cup after watching his side lose their unbeaten record in group E on Wednesday night. "Celtic will do well in the UEFA Cup -- especially with this fantastic crowd behind them," said Lippi. Yet for all Lippi's kind words, the 57,000 Celtic fans who had given their side a standing ovation at Celtic Park woke up on Thursday to the reality that the thrilling 4-3 victory over the Italian side had failed to keep their Champions League dream alive. FC Porto's 1-0 win over Rosenborg gave the Portuguese side second place in the group, a point ahead of Celtic who picked up nine points. It was the controversial last minute penalty, which gave Juventus a 3-2 win over Celtic when the teams met in Turin six weeks ago, which has come back to haunt them. Celtic manager Martin O'Neill was banned for one game for his protests to referee Helmut Krugg in the Stadio Delle Alpi in September. Television replays showed Krugg was duped by Nicola Amoruso's dive before he converted his kick. "The late penalty in Turin has cost us," reflected O'Neill. "These things happen in football but it certainly got Juventus off to a great start and left us chasing points." Celtic striker Chris Sutton -- who scored twice against Juventus in Glasgow -- was less philosophical. "It is difficult not to look back to that incident in Turin," said the England international. "They say that these things even themselves out, but that is hard to do when you only have six games. "Maybe if that had not happened, we would have finished above Juventus. The players were so disappointed, even though we beat Juventus, though we can be proud of the way we played -- but it is harder to take when you see Boavista qualified with eight points and Arsenal with nine." Although disappointed, O'Neill said he was pleased with his team. "Out of the six games, we only played poorly in one -- the 3-0 defeat in Porto. But this is our first attempt at the Champions League and the players have learned and we still have the UEFA Cup to go for and that is a great competition." Celtic's 36-year-old midfielder Lubomir Moravcik, who ran the show on Wednesday and had a hand in all four goals, said: "I was really motivated because it is not every day you get to play a team like Juventus. "To beat Juventus is a great performance and we were unlucky not to qualify. I had been hoping to reach the second phase, but this team can improve over the next few years." Torrid evening Certainly, the statistics show that Celtic gave Juventus a torrid evening, with 11 shots on goal to the Italians' clinical three, and forcing 11 corners compared to Juve's two. Lippi was angry with French referee Gilles Vessiere for awarding Celtic a second-half penalty when Mark Iuliano held Sutton, but the defender was lucky not to be penalized again as television replays showed he clearly handled the ball at a corner. Television replays also proved Lippi's criticism of the French officials for ruling Iuliano offside when his header from a meter out hit the net in stoppage time was misplaced. Blomqvist says his career at United is overMANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -- Swedish international Jesper Blomqvist admitted on Thursday that his Manchester United career was over. The winger had hoped to earn a new contract at Old Trafford after spending two years fighting his way back to fitness following a knee injury. Blomqvist featured in the United reserves in October but now accepts the club will not offer him a new deal to replace his last contract, which expired in the close season. "The situation is very difficult and it seems like I am out of time now and maybe it is time to look elsewhere," he told MUTV. "I want to get back and play first team football and it looks like it will be hard for me here."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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