Manchester United beats Bolton to go 3 points clear

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to give Manchester United a 2-0 victory over Bolton and a three-point lead atop the Premier League.In Wednesday’s other game, Robbie Keane equalized 2 minutes from the end and Tottenham tied Chelsea 4-4 to stop the Blues drawing level with second-place Arsenal.

With Manchester United-Liverpool and Chelsea-Arsenal to come on Sunday, the Premier League title race is heating up as the teams go into their final eight games.United has 70 points from 30 games, Arsenal 67 and Chelsea 65. Fourth-place Liverpool appears to be out of contention with 59.

Against a Bolton side which has won only once and now lost 11 times on the road, United cruised into a 2-0 lead inside the first 19 minutes at Old Trafford, where Alex Ferguson’s team has two more home games in a row.Captain for the game, Ronaldo gave United the lead in the 9th minute.Bolton failed to clear a corner and the ball dropped to the winger who fired it into the roof of the net to match George Best’s club record for a winger of 32 goals.Back from suspension after his red card against Portsmouth in the FA Cup loss, goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak blocked a close range shot from Kevin Davies.

A minute later it was 2-0, however, when Bolton needlessly gave away a free kick and Ronaldo powered a dipping 30-meter shot that flew inside the post. That made it 24 league goals in 24 starts for Ronaldo and the Portuguese star had taken Best’s mark.In a spell of Bolton pressure, Kuszczak made two good saves to deny Nicky Hunt and Gavin McCann and El Hadji Diouf had the ball in the United net from a free kick in the 56th minute only for referee Alan Wiley to rule it out because he hadn’t blown for it to be taken.

Didier Drogba headed home a cross from John Terry to give Chelsea a third minute lead at White Hart Lane. But Spurs, who beat the Blues 2-1 in last month’s League Cup final, leveled in the 12th when Jermaine Jenas swung in a free kick from the right and Jonathan Woodgate scored with a powerful header.

Chelsea regained the lead in the 20th minute when Joe Cole dribbled through the Spurs defense and supplied a pass to Michael Essien to chip the ball over goalkeeper Paul Robinson who had raced off his line.Cole made it 3-1 in the 52nd after taking a pass from Claude Makelele but Dimitar Berbatov replied for Spurs in the 61st, beating Terry in the air and heading home a cross from Tom Huddlestone.

Huddlestone then equalized for 3-3 in the 75th minute but Cole edged Chelsea back in front five minutes later. It appeared that Chelsea would draw level on points with Arsenal but Keane struck again with a shot into the top corner in the 88th minute to make it 4-4.

source; yahoo/ap