Soccer: Chelsea keep motoring, Barcelona set club record

LONDON - League heavyweights Chelsea maintained their lead on the chasing pack in the English Premier League, while Spanish giants Barcelona set a club record of 12 consecutive wins in this weekend's soccer matches in Europe.

In Italy Juventus' lead in the Serie A was trimmed to eight points while Bayern Munich strengthened their grip on the German league.

In London today Chelsea registered their first league victory at Arsenal for 15 years, winning 2-0 at Highbury to maintain their nine-point lead over Manchester United.

Arjen Robben raced clear of the defence to open the scoring in the first half and Joe Cole made the game safe for the champions with a curling left-foot effort from 20 metres in the second period.

Eighth-placed Arsenal are now 20 points adrift of Chelsea.

A goal in each half by strikers Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney gave United a 2-0 triumph at Aston Villa.

While third-placed Liverpool were losing 1-0 to Brazil's Sao Paulo in the final of the Club World Championship in Japan, fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to go above them, drawing 3-3 in a thriller at Middlesbrough.

Portsmouth marked manager Harry Redknapp's first home match back in charge with a 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

Senegalese forward Henri Camara hit a hat-trick to give Wigan Athletic a 3-0 home victory over Charlton Athletic and Michael Owen also scored three as Newcastle United defeated West Ham United 4-2.

In Spain Leaders Barcelona set a club record of 12 consecutive wins in all competitions, with a 3-1 triumph at Cadiz yesterday.

The victory, which broke the record of 11 set in the 1955-56 season, put the champions two points clear.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o struck twice to take his tally for the season to 15. Ludovic Giuly hit Barcelona's other goal before Nenad Mirosavljevic replied for Cadiz in the final minute.

Second-placed Osasuna held third-placed Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw in a bad-tempered affair at the Bernabeu today.

Osasuna had Francisco Punal sent off for elbowing after 15 minutes but grabbed the lead with a header from Savo Milosevic in the 76th. Roberto Soldado equalised for Real with six minutes to go.

Villarreal are fourth after coming from behind to beat Getafe 2-1 with goals from Juan Roman Riquelme and Diego Forlan.

Five players were shown the red card in Racing Santander's 1-1 home draw with Malaga.

Vitolo, Pablo Pinillos and David Aganzo of Racing and Malaga pair Anderson Silva and Gerardo were dismissed.

In the Serie A Inter Milan trimmed Juventus' lead to eight points in Italy after a 4-0 rout of Reggina on today.

The game was less than two minutes old when Ivan Cordoba netted. Obafemi Martins made it 2-0 with a header 13 minutes later before Adriano and David Pizarro also struck.

Juventus drew 1-1 with Lazio yesterday while AC Milan moved up one place to third after a 4-0 win over Messina.

Fiorentina dropped to fourth after being held 1-1 by Tuscan neighbours Empoli.

Tommaso Rocchi put Lazio one up but David Trezequet's 26th-minute equaliser earned Juve a share of the spoils.

Andriy Shevchenko struck twice in AC Milan's drubbing of Messina.

German club Bayern Munich won 2-1 at Borussia Dortmund yesterday giving them a six point lead in the Bundesliga going into the six-week mid-season break.

Victory in the last round of matches in 2005 increased Bayern's lead to six points over Hamburg SV, who were held to a 1-1 draw at third-placed Werder Bremen today.

Iran midfielder Ali Karimi and Peru striker Claudio Pizarro struck for Bayern before Florian Kringe pulled one back for Dortmund with a header.

Dortmund had defender Kosi Saka sent off a minute from time for clipping the heels of Roy Makaay on a run towards goal.

Fourth-placed Schalke 04 lost further ground when they went down 2-0 at VfB Stuttgart in their first match since coach Ralf Rangnick was fired.

In France Olympique Lyon slumped to their first Ligue 1 defeat this season when they lost 3-1 at home to Lille on Friday in their last match of the year.

The four-times French champions, chasing an unprecedented fifth successive title, are 12 points clear of RC Lens, Girondins Bordeaux and AJ Auxerre.

Peter Odemwingie, Mathieu Debuchy and Stephane Dumont were Lille's marksmen. Sidney Govou grabbed Lyon's consolation goal in the 69th minute.

- REUTERS