Manchester United predictably pulled three points ahead of Liverpool yesterday (April 22nd) after beating an uninspired Portsmouth side 2-0 at old Trafford. United should have buried them in the first half, but only came out of it with a 1-0 lead thanks to Wayne Rooney’s goal in the ninth minute. United struggled for most of the second half, but came to life after Michael Carrick made it 2-0 in the 82nd .

Meanwhile, over at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea basically dropped out of the English Premier League race after being held to a 0-0 draw by Everton. Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink more or less conceded the title to United after dropping the two points to the Merseysiders. Chelsea is still in the running for the FA Cup and Champions League though. In fact the match yesterday against Everton was a preview of the FA Cup Final at Wembley on May 30. Let’s hope that game is better than yesterday’s affair.

In other news, former Sunderland boss and Man United icon Roy Keane was hired as the new boss of Championship side Ipswich Town. Keane takes over from Jim Magilton. Like Kevin Keegan though, many fans feel Keane will pack it in when the going gets rough, as Keegan has done in the past with England and Newcastle and as Keane did with Sunderland.

Carlos Tevez is getting more annoyed with Alex Ferguson as the season goes on and has said he’s likely to take off after his loan spell runs out at the end of the season. Tevez said he needs to play regular first team football, but Ferguson has a habit of leaving him on the bench. This doesn’t sit too well with the little Argentinean international, especially in big matches against the likes of Chelsea. But with a price tag of 30 million English pounds, it’s doubtful United will re sign him.

In the Championship, Southampton has been deducted 10 points and is certain to end up in Division One next season. If they end up in the relegation zone this year, they will go down and have the points deducted at the start of next season. If they manage to stay above the relegation zone this season, they will be deducted the points immediately. So, either way, they are going down for sure.

Over in Spain, Barcelona kept their six point lead over Real Madrid with a 4-0 thrashing of Sevilla yesterday. In Germany, Bayern Munich has a chance to go on top of the Bundesliga for the first time all season when they take on Schalke at home on Saturday. Of course Wolfsburg could take first back on Sunday against Enegie Cottbus.

In Italy, it seems that Palermo defender Moris Carrozzierihas been a bad boy for testing positive for cocaine, according to the Italian Olympic Committee. Tests after Palermo’s 1-0 home win over Torino back on April 5th   revealed that the player had Benzoylecgonine in his system, which is the primary metabolite of cocaine.
The 28-year-old should face a ban from football if it is proved, as cocaine is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned stimulants.