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Cup until this season.Liverpool could be exhausted by the time it reaches next month’s final.The Reds are in the midst of playing three games in six days and manager Gerard Houllier complained bitterly last week when the England Football Association refused to postpone Tuesday’s league match with Ipswich.In Sunday’s only Premier League game, Everton defeated Manchester City 3–1 on goals by Duncan Ferguson, Michael Ball and David Weir. The loss kept Man City in 19th place and bound for relegation.In a late match in Scotland, Rangers faced Hibernian a day after Celtic claimed the Scottish Premier League title with five games to spare.. Coventry have pulled off some remarkable escape acts to remain in the top division for 34 years, but even they would concede that they have left themselves with a formidable task this season. However, all may not yet be lost, after they pulled off a first away victory since Boxing Day in beating Leicester yesterday.

Coventry have pulled off some remarkable escape acts to remain in the top division for 34 years, but even they would concede that they have left themselves with a formidable task this season. However, all may not yet be lost, after they pulled off a first away victory since Boxing Day in beating Leicester yesterday.
The visitors’ Welsh international, John Hartson, proved their huge inspiration, as he had done when they broke a 10-match winless streak against Derby the previous week. His goal early in the second half clinched the points after strikes by Craig Bellamy and Lee Carsley in the first half had given Coventry a decisive edge and pushed declining Leicester towards a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat.Coventry’s manager, Gordon Strachan, said: “We’ve played as well as that in other away games, but we’ve been let down by our inability to take our chances. With John we have someone to take chances, but also someone who makes everyone else feel better about themselves.”Coventry could not have had a better start, going ahead in 62 seconds, as Leicester’s Muzzy Izzet inadvertently ran the ball into the path of Moustapha Hadji, whose squared pass found Bellamy eagerly waiting to pounce.

But Leicester, whose European ambitions now look to have slipped beyond realisation, were back on level terms some eight minutes later. Arnar Gunnlaugsson tested Chris Kirkland from almost 25 yards on the right with such power that the visiting goalkeeper could do no better than push the ball into the path of Ade Akinbiyi, who was left to score a simple side-footed goal.Given Coventry’s fragile form, one could appreciate the dismay now reflected in manager Strachan’s expression. But it was Leicester who seemed uneasy, their normally reliable defence disjointed, and they conceded a second goal in the 19th minute. Barry Quinn crossed unimpeded from the right and Lee Carsley, though hardly the biggest man on the field, headed home from a central position, jumping in front of the much taller Callum Davidson.Leicester were fortunate not to be finished before half-time as two wonderful chances fell to Hartson. The first was a real let-off for Leicester when the big Welshman allowed John Eustace’s shot to run past him when the slightest touch would have turned it into a goal. Then Hartson missed the target from Marcus Hall’s low cross, with the goal again at his mercy.

But the third Coventry goal owed everything to Hartson’s formidable strength, as he climbed unstoppably above Gerry Taggart and Gary Rowett to meet a 51st-minute corner from Telfer on the right, and his header gave Royce no chance.Leicester’s best response came from a swinging left-foot shot by Gunnlaugsson that grazed Kirkland’s right-hand post. But Coventry were in no mood to surrender their gains and, in this form, could yet wriggle out of danger, although they may find few opponents as accommodating as Leicester.. Chelsea’s form has been so fickle this season the only thing you can guarantee from them is disillusion. Dripping with talent, they have nevertheless invited less than flattering adjectives, and the only way they have looked likely to get into Europe was if they booked to go there on a pre-season tour.

After this, though, who knows?

Chelsea’s form has been so fickle this season the only thing you can guarantee from them is disillusion. Dripping with talent, they have nevertheless invited less than flattering adjectives, and the only way they have looked likely to get into Europe was if they booked to go there on a pre-season tour. After this, though, who knows?
It is still a long shot, and might require Liverpool to gain a Champions’ League spot, but Chelsea could slip in ­ and not by the tradesmen’s entrance otherwise known as the Intertoto Cup. This win took them to sixth place, but more encouragingly it was only their second away win in the Premiership. Maybe they have located a backbone at last.While they have the sublime skills of Gianfranco Zola and the raw power of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, anything is possible, and they scored the second-half goals that sealed this game before Gustavo Poyet embellished the result with another two in injury time. Derby, on the other hand, had a dreadful day and that was not made any brighter by the news that Coventry had won away at Leicester.