Chelsea hammers Manchester United 5-0
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 1999.
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It was Chelsea's biggest win ever over Manchester United and equaled United's biggest ever league defeat. It was the Reds' first league loss in 11 months after 29 without defeat. Chelsea pounced in just 28 seconds before a 35,000 sellout at Stamford Bridge as the often-injured Poyet - off a long cross from Dan Petrescu raced in and scored on a header from 15 meters (yards), beating defender Dennis Irwin and Manchester United's error-prone goalkeeper Massimo Taibi.
Eight minutes later the match turned against the Europeaen, league and FA Cup champions as Nicky Butt was given a red card in a near brawl with Chelsea's Dennis Wise.
That opened floodgates with Chris Sutton scoring his first league goal for Chelsea in the 16th followed by Poyet's in the 54th, chipping in a rebound off a Frank Leboeuf shot.
Henning Berg scored an own goal five minutes later as he cleared with Sutton pressuring him, and substitute Jody Morris got the final goal in the closing 10 minutes.
Leeds took over the leadership at least temporarily with a 2-1 comefrom-behind victory over Watford. Leeds got its winner in the 70th from Harry Kewell and another to draw in the 45th from Michael Bridges.
Mark Williams gave Watford a 1-0 lead in the 42nd. Leeds leads with 22 points to 21 for Manchester United followed by Sunderland (20), Chelsea (19) and Arsenal (19). However, Chelsea has played two fewer games than any of the teams ahead of it.
In another key match Sunday, Alan Shearer scored twice to bring his season total to 14 as Newcastle defeated Middlesbrough 2-1 giving the Magpies only their second victory in 10 games.
The Magpies have seven points, good only 19th in the 20-team league. Leicester rallied to win at Tottenham 3-2 with Ian Marshall getting the winner in the 76th. Muzzy Izzet score twice for Leicester (25th penalty, 69th) and Steffen Iversen got two for Tottenham (26th, 35th).
At West Ham, the Hammers upset Arsenal 2-1 on two goals from Paolo Di Canio (29th and 72nd) with Davor Suker getting a late goal for the Gunners in the 77th.
