Manchester United's manager Alex Ferguson is given a guard of honor to mark his 25th year as manager before their English Premier League soccer match against Sunderland at Old Trafford Saturday. — Reuters LONDON – Alex Ferguson celebrated 25 years as Manchester United's manager as his team beat Sunderland 1-0 at Old Trafford Saturday although it stayed five points behind Manchester City at the top of the Premier League after City won 3-2 at Queens Park Rangers. United's win, its fourth without conceding a goal since its 6-1 home loss to City last month, was overshadowed by Ferguson's silver anniversary occasion and was far from glittering, with the winner coming from former United defender Wes Brown, who put through his own net just before halftime. But City stayed clear at the top when they won a five-goal thriller at Loftus Road, where Yaya Toure headed home the winner 16 minutes from time. With 11 matches played City have 31 points, followed by United on 26, unbeaten Newcastle United on 25 and Chelsea on 22. It was an emotional day at Old Trafford but the game will not live as long in the memory as the other events on the day, with United's chief executive, David Gill, announcing the north stand had been renamed the “Sir Alex Ferguson Stand” and that a statue of the 69-year-old Scot was being commissioned to mark his achievements for the club since he took over on Nov. 6 1986. Ferguson has brought 37 trophies to Old Trafford. Newcastle maintained their unbeaten league start to the season with a 2-1 win over Everton. Chelsea won 1-0 at lowly Blackburn Rovers with a Frank Lampard header, remained fourth place on 22 points. Arsenal continued its revival by beating West Bromwich Albion 3-0, Aston Villa beat Norwich City 3-2 and Liverpool was held to a 0-0 draw by Swansea City. Palermo moves up Palermo moved within three points of the Italian league lead with a 3-1 win over Bologna Saturday. The match pitted Bologna manager Stefano Pioli against the club that fired him before the season began. Palermo remained perfect at home with its fifth consecutive win under new coach Devis Mangia, who was promoted from the youth squad after Pioli's dismissal. Sevilla draws with Mallorca Sevilla was held to a 0-0 draw at Mallorca Saturday in the Spanish league. Sevilla's fifth draw in as many away games this season left it three points behind fourth-place Valencia. Dortmund on hot chase Dortmund kept up its pursuit of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich Saturday, storming to a 5-1 home win over VfL Wolfsburg to climb within two points of the top. Werder Bremen came back from two goals down to beat Cologne 3-2 and go level on points with Dortmund and Borussia Moenchengladbach which won 2-1 at Hertha Berlin. Bayer Leverkusen squandered a two-goal lead in the late match to finish 2-2 at home to battling Hamburg SV. In other games it was: Freiburg 2 Nuremberg 1; Dortmund 2 Wolfsburg 0; Hoffenheim 1 Kaiserslautern 1.
