MANCHESTER — Arsenal finally ended its streak of poor away performances against top teams as Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud scored in each half Saturday for a 2-0 victory at Manchester City. Cazorla converted a penalty in the 24th minute and Giroud headed in the second in the 66th as Arsenal ended second-place City's 12-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
City dominated possession but Arsenal for once showed the kind of defensive fortitude that so often has been missing in big away games in recent seasons. Arsenal lost 6-3 at City last season, to go with a 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea and 5-1 defeat at Liverpool.
Arsenal climbed above Tottenham into fifth place, one point behind Manchester United.
European hopeful West Ham United earlier revived its push for a top four finish with a 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Hull City at Upton Park.
The result sent the Hammers up to seventh with 36 points from 22 games, just four behind Manchester United.
Real Madrid moved four points clear of Barcelona at the top of La Liga with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice in a 3-0 win at Getafe Sunday. Ronaldo broke the deadlock on a chilly afternoon at the Coliseum in the 63rd minute, clipping the ball in from close range after excellent work from Karim Benzema.
Bale made it 2-0 four minutes later when he finished off a swift break and Ronaldo grabbed his second 11 minutes from time with a powerful header, the Portugal forward's 28th goal of the campaign in his 17th appearance.
On Saturday, Alvaro Negredo struck with a header seven minutes from time to secure a 3-2 victory over Almeria to start an exciting day of late winners in the Spanish league.
Two other matches were decided in the final minutes, as Felipe Caicedo netted in the 89th to snatch Espanyol a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo, while Manucho's header helped Rayo Vallecano win 1-0 at Real Sociedad.
Like Valencia, regional rival Villarreal also stayed in contention for a top-four finish and a Champions League berth with a 2-0 win at home over Athletic Bilbao, extending its unbeaten streak in all competitions to 15 games.
Napoli 3rd in Serie A
Napoli beat Lazio 1-0 to leapfrog the Rome side into third spot in Serie A Sunday, while Sampdoria remained firmly in the race for the final Champions League spot with a 2-0 win at Parma.
Gonzalo Higuain was on target to once again punish Lazio. He has scored in each of the four matches he has played in against the capital side. Napoli and Sampdoria moved onto 33 points, with Lazio two points behind.
Fiorentina was a point further back after Khouma Babacar's last-gasp goal snatched a 2-1 win at Chievo Verona.
Genoa was on 28 points after coming back three times to rescue a 3-3 draw against Sassuolo.
There was more disappointment for AC Milan, which lost 1-0 at home to relegation-threatened Atalanta.
Elsewhere, Udinese drew 2-2 at home to Cagliari, and Torino won 3-2 at bottom club Cesena.
On Saturday, AS Roma slipped up in its pursuit of Serie A leader Juventus as it salvaged a 1-1 draw at mid-table Palermo.
In the earlier game, Inter Milan's Slovenian goalkeeper Samir Handanovic was in brilliant form to help it secure a 0-0 draw at lowly Empoli.
PSG downs Evian
Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain again struggled for inspiration in a scrappy 4-2 win over Evian Sunday in the French league. — Agencies
