Premier League champion Manchester United was thrashed 3-0 at Fulham Saturday while neighbor Manchester City sacked manager Mark Hughes and brought in Italian Roberto Mancini. Goals by Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Damien Duff condemned second-placed United to a second league defeat in eight days. Chelsea can now stretch its lead to six points by beating struggling West Ham United Sunday. A second win in 11 league matches proved in vain for Hughes who watched his City side beat Sunderland 4-3 at Eastlands before being dismissed after the game. A day of surprises began with Liverpool's 2-0 reverse at bottom club Portsmouth, its seventh league defeat this season. Arsenal is third, two points behind United, after a 3-0 win over Hull City. Aston Villa occupy fourth spot after a 1-0 victory over Stoke City. Tottenham Hotspur, in fifth, followed up its midweek demolition of Manchester City with a 2-0 victory at Blackburn Rovers. United, fielding a makeshift defense because of a string of injuries, went behind after 22 minutes when midfielder Murphy seized possession from Paul Scholes and fired past goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak from long range. In the 46th minute in-form striker Zamora met a Clint Dempsey knockdown to half volley past Kuszczak and notch his 10th goal of the season. United manager Alex Ferguson threw on attacking substitutes Dimitar Berbatov and Danny Welbeck but a superb Duff volley with 15 minutes remaining sealed an emphatic victory for the hosts. Manchester City, soccer's richest club, now welcomes former Inter Milan coach Mancini, with former Blackburn manager Brian Kidd joining as his assistant. A lackluster Liverpool lost at Portsmouth as goals by Nadir Belhadj and Frederic Piquionne heaped more pressure on manager Rafa Benitez. Brazilian midfielder Denilson's delightful free kick set Arsenal on the way to victory but they had to survive a Geovanni missed penalty after the break before adding two more goals through Eduardo da Silva and Abou Diaby. A header from Norwegian frontman John Carew sealed Villa's win over Stoke while Peter Crouch's double helped Tottenham sink Blackburn. Getafe beats Sevilla Getafe beat Sevilla 2-1 with two first-half goals from Roberto Soldado in the Spanish League Saturday while Fernando Llorente scored one and set up another as Athletic Bilbao beat Osasuna 2-0. Sevilla remains in third place with 30 points. Leverkusen on top Bayer Leverkusen finished the year top of the Bundesliga after recovering from 2-1 down to beat gutsy Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-2 Saturday. Playmaker Toni Kroos struck his second goal to secure the victory and lift unbeaten Leverkusen to 35 points from 17 matches, one ahead of Schalke 04 who beat Mainz 1-0 Friday. The Bundesliga resumes on Jan. 15. Bayern demolished bottom side Hertha Berlin 5-2 for a fourth straight league win to stay in third place on 33 points. Borussia Dortmund, celebrating their 100th anniversary, beat Freiburg 1-0 to move up to fourth on 30 points. VfB Stuttgart beat Hoffenheim 3-1 to reach 14th place. Matches postponed Heavy snowfall has forced the postponement of second-placed AC Milan's Serie A match at Fiorentina and Bologna's home game against Atalanta Saturday along with Sunday's match between Udinese and Cagliari. The league said it could not set a new date for the next few days because of the start of Serie A's winter break. It later announced that the game in Udine had also been hit by the snow.
