LONDON: Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion stayed in touch with the Premier League leaders with solid home wins over West Ham United and Newcastle United Sunday. Sunderland beat West Ham 1-0 to go seventh on 23 points and leave its opponent bottom of the league, while West Brom overcame Newcastle 3-1 to climb to the heady heights of eighth on 22. Arsenal leads the standings on 32 points having beaten Fulham 2-1 Saturday. Manchester United, whose game at Blackpool was frozen off, is second on 31, a point ahead of champion Chelsea whose poor run continued with a 1-1 home draw with Everton. Sunderland and Manchester United are the only teams yet to lose at home this season and Steve Bruce's side were just about worth victory in a tight game. The well-made goal came after 34 minutes when Nedum Onuoha sent Asamoah Gyan clear and the Ghanaian slid the ball into the path of Jordan Henderson who sidefooted it in from 12 metres. Gyan hit the bar with a clever chip moments later but there were few other clear chances. After a flat opening half-hour at The Hawthorns Somen Tchoyi fashioned West Brom's opener with neat control on the edge of the box and curled the ball beyond Tim Krul after 32 minutes. The second came after 71 when Newcastle's Danny Guthrie slipped to present Peter Odemwingie with a clear run on goal. The Nigeria striker, a deadline-day signing from Lokomotiv Moscow, got the third a minute from the end, running on to a simple long ball by Marek Cechl and rounding the keeper. Peter Lovenkrands grabbed a stoppage-time consolation for Newcastle. Newcastle has been similarly inconsistent. A season that has brought a 6-0 win over Aston Villa, a 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland, victory at Arsenal and last week's draw with Chelsea also featured a 5-1 loss at Bolton Wanderers and home defeats by Stoke, Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool. Juve downs Catania Fabio Quagliarella scored twice and had another clear goal not given by the referee in Juventus' 3-1 win at Catania in Serie A Sunday. Simone Pepe put Juventus in front in the 35th minute in Sicily, but Japan forward Takayuki Morimoto equalized two minutes later before Quagliarella took over. The victory kept Juventus within six points of Serie A leader AC Milan. Milan leads with 33 points, Lazio is next with 30, Juventus has 27 and Napoli 24. AC Milan beat Brescia 3-0 Saturday. Earlier, Hernan Crespo scored twice for Parma in a 2-1 win over Udinese, raising his Serie A career total to 150 goals. Elsewhere, Stefano Guberti scored twice for Sampdoria in a 3-0 win over 10-man Bari, moving the Genoa club into a tie for fifth with Palermo, Inter and AS Roma – with 23 points each. Also, Adrian Mutu scored his first goal since returning from a nine-month doping ban in Fiorentina's 1-0 win over Cagliari. Genoa came back from a goal down to win 3-1 at Lecce and Bologna beat regional rival Cesena 2
