Chelsea trimmed Manchester United's lead at the top of the Premier League to five points on Sunday with a patchy 1-0 defeat of Middlesbrough. Ricardo Carvalho's header inside the opening five minutes at Stamford Bridge gave Chelsea the perfect start but it was guilty of not killing the game as Shaun Wright-Phillips twice wasted good chances. Chelsea rode its luck after the break when Boro substitute Afonso Alves could have scored a hat trick. The 12-million-pound Brazilian signing was twice denied by the woodwork and also missed the target when unmarked in front of goal. Chelsea has 71 points from 32 games to United's 76. Arsenal is in third place with 70 points. Boro remain 12th and still not safe from relegation. On Saturday, Wayne Rooney scored twice and Manchester United outplayed Aston Villa 4-0 Saturday to move six points clear in the English Premier League title race, while Arsenal rallied from two goals and a man down to win 3-2 at Bolton. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 34th goal of the season to put the Red Devils on the road to an easy victory at Old Trafford and Carlos Tevez added a second in the 33rd minute. Rooney's brace in the 53rd and 70th minutes means that Alex Ferguson's team has a huge goals differential of 53, having scored 68 and conceded only 15. After Matt Taylor had scored twice for relegation-threatened Bolton at Reebok Stadium and Abou Diaby had been shown a 31st-minute red card for a foul on Gretar Steinsson, the Gunners looked likely to fall further behind leader Manchester United, who now have 76 points from 32 games with six more rounds to play. But William Gallas replied in the 62nd minute, Robin van Persie equalized with a 68th-minute penalty after Gary Cahill had brought down Alexander Hleb, and an own-goal by defender JLloyd Samuel in the final minute gave Arsenal the three points. Last-place Derby County was guaranteed relegation after a 2-2 draw at home to next-to-last Fulham. Also Saturday: Birmingham beat Manchester City 3-1, Portsmouth downed Wigan 2-0, Reading and Blackburn drew 0-0 and Sunderland edged West Ham 2-1.Betis beats Barcelona In Madrid, FC Barcelona surrendered a two-goal lead in a 3-2 loss at Real Betis on Saturday that dropped it into third place in the Spanish league after Villarreal beat Atletico Madrid 3-0. Betis striker Edu Schmidt scored twice as Barcelona conceded three goals in 15 minutes in the second half. Villarreal improved to 59 points behind two goals from Nihat Kahveci and another by Santiago Cazorla. Real Madrid leads the standings with 62 points, while Barcelona remained with 58.Romario denies report Romario is back – maybe. The 42-year-old striker said he was awaiting a proposal to continue playing, according to the Agencia Estado news agency on Saturday, contradicting his decision a day earlier to end his career. Romario retracted the announcement late Friday and wants to play a few more games, Agencia Estado said. Podolski prevents upset In Berlin, Lukas Podolski scored an 81st-minute equalizer Saturday for Bayern Munich to draw 1-1 with FC Nuremberg and avoid a second Bundesliga upset in two weeks. Zvjezdan Misimovic put Nuremberg 1-0 ahead in the 44th minute with a shot just under the crossbar. With the game slipping away, Podolski leveled with his first Bundesliga goal in a year. Bayern was beaten 2-0 by last-place Energie Cottbus on March 15. Second-place Hamburger SV drew 1-1 against Arminia Bielefeld and Schalke jumped to third place by drawing 0-0 with Karlsruher SC, while Bayer Leverkusen lost 2-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen was beaten 2-1 by MSV Duisburg. Bayern leads the standings with 54 points, seven ahead of Hamburg, nine in front of Schalke, and 10 more than Bremen and Leverkusen. Also, VfL Bochum drew 3-3 with Borussia Dortmund 3. On Friday, Wolfsburg edged Hansa Rostock 1
