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Journalism of Courage
LONDON, DECEMBER 23: English Premiership leaders Leeds United face a tricky home match at Elland Road on Sunday when they take on sixth-placed Leicester City, buoyed this week by the end of a four-month boardroom power struggle.
Highly-rated Leicester manager Martin O’Neill’s position was assured after Chief Executive Barrie Pierpoint, the final member of the so-called gang of four directors, resigned.
The struggle, which could have led to O’Neill quitting the Premiership high-flyers, had already forced three other directors to quit. Chairman John Elsom and PLC chief Sir Rodney Walker, the two men O’Neill had publicly backed, will resume control at Leicester.
Leeds, however, will start favourites — especially after an impressive display in their 2-0 victory away to Chelsea last Sunday.
Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli paid tribute to Leeds after their win at Stamford Bridge and he believes they have the look of a title — winning side. He said: “They have talent and they are young but they have a fewexperienced players as well. They aren’t scared of anything and they have had a bit of the luck that you always need to win a few matches in the last minute recently.
“All these things put together mean a team which has a great chance of winning the title.”
David O’Leary’s young guns have lost only once at home all season and have conceded only six goals on home soil.
Second-placed Manchester United, two points behind Leeds but with a game in hand, will start as red-hot favourites at home to fourth-from-bottom Bradford City, who have lost seven out of nine games on the road.
United are unbeaten at Old Trafford this season and have averaged more than three goals a game at home, by far the best record in the Premiership.
Heartless Rangers
GLASGOW: Jorg Albertz snatched a dramatic winner for Rangers in injury time yesterday to give them a 1-0 home victory over Hearts and increase their lead to four points at the top of the Scottish Premier League.
The Scottish champions seemed certainto drop points ahead of next Monday’s derby with Celtic after a night when Hearts frustrated Dick Advocaat’s team and the near-50,000 crowd at Ibrox Stadium.
However, Albertz struck 20 seconds from the end of stoppage time with a left foot shot from the edge of the area for his 10th goal of the season to put Rangers onto 43 points from 16 games, four ahead of Celtic who have played a game more.
Deportivo lead cut short
MADRID: Deportivo Coruna’s lead at the top of the Spanish first division was cut to six points yesterday as Real Zaragoza brought their seven-match winning run to an end with an accomplished 2-1 victory.
Champions Barcelona were unable to take full advantage of the Deportivo slip, however, as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano in a game that left coach Louis Van Gaal wide open to criticism.
Van Gaal, who omitted Rivaldo from his squad after a row over the Brazilian’s best position, watched as Luis Figo missed a late penalty that he would never have taken hadRivaldo been on the field.
