Hodgson backs United for title

Fulham coach Roy Hodgson insists Manchester United are favourites to retain the Premier League title despite their back-to-back defeats.

Following last weekend’s 4-1 loss to bitter rivals Liverpool, United were sunk 2-0 at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

And Rafael Benitez’s side are now breathing down United’s necks following their 5-0 thrashing of Aston Villa yesterday, which cut the gap at the top to one point – although the leaders have a game in hand.

However, Hodgson declared: “United are such a good team with so many good players, I still think they are favourites for the championship this year – but the last two defeats have given the teams chasing them that little bit more hope.”

Fulham were rampant in the first half, taking the lead through Danny Murphy’s penalty after Paul Scholes had been sent off for deliberate handball.

And they soaked up all United’s pressure after the break before Zoltan Gera hit them with a sucker punch. The champions then finished with nine men as Wayne Rooney picked up two yellow cards.

Hodgson felt his side were well worth the points, adding: “Our first-half performance was quite outstanding. I didn’t think we played quite as well in the second half. But we worked and fought hard.”

United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson acknowledged his team were not good enough.

“In the first half we never got started,” he said.

“They were lively and got stuck in and we respect that – they lost 4-0 to us a couple of weeks ago. But it’s disappointing we didn’t meet the challenge.”

Chelsea could not capitalise on United’s slip, though, as they went down 1-0 to Tottenham, Luka Modric scoring the only goal in the 50th minute.

Blues boss Guus Hiddink criticised his Chelsea players for switching off at White Hart Lane and missing their golden opportunity.

“When you’re chasing you have to win your games but to lose the goal as we did in the 10 minutes after half-time, with so many professionals and internationals, is bad for us,” Hiddink said.

“You have to know, when there is a fire in the kitchen, when to flood that fire.”

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp hailed the impact of Modric, who struggled at the start of the season but turned his campaign around following the arrival of Redknapp in October.

“He’s special and has amazing ability,” Redknapp said.

Caretaker boss Chris Hughton admitted Newcastle are in deep trouble after seeing them slip to a 3-1 home defeat by Arsenal.

The Magpies dropped into the bottom three as a result of wins for Portsmouth and Stoke.

Hughton said: “I accept it is going to be a dogfight now through to the end of the season.

“We are well aware of the position. We have eight games left, we need to get enough results to stay in this division and we need to get results quickly.”

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate admits the job of escaping relegation has become more difficult after the 1-0 defeat at Stoke – but he has not given up hope.

Ryan Shawcross’ third goal of the season six minutes from time ensured Boro remain struggling in 19th place.

Southgate, who had to endure abuse from the visiting supporters on his walk to the tunnel, said: “I accept there is going to be anger. I knew if we won we would be applauded off and if we lost I’d get a load of abuse.

“We are where we are over 30 games because that is where we deserve to be.

“I’m not going to hide from that. We have eight games to save ourselves and it is possible.”

Bolton manager Gary Megson apologised to referee Howard Webb after being sent from the dug-out in the dying seconds of the 1-1 draw with West Brom.

Former West Brom boss Megson was making his first return to the Hawthorns since being sacked in 2004, and was given his marching orders after becoming frustrated at not being able to put on substitute Ebi Smolarek.

Megson said: “I quite rightly got sent off. I shouldn’t be like that but you get carried away.”

In the day’s other matches, Blackburn drew 1-1 with West Ham after Keith Andrews cancelled out Mark Noble’s opener while Portsmouth beat Everton 2-1 thanks to a brace from Peter Crouch.