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MANCHESTER, England -- Manchester City ended Liverpools short stay at the top of the English Premier League and moved ahead of its title rival after Alvaro Negredo secured a 2-1 victory in their Boxing Day encounter. Englands most potent attacking team quickly recovered after Phillippe Coutinho put Liverpool ahead in the 24th minute. Vincent Kompany headed City level seven minutes later and Negredos high shot was fumbled into the net by Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet on the stroke of halftime. "Thats the hardest game so far. Liverpool are a good team so its great for us," Kompany said. "Its a weird (title race) because all the teams started a little slowly." City ended the day as it started: A point behind the leaders. But Arsenal is back atop the standings, with City moving up a place to second and Liverpool dropping to fourth behind Chelsea. "I thought we were absolutely outstanding," Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said. "(The players) had no help whatsoever from the officials. They were horrendous." Aggrieved that Raheem Sterling had a goal ruled out for offside and Luis Suarez was denied a late penalty, Rodgers questioned why a referee from the Manchester area -- Lee Mason of Bolton -- was given a match involving a Manchester team. Rodgers could face an English Football Association charge for calling into question the referees integrity and implying potential bias. "We never got any decision," Rodgers said. Despite the setback, Liverpool was only three points behind leader Arsenal going into Sundays match at Chelsea. City, though, remain the favourite to repeat its 2012 title triumph after its ninth straight home win to start the season. Manuel Pellegrinis side has beaten every team in the top eight apart from Chelsea, and has netted a league leading 53 goals in 18 games. Despite going up against the high-scoring Suarez, City was again the superior attacking unit and created all the danger at the start. Jesus Navas headed against the post after five minutes, Kompany missed the target with a header from Samir Nasris corner, and Yaya Toures shot was deflected wide. It wasnt long, though, before City goalkeeper Joe Hart was called into action in his second league match after being dropped for two months. Hart denied Suarez an 11th goal of the month when he blocked his free kick. But, after Raheem Sterlings goal was harshly ruled out for being offside while meeting Suarezs pass, Hart was beaten. Suarez flicked the ball through for Sterling to round Hart, whose goal was open for Coutinho to dispatch the loose ball into the net from a tight angle. The lead lasted only seven minutes. Kompany outjumped Martin Skrtel to meet David Silvas corner and his header first went past the diving Mignolet and then Joe Allen was powerless to stop on the goal-line. In a fast-paced game, City was at times exposed by the speed of Liverpools break. In the 40th, Suarez released Coutinho, who was denied this time by Hart. Harts counterpart, though, wasnt as assured between the posts. City broke through the middle, with Nasri and Navas leading the charge before feeding Negredo. The shot from Negredo didnt seem menacing but Mignolet pushed it looping over him into the net. "Im disappointed we shipped a goal from a corner and for the second goal, we have to manage the game better coming up to halftime," Rodgers said. "Thats an area we will look at, for sure." Liverpool, so devastating in December -- with 18 goals in four games -- couldnt produce an equalizer. Jordan Henderson struck over at the start of the second half from Suarezs layoff. Mignolet, though, wasnt beaten again, getting two hands on the ball this time when Negredo tried to chip him, and easily collecting a header from the forward. At the other end, Hart made a case for retaining his place in the City goal after error-strewn performances led to him being dropped in October for league matches. The England goalkeeper denied Glen Johnson before being alert to keep out Hendersons backheeled shot. Liverpools best chance of the half to equalize was squandered when Sterling met Suarezs cross but blazed over with the goal seemingly at his mercy. Suarez was denied a penalty late on when Joleon Lescott tugged on his shirt. "Im disappointed to lose," Rodgers said, "but the over-riding feeling is pride in my players." Nike Free Flyknit Chukka bleu . Coach Mike Munchak says Fokou stretched ligaments in his left knee Oct. 13 against Seattle, which could keep out up to five weeks even though the linebacker didnt need surgery. Nike Flyknit Lunar 2 . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. http://www.flyknitnike-fr.com/nike-flyknit-chukka-...-sale.h tml . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. Nike Flyknit Lunar 1 noir . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. Nike Flyknit Lunar 1 . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era.FONTANA, Calif. - Scott Dixon became the latest driver to deny Roger Penske an IndyCar championship, wrapping up his third title Saturday night in a race of attrition at Auto Club Speedway. Will Power won the season finale — a year after he crashed in this race to blow his own title chances — to salvage the night for Penske Racing. But it was Dixon and Chip Ganassi celebrating on the big stage as the New Zealander won his third series title, and Target Chip Ganassi claimed its 10th championship since 1990. Dixon wrapped it up with a fifth-place finish. He was the final car on the lead lap, and beat Helio Castroneves by 27 points for the title. "When youve won a couple, they are all very different," Dixon said about his three titles. "This year has been far different in that midyear we didnt think we had a shot at the championship." It wasnt incident-free. Dixon, also the series champion in 2003 and 2008, nearly overheated late in the race. "We were freaking out," admitted team manager Mike Hull. Penske has now been denied in the season finale six times since Sam Hornish won the organization its last IndyCar championship in 2006. Ganassi has won five championships in that span. "I feel for Helio," Dixon said. "He ran a strong year. Hes a hell of a competitor." This one slipped away in spectacular fashion as Castroneves led the points after 14 races this season and took a 49-point lead over Dixon into the Houston doubleheader two weeks ago. But a gearbox issue in the first race, which Dixon won, saw his lead sliced to just eight points. Then in the second race, Castroneves drove over a bump in the track to cause a catastrophic failure to his gearbox. Dixon finished second and left Houston with a 25-point lead. "One weekend for us, unfortunately for us cost us a lot of points," Castroneves said. "We did everything we could to avoid any kind of mechanical failure and the only time all season we had any kind of mechanical failure, thats what cost us the season. This is the tough part of racing." It backed Castroneves into a position of almost certainly needing to win Saturday nights finale to salvage the title. But with the big boss on his pit stand calling the race — Penske told The Associated Press before Houston hed call the final three races of the season and "if theres any mistakes, any issues, you can blame it on me" — Penske made a mistake. He called Castroneves to pit lane before the pits were open during a late caution, and Castroneves was penalized by IndyCar. He went from fourth to eighth after the drive-thru penalty. "Im so sorry," Penske radioed. Castroneves downplayed the mistake. "That was just a blip on the radar," he said. Instead, contact later with Dixon teammate Charlie Kimball broke Castroneves front wing. The stop to replace it dropped him a lap down, and Castroneves was the first car a lap down with his sixth-place finish. "I feell for Helio," said Dixon.dddddddddddd "He ran a strong year. Hes a hell of a competitor." For Power, who was racing as much to help Castroneves win the title as he was for himself, ended the night with what he called "the most satisfying win of my life." Power had gone into the finale three years in a row with the championship on the line, but hit a seam in the speedway last year and crashed. Hes struggled most of this year and didnt pick up his first win of the year until Sonoma in August. He then added another victory two weeks ago at Houston, and Saturday nights win was his second career victory on an oval. "I wanted to do it so badly all year," Power said. "I knew in the early ovals, I just was kind of conservative because I just wanted to finish every lap. And this time Im going for it." Only nine cars were running at the end, and a six-car accident just past the halfway mark sent Justin Wilson to a local hospital for evaluation. IndyCar medical director Dr. Michael Olinger said Wilson suffered non-operable fractures to his pelvis and a small pulmonary contusion. The accident began when Wilsons car wiggled as his rear tire was caught in a seam on the track. The Brit tried to save it as his car began to spin toward the wall, but as he lost control, Tristan Vautier drove directly into the side of Wilsons car. "I didnt see him before I hit him. There was a big cloud of smoke. Didnt see what was happening," Vautier said. It took the safety team several minutes to get Wilson out of his car. He was placed on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a local hospital. The accident also collected Josef Newgarden, who in trying to avoid Wilson drove into Oriol Servia. James Jakes was also knocked out of the race, and in-car cameras showed a huge piece of debris sailing over his head. "We were on the outside and in the smoke you lose perception of everything," Jakes said. "We lost our vision and then I got hit with the debris. Tough after starting fifth." Simona de Silvestros car suffered damage, but she was able to continue. Before that, Carlos Munoz was impressive driving as the emergency replacement for E.J. Viso, who didnt make the trip to Fontana. Andretti Autosport said Viso was ill, although reports out of Venezuela indicated Viso could be affected by an investigation into the funding of motorsports drivers in that country. So Munoz was given Visos car to drive Saturday night, hours after winning the Indy Lights race for the second consecutive year. Munoz, who finished second in the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year, drove as high as second and was mixing it up with the leaders. But he was aggressive — too aggressive for Castroneves team owners liking — and Penske urged Castroneves to get away from Munoz. It proved to be the correct advice when Munoz spun on Lap 101, ending his night. "You were smart there. He was in totally over his head," Penske radioed Castroneves. 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