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Tuesday March 13, 2018

FEW goalkeepers get the man-of-the-match award when their team wins 3-0. Petr Cech did just that Sunday in Arsenal’s victory over Watford as he set a Premier League record for keep-ing a clean sheet.

The Czech Republic and former Chelsea goalkeeper also saved a penalty on his way to bringing up a 200th EPL clean sheet over the last 14 years. It was the fi rst time the 35-year-old Cech has kept out a spot-kick since joining Arsenal in 2015.

“It’s an unbelievable personal milestone obviously,” Cech said. “We took only 18 games to get nine clean sheets at the start of the season and since then we’ve had to wait 11 games, which is sometimes frustrating.”

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan each contributed a goal and an assist after Shkodran Mustafi ’s header had given the Gunners an early lead in a clinical attacking display at the Emirates Stadium.

The scoreline was fl atter-ing for Arsenal, which ended a three-game Premier League losing streak, but Watford only had itself to blame after spurning multiple chances, most notably captain Troy

Deeney’s tame penalty.Arsenal was menacing in

attack right from the start as Mesut Ozil slid Aubameyang through on goal within two minutes, only for Watford goal-keeper Orestis Karnezis to save well with his legs.

However, Ozil wouldn’t be denied his 50th Premier League assist for long. The Germany midfi elder became the fastest man to reach that milestone — in 141 games — when Mus-tafi headed his precise free kick back across goal in the eighth minute.

As good as Arsenal was going forward, it was vulnerable at the other end. Watford should have leveled when Cech palmed Richarlison’s free kick into the path of Roberto Pereyra, who failed to direct the bouncing ball into an open goal.

Ozil had an equally good chance moments later as he glided into the penalty area before Karnezis made another fi ne save with his legs.

Watford controlled the game either side of halftime, but was punished for failing to make its dominance pay when Aubamey-ang doubled the lead in the 59th as he rounded Karnezis after

JULIUS RANDLE had a career-high 36 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, and the Los Ange-les Lakers put on a show in front of LeBron James with a 127-113 victory over the Cleveland Cava-liers on Sunday night.

Isaiah Thomas had 20 points, nine assists and fi ve rebounds against his former teammates as the Lakers roared away from the defending Eastern Confer-ence champions in the second half with their exciting, energetic style under coach Luke Walton.

The Lakers looked hungry, exciting and full of potential. They hope that’s attractive to James, who can be a free agent this summer.

“Since Luke took over, they’ve improved every single season, I think,” said James, who had 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. “They just try to imple-

ment that ball movement, that body movement that he got when he was in Golden State.”

Although nobody on either side is able to talk about it yet, this game seemed to carry added importance for both the Lakers and James, who will be at a crossroads shortly in his incred-ible career.

Magic Johnson has spent the past year making moves — including the trade that sent Larry Nance Jr. and Jordan Clarkson to Cleveland last month — to get the Lakers into prime salary-cap position to chase elite free agents this summer. The top name on that list is likely to be James, who has a player option for next year.

The three-time NBA champion already has a US$23 million mansion in Brentwood and a burgeoning career in entertain-

ment production, so a move to L.A. could be a logical step. But James is unlikely to join a team that can’t immediately contend for championships with his addition.

The Lakers’ entire season has been designed to prove their young core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and probably Randle could fi t splendidly around James, Paul George or DeMarcus Cousins — or failing that, the top free agents in the class of 2019.

The Lakers’ exciting perfor-mance against Cleveland under-lined that notion, for whatever it’s worth in James’ mind.

“We’re just connecting at both ends, and we’re able to really establish the way that we want to play,” Randle said. “It’s been great.”

(SD-Agencies)

ROGER FEDERER completed a rain-delayed debut match at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over Fed-erico Delbonis of Argentina.

On Saturday, Federer led 6-3, 2-2 when the match was delayed by a heavy drizzle 56 minutes after it began. Federer, who earned his fi fth title at Indian Wells last year, saved a set point in the second-set tiebreaker and advanced to face Filip Krajinovic yesterday.

Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion who lost to Federer in the fi nal of this year’s Australian Open, eased to a 7-5,

6-3 victory over Marton Fucsov-ics. Taro Daniel, a 109th-ranked qualifi er, upset fi ve-time Indian Wells champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-1.

Djokovic was makings his fi rst appearance since being stunned by Hyeon Chung at the Austra-lian Open. Djokovic sprinted out to a 5-2 lead against the 25-year-old from Japan, but his mistakes began to add up and he fi nished with 58 unforced errors. It was the earliest loss for Djokovic at Indian Wells since 2006.

Gael Monfi ls upset No. 15 seed John Isner 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-5.

(SD-Agencies)

JUVENTUS took another step toward an unprecedented sev-enth successive Serie A title after Napoli had a setback Sunday.

Juventus leapfrogged Napoli at the top of the table with a 2-0 win over Udinese to take a 1-point lead. Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli could only draw 0-0 at Inter Milan in the evening match.

The Bianconeri could move four points clear of Napoli on Wednes-day if they beat Atalanta at home in a match, which was resched-uled due to bad weather.

“We’re just thinking of our-selves,” said Lorenzo Insigne, who went close for Napoli on several occasions at San Siro. “So many people, to put pressure on us, are saying that the title is gone, we just have to think about working.

“As long as we’re mathemati-cally in it, we’ll fi ght to win, without ever letting our heads go down. We have to stay calm ... we didn’t win today but we had a good performance and we have to start again from that.”

Napoli, which lost at home to Roma last weekend, almost fell to a second successive defeat as Inter went closest to breaking the deadlock when Milan Skriniar headed a free kick off the right post early in the second half.

The side hasn’t won the Italian league since Diego Maradona led the club to its only two champi-onships in 1987 and 1990.

(SD-Agencies)

Arsenal ends EPL losing streak with 3-0 win

latching onto Mkhitaryan’s through ball.

Watford had the chance to pull a goal back instantly as Ashley Maitland-Niles brought down Pereyra. Deeney, who was extremely vocal with his criti-cism of Arsenal after the sides last met, was denied by Cech

much to the delight of the Emir-ates crowd.

“He (Deeney) scored a pen-alty when we played the fi rst game over there and he kind of surprised me that he shot the other side,” said Cech, who had 10 seasons and 162 clean sheets with Chelsea.

“Sometimes you just go and you have that feeling and today I felt it.”

The victory was fi nally sealed 13 minutes from the end, when Aubameyang set up Mkhitaryan for his fi rst league goal in an Arsenal shirt.

(SD-Agencies)

Lakers put on show for LeBron in win over Cavs Juve goes top after Napoli held by Inter

Federer opens Indian Wells title defense with 2-day win

Roger Federer in action against Federico Delbonis in the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Arsenal’s Petr Cech (C) saves a penalty from Watford’s Troy Deeney during their match at Emirates Stadium in London on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Los Angeles Lakers’ Isaiah Thomas (L) drives the basketball against Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James during their game Sunday. SD-Agencies