SUNDERLAND, England: Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 28th goal of the season as Manchester United closed on the Premier League top four with a routine 3-0 win at relegation-threatened Sunderland on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho’s side extended their unbeaten run to 21 league games at a sun-drenched Stadium of Light, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and substitute Marcus Rashford also on target.
United closed to within four points of fourth-place Manchester City, on whom they retain a game in hand, but will drop back to sixth if Arsenal win at Crystal Palace on Monday.
Sunderland, who had Seb Larsson contentiously sent off in the first half, now lie 10 points from safety at the foot of the table and look destined for the Championship.
Victory set United up nicely for Thursday’s trip to Anderlecht in the quarterfinals of the Europa League, a competition which guarantees a Champions League place to the eventual winners.
Mourinho’s men won with plenty to spare, enjoying 70 percent of possession and playing against 10 men for more than half the game.
Any hope Sunderland had of replying to Ibrahimovic’s 18th league goal of the season on the half hour were all but ended when his former Sweden team-mate Larsson was sent off as the interval approached.
Larsson was shown a straight red card by referee Martin Atkinson for leading with a raised foot in a challenge on Ander Herrera, sparking furious Sunderland protests.
With left-back Luke Shaw enjoying a rare United start as England manager Gareth Southgate looked on from the directors’ box, Ibrahimovic broke the deadlock with a bolt from the blue.
The 35-year-old took a pass from Herrera on the edge of the Sunderland area, easily held off Billy Jones and fired a low shot into Jordan Pickford’s bottom-left corner.
Pickford had already saved well from Jesse Lingard and only a brave block from Bryan Oviedo prevented Marouane Fellaini from stretching the visitors’ lead following Herrera’s inviting cut-back.
It proved to be Jones’s last intervention before the Sunderland right-back was forced off by a hamstring problem.
Mkhitaryan had scored with a stunning ‘scorpion kick’ in the victory over Sunderland at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.
He got his name on the scoresheet again in more prosaic circumstances just 46 seconds after the restart.
From the kick-off, Sunderland failed to touch the ball as the Armenian was afforded time and space to send a low angled drive past Pickford from 15 yards to notch his ninth goal of the season.
Paul Pogba should have made it three, but produced a wayward volley from an Ibrahimovic flick, before the France midfielder aimed a long-range free-kick narrowly wide.
Rashford put a more realistic slant on the final score a minute from the end as Sunderland were stretched to breaking point by a swift counter-attack.
It ended with Rashford swapping passes with Ibrahimovic before finding the bottom-left corner with a confident finish.
Sunderland have lost five of their last six games and failed to score for the seventh consecutive game, a desperate run of over 11 hours.
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Ibrahimovic sparks Man Utd against 10-man Sunderland
Ibrahimovic sparks Man Utd against 10-man Sunderland
Villarreal stay on Atletico’s tail, Valencia snatch vital victory
- Elche started the season superbly but are yet to win in 2026, or away from home across the campaign, and have slumped to 17th, one point above the drop zone
BARCELONA: Villarreal beat Elche 2-1 on Sunday to keep pace with Atletico Madrid in the battle for third in La Liga.
After Atletico beat Real Sociedad on Saturday, Marcelino Garcia Toral’s Yellow Submarine, fourth, pulled level on 54 points.
A little further down Spain’s east coast, Valencia came from behind to beat Alaves 3-2 in a match which could prove crucial in their bid to avoid relegation.
Tajon Buchanan and Santiago Mourino’s first-half goals were reward for a dominant performance by Villarreal, although Elche’s Andre Silva pulled one back late on to make the hosts sweat.
“We relaxed a bit. Until the 70th minute we were dominating the game, then we suffered until the end and that can’t happen,” Mourino told Movistar.
Villarreal had a host of chances in the first half but Elche goalkeeper Matias Dituro made several good saves to keep Nicolas Pepe and Georges Mikautadze at bay.
Elche started the season superbly but are yet to win in 2026, or away from home across the campaign, and have slumped to 17th, one point above the drop zone.
“I think with a bit more time we could have got level. We finished in the way we should have played the whole game,” said Silva.
“After letting in the first goal, the team dropped in morale and we can’t do that.”
Real Betis, fifth, fell further behind in the race for Champions League football with a 2-0 defeat at Getafe.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side now trail Villarreal by 11 points with 11 matches remaining.
Kiko Femenia and Martin Satriano netted for Getafe in a good week for Jose Bordalas’s side, who beat Real Madrid on Monday at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The match was paused for a few minutes in the opening stages because of a fight involving several visiting fans sitting in a home area. La Liga said they would investigate the incident.
Valencia edge thriller
Carlos Corberan’s Valencia snatched three late points at home against Alaves, with Hugo Duro netting a penalty in the 99th minute to secure the win.
Valencia climbed to 12th while Alaves are 16th, just two points clear of the relegation zone.
Alaves, on new coach Quique Sanchez Flores’s debut at the helm, took the lead from the penalty spot in the second minute through Lucas Boye after Guido Rodriguez fouled Toni Martinez.
There were chances at both ends in a scrappy but entertaining battle, as Valencia pulled level right at the start of the second half.
Javi Guerra calmly fired home after Umar Sadiq teed him up in the box to cheer up Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.
Argentine striker Boye nodded Alaves back in front with less than 20 minutes remaining from Denis Suarez’s corner.
However, Eray Comert struck for Valencia before Duro won and scored his penalty to claim victory for the hosts.
Alaves finished the game with nine men after Jon Pacheco and Ander Guevara were dismissed in the aftermath of the penalty decision, the former for fouling Duro and the latter for his complaints.
“The team kept going and fought to the end... what counts is that we gave everything,” Duro told Movistar.
Sevilla and Rayo Vallecano shared a 1-1 draw which left both sides content not to lose and avoid sinking from lower mid-table further toward the bottom three.
On Saturday, La Liga leaders Barcelona restored their four-point gap to Real Madrid at the top of the table with a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s Madrid snatched a last gasp 2-1 win at Celta Vigo on Friday, ahead of Wednesday’s challenging Champions League match against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
