Manchester United's (left to right) Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo celebrate victory against Liverpool at the final whistle yesterday. - Reuters

LONDON, (Reuters):

MANCHESTER UNITED moved closer to the Premier League title with a dramatic 1-0 win at Liverpool yesterday that left them nine points clear of Chelsea.

The champions ground out a 2-0 victory at Portsmouth, with Didier Drogba scoring in the 33rd minute and Chelsea's other Ivory Coast striker, Salomon Kalou, coming off the bench to make surein the 82nd.

United substitute John O'Shea fired a stoppage time winner to move them on to 72 points with nine games left to play, while Chelsea are second on 63 with a game in hand.

Liverpool are third on 53 points, but Arsenal closed to within a point with two games in hand after they finished a miserable week with a morale-boosting 2-1 win over Reading.

The northeast derby finished 0-0 between Newcastle United and Middlesbrough, Wigan Athletic's revival continued with a 1-0 win at Manchester City and Watford let slip a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Charlton Athletic in a relegation dogfight.

Manchester United had only 10 men when they scored after midfielder Paul Scholes was shown a straight red card four minutes from time for raising his hands at Xabi Alonso.

Scholes will miss three domestic matches, starting with next yesterday's FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough.

A massive result

"Today's a massive result for us," manager Alex Ferguson said, pointing out that United had also scored their winner in the final two minutes last Saturday at Fulham.

"You need that bit of luck to win a championship, there's no question about that, and I think we've got it in the last two weeks," he said.

The United manager said England striker Wayne Rooney, who made way for O'Shea in the 74th minute, would be assessed today after suffering a knee injury.

Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez was clearly frustrated by the outcome.

"It's unbelievable how we lost this match because we controlled the game and deserved to win it," Benitez said.

"We controlled the attacking side of the game and had many corners and free kicks, but in football you some times have luck and some times have bad luck."

Chelsea, who will need to make the most of a home game with Ferguson's men scheduled for April 15, kept the title race alive with their win at Fratton Park.