London, April 8:

Portsmouth held on to beat Manchester United 2-1 in the Premier League and helped Chelsea move within three points of first place.

John O’Shea scored in the 90th minute and teammate Alan Smith nearly added another in injury time but Portsmouth keeper David James made the tough save. Matthew Taylor gave Ports-mouth the lead in the 30th by knocking in a rebound, and United defender Rio Ferdinand made it 2-0 with an own-goal in the 89th.

Manchester United lead with 78 points, three more than Chelsea, who beat Tottenham 1-0 on Ricardo Carvalho’s 52nd-minute goal.

Liverpool beat Reading 2-1 to secure third place, and Arsenal lost their first league game at Emirates Stadium, falling 1-0 to relegation-threatened West Ham. Liverpool have 60 points, followed by Arsenal with 55, Bolton with 53 and Everton, who beat Fulham 4-1 on Friday, with 50. Also, it was: Blackburn 1, Aston Villa 2; Middlesbrough 4, Watford 1; Sheffield United 1, Newcastle 2; and Wigan 1, Bolton 3.

Italian Serie A

MILAN: AS Roma beat Catania 2-0 in the Serie A to close the gap on league leader Inter Milan. Inter was held to a 0-0 draw at Reggina — only the second team after Udinese to stop the defending champions from scoring in the league this season.

Francesco Tavano scored for Roma in the 37th minute and Mirko Vucinic added the second six minutes from time. Inter lead with 80 points, 18 more than Roma. Lazio are third with 55 points after beating 10-man Messina 1-0 for their eighth straight victory and Palermo are fourth with 48.

Palermo’s poor run continued with a 3-1 loss to Cagliari. Mark Bresciano scored after just three minutes to hand Palermo an early lead but the Sicilian team collapsed after Giuseppe Biava was sent off in the 36th for a foul inside the area. Cagliari captain David Suazo converted the ensuing penalty and added his team’s third goal in the 86th. Simone Pepe got Cagliari’s second in the 82nd.

Also on Saturday, it was: Atalanta 1, Chievo Verona 0; Fiorentina 4, Ascoli 0; Sampdoria 1, Torino 0; and Siena 2, Udinese 2.

Spanish La Liga

MADRID: Real Zaragoza blew the Spanish title race wide open with a 1-0 home win over reigning champions Barcelona on Saturday, the only goal of the game coming from Diego Milito.

Barcelona still lead the La Liga by two points but will lose pole position with nine games remaining if Sevilla beat Racing Santander in their next match. Real Madrid are three points further back in third.