Football: Toon tumble

ALAN SHEARER and his Newcastle colleagues were left distraught last night after a 2-1 home defeat by Chelsea knocked them off the top of the Premiership.

But Middlesbrough erupted in fury at Highbury over the victory for Arsenal that sent them to the summit in time for the New Year.

Boro striker Noel Whelan (right) launched an astonishing attack on referee Andy D'Urso over the Arsenal equaliser that set up their 2-1 victory.

"The referee must have been p*ssed," raged Whelan over the incident, when D'Urso overlooked what appeared to be a a blatant foul by Thierry Henry on Paul Ince in the build-up to Robert Pires's goal.

"It's a massive mistake by the referee," added Whelan. "It looked like the game was too big for him.

"The crowd put him under a lot of pressure and anyone who watches this game on TV will see what a bad decision it was. That one decision changed the course of the game." Boro boss Steve McClaren said: "I've seen the replay of Arsenal's opening goal a few times and the reaction of 40,000 people in the stadium, 21 other players and the two sets of benches tells you everything you need to know. They stopped and expected a foul to be given."

At St James' Park, Newcastle boss Bobby Robson's hopes of a sixth successive Premiership win were dashed by two goals from Eidur Gudjohnsen. Shearer replied for Newcastle, who have not beaten Chelsea in their last 10 meetings.

And Peter Reid was stunned as Sunderland endured an even worse fate, slaughtered 5-0 at lowly Ipswich.

Arsenal are now 15-8 joint favourites for the title with Manchester United, who visit Fulham today.

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