Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud help Arsenal beat Newcastle to tighten grip on fourth place in Premier League

Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil celebrates scoring a goal against Newcastle in the 3-0 win (Picture:AFP/Getty Images)

Arsenal moved a step closer to securing Champions League football for a 17th consecutive season with victory at the Emirates Stadium.
The win helped the Gunners open up a four-point gap over top-four rivals Everton, with just two games of the campaign remaining.
The result meant more misery for Newcastle, who slumped to a sixth straight Premier League defeat for the first time since 1987, despite having boss Alan Pardew back on the touchline after his seven-match ban.
The game had offered little by way of action until the unlikely boot of Laurent Koscielny broke the deadlock from a set piece on 26 minutes when the French defender managed to get a toe on the end of Santi Cazorla’s free-kick for his second league goal of the season.
Despite the best efforts of Magpies keeper Tim Krul, the hosts doubled their lead just before the break. The Newcastle stopper twice denied Olivier Giroud before the ball fell kindly for Mesut Ozil, who swept the ball home from close range.

Theo Walcott may miss start of next season through injury

Theo Walcott is out of the World Cup (Picture: Reuters)

Theo Walcott may miss the start of next season as he battles to recover from rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament against Tottenham in January.
The England international was stretchered off during the FA Cup encounter, ruling him out of this summer’s World Cup.
But Walcott has today revealed he may not even be fit for the start of next season, insisting he is in no rush to return to action.
‘It’s nearly been four months now and my recovery has gone on track so far,’ he said.

Steven Gerrard slip mercilessly mocked by internet

Pulling his hair out: Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard (Picture: PA)

It’s no fun being Steven Gerrard this morning…
Less than 24 hours after his slip against Chelsea surrendered Liverpool’s title fate to Manchester City, the internet is awash with meme’s and viral videos that will leave the Reds captain feeling sick to his stomach.
New banana boots, Fergie teasing the Premier League title away with a fishing rod and bogus heat maps are just some of the pictures doing the rounds that mock Gerrard’s heartbreaking moment which allowed Demba Ba to run clean through on goal and score the goal which would give Chelsea the lead they needed to hang on to for a crucial win.

Never mind being out of the race, now Arsenal or Manchester United may be forced to hand over one of their Premier League trophies to Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester City

What’s the story?
Arsenal, Manchester United or Blackburn Rovers could be forced to lend one of their precious Premier League trophies to Liverpool, Chelsea or Manchester City should the title race go down to the last day, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Why?
The Premier League only has two trophies at its disposal – one in its London headquarters and one with the current champions, United.
Should Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City all still be in contention on May 11, the Premier League will be short one trophy – as they’ll need a replica at each ground to present to the eventual winner – meaning they may have to borrow a replica from a previous title winner who aren’t involved in the race

Tori Amos: the riot grrl fighting for the fairer sex

Tori Amos confronts personal issues such as ageism in her new album (Picture: supplied)

‘I come from a long line of warriors,’ says Tori Amos. ‘My great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee who survived the Trail Of Tears in 1830, when thousands of Native Americans were being ethnically cleansed from the southern states. She was one of the few hundred people who survived in the Smoky Mountains for nine months. These are the gals I respect. Wilma Mankiller, the leader of the Cherokee nation who educated herself from nothing and fought for Native rights – now there’s a woman. What a role model.’
For years, people have got Amos all wrong. Some people think she’s some middle-of-the-road pixie, a real-life Phoebe from Friends, trilling hippy-dippy rhymes about fairy tales and cornflake girls. But, over a quarter of a century and 14 albums, she’s been one of pop’s weirdest and most unpredictable artists. She’s the riot grrrl in concert pianist garb, whose confessional songs tackle rape and religion, feminism and power, art and mythology. Even the sonic background – the florid piano accompaniment, the unorthodox chord changes and symphonic curlicues – has always been seriously weird.
‘I don’t see the piano as a polite, passive instrument,’ she says. ‘You can take what Prince, Jimi Hendrix and Robert Plant were doing and contain that energy on a piano. It’s about maintaining that 220 voltage, of having the chops to be able to contain and focus it on the keys, of using intimacy and power. When I first started, everyone was telling me that the piano had had its time. The label initially rejected my debut album, Little Earthquakes. They said I had to take all the pianos off and replace them with guitars. Screw that. I can be as heavy as any rock guitarist!’

Fly-killing pensioner, 80, hailed a beacon of hope for swatting insects seven days a week

Ruan Tang, 80, swats flies all day (Picture: CEN)

This 80-year-old woman has been held up as a beacon of hope for society after it emerged she swats flies all day.
Ruan Tang has been killing the insects in the Changmingsixiang Community in Eastern China’s Hangzhou City for 14 years.
Despite her age, she reportedly works eight hours a day, seven days a week.
‘I had retired and was looking around for something to do to help the community and prove useful, and I noticed how much flies were troubling people in the summer,’ she said.
‘I decided that killing flies was the best way for me to be useful – and I’ve been doing it now every day since.’
Ruan is a fly killing machine and says she can swat around 1,000 of them each day.
The pensioner has been praised by the Chinese media, which describe the insects as an ‘enemy of the people, noisy, disease spreading and revolting

World’s fattest woman plans to walk up aisle with toyboy lover

56.4st Charity Pierce, 38, has found love with a toyboy almost half her age (Picture: Barcroft)

The world’s fattest woman is determined to walk up the aisle to marry her toyboy lover despite weighing twice as much as him.
Housebound Charity Pierce, who weighs in at 56.4st, needs to lose 20st before her wedding so she can have a life-saving gastric bypass operation.
The 38-year-old from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has already reduced her calorie intake from 10,000 to just 1,200 per day in the hope she can enjoy her first dance with fiancé Tony Saur, 22.
Charity said: ‘I’m determined not to have to get married at home – I want to be able to walk up the aisle.
‘We both love country music so I plan to wear a wedding dress, cowboy boots and cowgirl hat and Tony will be in jeans and cowboy boots.’
Doctors have warned Charity, who has been housebound since 2001, that without significant weight loss she could die.