Soccer
Victorious Arsenal leave Reading struggling for survival
By DPA
Apr 19, 2008, 14:28 GMT

London - Arsenal lifted their spirits and plunged Reading deeper into the relegation mire with a comfortable 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium in Saturday's early English Premier League kick-off.

Two first half goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Gilberto Silva gave the home side only their second league win in nine matches and eased memories of their recent troubles. They remain in third place on 74 points.

By contrast Reading stay in sixteenth place on 32 points and could drop into the relegation zone this weekend should both Bolton and Birmingham pick up wins.

Arsenal found it hard in the early stages of the match to find a way through Reading, who sat deep and marked their opponents extremely tightly.

But the breakthrough came on the half hour mark as Emmanuel Adebayor scored his 27th goal of the season as he controlled Kolo Toure's cross from the right superbly and finished coolly past Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.

The second goal followed just eight minutes later as Gilberto Silva grabbed his first goal of the season with a speculative shot from 20 yards which took a fortunate deflection off Andre Bikey.

Throughout the second half Reading posed no attacking threat to the home side. Both Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott struck the woodwork but Arsenal were unable to get the further goals that their performance deserved.

Elsewhere in the relegation battle, Fulham take on Liverpool this afternoon and embattled Bolton travel to Middlesbrough. At the other end of the table, Manchester Utd have an opportunity to move closer to the title if they can beat Blackburn in the day's evening kick-off.