Monaco reasserted their grip on second place in Ligue 1 with a 2-0 victory over Bastia on Tuesday (Feb 2), while 10-man Marseille beat Montpellier 1-0 to stretch their unbeaten run to 11 matches.

Former Monaco defender Francois Modesto gifted the hosts the opening goal as he inadvertently turned a corner into his own net 10 minutes before half-time at the Stade Louis II.

Bernando Silva’s deflected strike on 73 minutes wrong-footed Bastia goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca as Monaco registered a third win in four attempts to move five points clear of third-place Angers.

Brazilian striker Vagner Love made his first start for Monaco following his January move from Corinthians, completing 75 minutes before he was replaced by Argentine Guido Carrillo.

“The team played well, we controlled our opponents, created a handful of good chances and scored twice. We did lots of good things,” said Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim, who was pleased with his side’s response after a chastening 3-0 defeat at Angers on Saturday.

Marseille have relied on their superb away form in their bid to challenge for a Champions League place, and it was no different at the Stade de la Mosson.

The visitors were without leading scorer Michy Batshuayi through suspension, while Scotland international Steven Fletcher was not registered in time following his surprise arrival from Sunderland.

However, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou has enjoyed a fine debut season at OM after his summer switch from Nantes and the 20-year-old delivered the game’s only goal on 68 minutes with a tidy finish past Laurent Pionnier.

Nkoudou’s fifth goal of the season was enough to give Michel’s side a sixth away win in eight outings, although the visitors were forced to see out the final 20 minutes a man down as Florian Thauvin was sent off for a needless lunging tackle on Vitorino Hilton.

Michel sprung to the defence of Thauvin, who only rejoined Marseille on loan from Newcastle on Sunday, saying the decision to brandish a red card was somewhat harsh.

“He wanted to do well so badly. He apologised to his team-mates, but a yellow card would perhaps have been a more fair punishment for the incident,” said the Spaniard.

On Wednesday, runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain can break Nantes’ 20-year-old record unbeaten run in Ligue 1.

Laurent Blanc’s side stretched their streak without a loss to 32 matches with Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Saint-Etienne and can claim the top-flight record outright if they avoid defeat at home to Lorient.

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Chelsea will tackle fellow Premier League heavyweights Manchester City in the stand-out tie of the FA Cup fifth round, the draw for which was made on Sunday (Jan 31).

Chelsea booked their place in the last 16 with a 5-1 win at Milton Keynes Dons and were immediately dealt a home game against City, who won 4-0 at Aston Villa on Saturday.

Third-tier Shrewsbury Town, who shocked Championship side Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in round four, were rewarded with a glamour tie at home to Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Arsenal, seeking a third consecutive FA Cup success, were handed a home tie against second-tier Hull City, who they defeated in the 2014 final.

Tottenham Hotspur will host London rivals Crystal Palace, while another all-Premier League tie sees Everton, 3-0 winners at fourth-tier Carlisle United on Sunday, visit Bournemouth.

FA Cup fifth round draw (ties to be played on Feb 20-21):

Chelsea vs Manchester City

Reading vs West Bromwich Albion or Peterborough Utd

Watford vs Leeds Utd

Shrewsbury Town vs Manchester Utd

Blackburn Rovers vs Liverpool or West Ham Utd

Tottenham Hotspur vs Crystal Palace

Arsenal vs Hull City

Bournemouth vs Everton

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AFP Sport lists the 10 biggest incoming Premier League transfers of the January transfer window after the deadline passed on Monday (Feb 1) (* denotes fee approximate and as reported by British media):

Giannelli Imbula

– Porto (POR) to Stoke City; £18.3 million (US$26.4 million)

Upwardly mobile Stoke set a new club transfer record for the second window running, having previously broken new ground in August when Xherdan Shaqiri joined from Inter Milan in a £12 million deal. Holding midfielder Imbula, 23, arrived from Porto after failing to settle following a close-season move from Marseille. Stoke manager Mark Hughes said: “We’ve signed a very, very good young player, who’s still got a lot of potential.”

Oumar Niasse

– Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS) to Everton; £13.5 million

Niasse, a 25-year-old Senegal international, arrived at Goodison Park on a four-and-a-half-year contract to provide competition for Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku. He was the Russian Premier League’s Player of the Year in 2015 and scored 13 goals in 23 appearances for Lokomotiv this season.

Jonjo Shelvey

– Swansea City to Newcastle United; £12 million*

After falling out of favour at the Liberty Stadium, 23-year-old former Liverpool midfielder Shelvey swapped one relegation fight for another by pitching up at St James’ Park. The England midfielder made an immediate impact, playing a role in both goals as Newcastle beat West Ham United 2-1 on his debut.

Andros Townsend

– Tottenham Hotspur to Newcastle United; £12 million*

Another England international seeking to force his way into national coach Roy Hodgson’s plans for Euro 2016. Townsend’s final few months at White Hart Lane proved forgettable, with manager Mauricio Pochettino freezing him out after a row with a fitness coach, but Newcastle gave the 24-year-old winger a chance to get his career back on track in the north-east.

Benik Afobe

– Wolverhampton Wanderers to Bournemouth; £10 million*

A prolific goal-scorer in England’s lower leagues, Afobe scored 32 goals last season for first Milton Keynes Dons and then Wolves. The former Arsenal youth-team player was signed to bolster a Bournemouth attacking department that has lost both Callum Wilson and Max Gradel to long-term knee injuries

Wahbi Khazri

– Bordeaux (FRA) to Sunderland; £9 million*

Tunisia playmaker Khazri was one of five new players to join struggling Sunderland, who are bidding to haul themselves out of the relegation zone. “Wahbi is a quick, dynamic attacking player,” said Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce. “He has many attributes, not least his delivery from wide areas and set-pieces and of course his ability to score goals.”

Steven Naismith

– Everton to Norwich City; £8.5 million*

Scotland international Naismith scored a hat-trick for Everton in a 3-1 victory over Chelsea in September, but elected to leave Goodison Park after making only 13 appearances this season. He found the net in his first game in a yellow shirt, drilling home a low shot in a madcap 5-4 home defeat by Liverpool.

Alberto Paloschi

– Chievo (ITA) to Swansea City; £8 million*

Another team seeking an attacking spark in the hope of avoiding relegation, Swansea boosted their options up front by signing 26-year-old Italian striker Paloschi. The move reunited Paloschi with newly appointed Swansea head coach Francesco Guidolin, for whom he played at Parma between 2008 and 2010.

Mohamed Elneny

– Basel (SUI) to Arsenal; £5 million*

Arsenal failed to sign a single outfield player during the close-season transfer window, but injuries to key midfielders promoted manager Arsene Wenger to sanction a move for Egyptian international Elneny. The industrious 23-year-old player had been with Basel since 2013, helping the club to three successive Swiss Super League titles in that time.

Alexandre Pato

– Corinthians (BRA) to Chelsea; loan

Once the great hope of Brazilian football, Pato returned to Europe after kickstarting an injury-plagued career in his homeland. The 26-year-old former AC Milan striker, signed to ease the burden on Diego Costa, described the move as “a dream”.

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Second-half goals by Daley Blind and Juan Mata brought relief for manager Louis van Gaal as Manchester United overcame second-tier Derby County 3-1 in the FA Cup on Friday (Jan 29).

Van Gaal had admitted prior to the fourth-round tie that defeat at the iPro Stadium could cost him his job, having seen his side booed off following last weekend’s abject 1-0 loss to Southampton at Old Trafford.

But after Wayne Rooney’s superb opener had been cancelled out by George Thorne, Blind and Mata struck in clinical fashion to take United into round five and ease some of the pressure on the embattled Van Gaal.

“We gave their goal away, but at half-time I said that it was a good performance, keep it up and we will win. And we did,” said Van Gaal. “The Premier League is very important, but the FA Cup is the greatest cup in England with a long and important history. We haven’t won it for a long time so we dream of it.”

United’s dream of a first FA Cup win since 2004 remains alive and they will return to Premier League matters, at home to Stoke City on Tuesday, with confidence at least partly restored.

Derby, meanwhile, must wait for their next opportunity to end a wait for an FA Cup victory over United that stretches back to February 1897.

“I don’t think we were unlucky. Manchester United deserved to win the game,” conceded Derby manager Paul Clement. “For a team that’s supposed to be in disarray and lacking confidence, they played well.”

A defensive injury glut meant that there was an unfamiliar look to the visitors’ starting XI, with Guillermo Varela and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, 18, at full-back, but the sharpness of United’s passing in the early stages belied their recent struggles.

STRIKER-LIKE TIMING

It took them less than three minutes to cut Derby open, the impressive Anthony Martial side-footing over from Rooney’s lay-off, and in the 16th minute a similar combination yielded the opening goal.

On United’s left, Martial’s pass into the box was gathered by Rooney, who moved the ball inside onto his right foot and shaped a sublime shot around his one-time England team-mate Scott Carson and into the top-right corner.

The United captain had been marginally offside when the ball was played to him, but the goal stood, giving Rooney his sixth goal in six games.

Derby, currently fifth in the Championship, had barely laid a glove on United, David de Gea comfortably fielding a 20-yard shot from right-back Cyrus Christie and a downward header by Nick Blackman, but against the run of play they equalised in the 37th minute.

Chris Martin hoisted a clever pass into the box from the right and Thorne, untracked by United’s midfielders, strode through to stab a left-foot shot inside the left-hand post.

The boisterous travelling fans fell silent and Thomas Ince threatened to add to their disquiet shortly before half-time when he cut in from the right and flashed a shot wide.

Mocking chants of “Sacked in the morning!” echoed around the ground and there was another scare for Van Gaal early in the second half when Blackman drilled over.

But United gathered their senses, began to probe – Mata heading wide from point-blank range, Marouane Fellaini heading straight at Carson – and in the 65th minute they drew level.

Having set an attack in motion, Blind continued his run from centre-back and arrived with striker-like timing to turn Jesse Lingard’s low right-wing cross past Carson with a neat first-time shot from 10 yards.

“Daley Blind’s goal? You have to sniff it and he sniffed it,” said Van Gaal. “It was a great goal.”

Michael Carrick made his return from a four-game lay-off as a 73rd-minute replacement for Morgan Schneiderlin and United made the game safe 10 minutes later when Mata tucked away Martial’s cut-back.

Source AFP