Venables pushed closer to brink

Leeds United arrived at Goodison Park yesterday – their chairman, Peter Ridsdale, surrounded by tightened security – to be greeted by the inevitable protest and derogatory banners following Jonathan Woodgate's departure for Newcastle United. Slogans such as "Lies United, Ridsdale out" and "P-lease L-eave C-lub" were a predictable response to Ridsdale saying that the sale of the centre-back for £9m had been the right action for him to take as a chairman with responsibility to shareholders.

No matter that he also said that as a Leeds United fan he shared the pain of other supporters at having to go against his professed unwillingness to sell the sometime England defender. Terry Venables had believed that earlier assertion, so the sale of Woodgate came as bolt from the blue. It seemed like a resignation issue, but the Leeds manager has learned to consider his decisions for a little longer these days. "I do need time to think this through," he said in his regular Sunday newspaper column. "I've fought every time a player has gone ­ admittedly to no avail ­ but deep down I could also understand why it was necessary. But I can't understand the case for selling Woodgate."

He added: "The chairman said he has handled the sale of Jonathan Woodgate as he thinks it should have been handled. But I feel I was kept in the dark. So if the right way to handle it is to keep me out of it, then I'm not the right man to manage Leeds United."

After the sale of Rio Ferdinand, Lee Bowyer and Robbie Fowler, the departure of Woodgate was a loss too far for many of the club's faithful followers, too, and, yesterday at least, for the Leeds defence. Tomasz Radzinski twice cut them open in Everton's 2-0 win. Painful as the defeat was for Venables, he could at least reflect on the fact that supporter anger at the club's reduced Premiership prospects was directed at the chairman, and he himself received their backing. "It's always helpful when you have the support of the fans," he said, cementing the mutual sympathy society.

Radzinski was quick to expose the impact on Leeds' back line of losing Woodgate. Far too quick. The Canada striker's turn of speed led to Danny Mills bringing him down for a penalty from which David Unsworth opened the scoring 11 minutes after the interval. When the striker surged into space again, the Leeds defence realised that attempts to halt Radzinski's march would be clutching at straws, and a chip over the sprawling goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, wrapped up the points.

Fowler made his Manchester City debut after his on-off-on move from Leeds, but he and the City fans had little cause for celebration. Having noisily welcomed Fowler, they sat back expecting anything but the shock they received. Neil Clement put West Bromwich Albion ahead after 18 minutes, but order seemed to have been restored four minutes later when Phil Gilchrist put through his own goal for City's equaliser. However, Darren Moore gave the visitors the lead again with 20 minutes to go, and even their loss of the striker Jason Roberts to a red card did not stop City suffering a 2-1 defeat.

At what is often called ­ no doubt to the perplexity of Leeds fans ­ the business end of the Premiership, it was business as usual. Arsenal beat Fulham 2-1, leaving it to the last minute to seal their 15th victory in the west London club's last 16 visits with Robert Pires's second goal of the day. As Arsenal sailed along at the top, Newcastle ­ and Woodgate ­ were left irritated and idle by Middlesbrough's pitch problems and slipped back behind Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson's side breezed past Southampton on the South Coast with Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs scoring first-half goals to set up a 2-0 victory that lifted them above Newcastle into second place. Chelsea stayed ahead of Everton on goal difference in fourth place thanks to a 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham.