The more than ?100 million (US$160 million) Russian magnate Roman Abramovich has spent building Chelsea came up a bit short on Saturday.
The Blues, after two opening season victories, were held 2-2 on Saturday at home against Blackburn, undone by two goals from Andy Cole. Adrian Mutu scored for Chelsea and, after Cole scored his second, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink got the equalized in the 63rd.
Newly signed Hernan Crespo came on as a second-half substitute. Just hours before, Chelsea agreed to personal terms with Real Madrid's rebel midfielder Claude Makelele.
It was a great afternoon for Liverpool in the 169th Merseyside Derby, but another abysmal display by Newcastle
Michael Owen's two goals -- 39th and 52nd -- helped Liverpool defeat Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park, taking some of the pressure off Reds' beleaguered manager Gerard Houllier.
Australian Harry Kewell got the clincher in the 80th, giving the Reds their first victory in four games this season to go with two draws. It was Liverpool's fourth straight victory at Goodison.
Houllier seemed relieved after the victory.
"We knew we were working in a very difficult atmosphere today, but we kept our heads up and we wanted to play football," Houllier said, crediting Owen and Kewell.
"He [Kewell] is a star player, but a star player must also be a team player. His partnership with Michael is going to come."
Owen said Liverpool had been close to breaking through, but finally got a break on Saturday.
"The only thing we've been lacking is the final ball, a cross or through-ball and Harry's great through-ball started it off today and it continued from there," Owen said. "Now we go on international duty so it's nice to go away with that pressure off your shoulders."
Just days after being ousted from the Champions League by Partizan Belgrade, Newcastle fell 1-0 to Birmingham before a disgruntled sellout at St. James' Park. David Dunn got the winner in the 61st to ruin the day for Magpies coach Bobby Robson.
It was Newcastle's third straight home loss.
Arsenal and Manchester United held the top two places -- a perfect nine points each -- without playing. Arsenal, which leads the defending champions on goal difference, played Sunday at Manchester City. Man United played Sunday at Southampton.
Newly promoted Portsmouth stayed undefeated with a 0-0 draw at Wolves. It was Wolves' first point of the season and Portsmouth improved to eight points just behind the two leaders.
Man City, Chelsea and Birmingham City have seven points.
Colombian Juan Pablo Angel scored two as Aston Villa defeated Leicester 3-1.
Leeds picked up its first victory -- 3-2 at Middlesbrough -- as Mark Viduka got the winner in the 89th. The loss left Middlesbrough with only one point in four games.
Former England manager Glenn Hoddle is falling under increasing pressure at Spurs after a 3-0 home loss to London rival Fulham.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier