Chelsea’s ominously impressive start to the defense of their Premier League crown continued on Saturday with another six-goal thrashing of hopelessly outclassed opponents.
After beating West Brom 6-0 in their season opener last weekend, Carlo Ancelotti’s side inflicted an identical scoreline on Wigan at the DW Stadium.
Arsenal were also in free-scoring form with Theo Walcott claiming a hat-trick in a 6-0 thrashing of top flight newcomers Blackpool, while Tottenham claimed their first win of the season with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Stoke.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Chelsea’s win at Wigan had French foundations with Florent Malouda opening the scoring in the first half before a Nicolas Anelka double killed the contest in the space of four minutes shortly after the restart.
Salomon Kalou then claimed two late goals — both made by man-of-the-match Didier Drogba — before fellow substitute Yossi Benayoun wrapped things up in the 90th minute.
After the euphoria of their own 4-0 opening day win over Wigan, Ian Holloway’s Blackpool endured a reality check at the Emirates after being reduced to 10 men midway through the first half.
By then, Walcott had already given Arsenal the lead and Andrey Arshavin made it two with a 32nd-minute penalty after Ian Evatt was ordered off for bringing down Marouane Chamakh with a challenge from behind.
Walcott claimed his second six minutes from the break then completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark, after a strike by Abou Diaby, and Chamakh rounded things off with his first Arsenal goal, seven minutes from time.
“I’m relieved it wasn’t 10 or 12,” Holloway said.
Tottenham had to survive intense late pressure to take the points at Stoke, who felt the ball had crossed the line for what would have been a late equalizer.
Gareth Bale’s opener for the visitors, a fortunate rebound off his face that he knew little about, was canceled out by Stoke’s Jamaica striker Ricardo Fuller on 25 minutes.
However, Wales international Bale restored Spurs’ advantage five minutes later with a stunning left-foot volley that ultimately was enough for Harry Redknapp’s men, despite the controversy at the death.
“We had three or four players celebrating and they don’t do that unless they think it was a goal,” rueful Stoke boss Tony Pulis said.
A scrappy encounter between Birmingham and Blackburn burst into life after the interval in the wake of a stunning penalty save by Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster, who tipped Morten Gamst Pedersen’s spotkick on to the woodwork.
Steven Nzonzi headed Blackburn into the lead shortly afterwards but Birmingham bounced back to win 2-1 thanks to a Craig Gardner double.
Tim Cahill opened Everton’s goal account for the season and gave them a half-time lead over Wolves at Goodison Park.
However, the Australian’s left-footed effort was canceled out by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who converted a Kevin Doyle cross with quarter of an hour left.
Nigerian forward Peter Odemwingie marked his debut for West Brom with the only goal in a 1-0 win over Sunderland. The striker, signed this week from Lokomotiv Moscow, was teed up by Chris Brunt and, with nine minutes left to play, took his chance with a cool finish.
West Ham remain pointless after squandering a chance to take the lead against Bolton when Carlton Cole had a tame first-half penalty saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen.
Avram Grant’s side were made to pay for that miss as a Matthew Upson own-goal and a header from Swedish striker Johan Elmander gave the visitors control of the match.
A Mark Noble penalty put the Hammers back in it but Elmander made sure of the points for Bolton with his second of the afternoon, six minutes from time.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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