Arsenal and Liverpool emerged victorious from two of the Premier League’s fiercest rivalries with wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United respectively on Sunday.
Arsenal prevailed over big-spending Spurs 1-0 thanks to Olivier Giroud’s third goal in as many matches, while Daniel Sturridge matched him in the scoring stakes as the Reds also won 1-0 on the day the club celebrated the 100th birthday of their renowned former manager Bill Shankly.
Liverpool sit top of the Premier League with nine points from three matches, two ahead of Chelsea.
Photo: AFP
Manchester City, Arsenal, Stoke City and Spurs are on six points, with United two further back on four.
Spurs have spent heavily in the transfer window in anticipation of the world record sale of Wales international Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, while Arsenal have only brought in Yaya Sanogo and Mathieu Flamini on free transfers.
Bale’s transfer to the Spanish club was confirmed shortly after the match.
Spurs started brightly, but Arsenal looked the more cohesive side and were rewarded after 23 minutes when Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott combined to set up Giroud at the near post.
The goal failed to subdue a frantic start as both sides took advantage of gaps in the midfield, with Andros Townsend, Walcott and the impressive Aaron Ramsey all having opportunities.
Both teams pressed in search of further goals as the match progressed, but neither were able to find the crucial touch, with Spurs in particular indebted to goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who made several fine saves.
“I was [relieved] because in the end we did hang on and protected our score, because we could not get the second goal, but overall it was an intense game,” Gunners manager Arsene Wenger told Sky Sports. “Their goalkeeper was their best player, which shows you the chances we had. We had to dig deep to win in the end.”
It was a sweet victory for Arsenal, who have recovered from their shock 3-1 defeat by Aston Villa on the opening day of the season with two successive wins and it could help silence some of the critics hitting out at Wenger’s lack of action in the transfer market.
“We had opportunities in the first half, they also started strong, but I think we came back into the game very positively,” Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas said, also acknowledging the new signings needed time to settle in. “The second half was very strong from us, it was a difficult encounter, but I think we deserved something in the second half, but Arsenal were clinical in front of goal. That they finished with four fullbacks on the pitch at the end shows how much they wanted to hang on to the result.”
At Anfield, Liverpool honored Shankly in the best possible fashion when Daniel Agger got the better of Rio Ferdinand from a corner and Sturridge, celebrating his 24th birthday, reacted sharply to nod the ball home from close range in just the fourth minute.
Champions United, without striker Wayne Rooney after a training-ground incident left him with a bad cut on his forehead, rarely threatened to equalize, despite dominating possession.
David Moyes’ first competitive defeat as United manager continued his poor record at Anfield, where he failed to win in 12 attempts when he was in charge at Everton.
“It is a great win for our belief, last season we drew too many of the big games and we lost both times to Manchester United, but today was another marker for us and since January our form has been very, very good,” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said.
In a frenetic start Liverpool looked the more dangerous side, with Philippe Coutinho continuing his impressive start to life in the Premier League by causing problems down the left, while United struggled to impose any authority in the middle of the park, where Tom Cleverley and Ryan Giggs endured a difficult afternoon.
United stepped up their efforts after the break, but with Agger and Martin Skrtel strong in the Liverpool defense United’s best openings were limited to a ferocious strike by Portuguese substitute Nani, which was well blocked by Simon Mignolet, and a late chance for Robin van Persie, which he sent well wide.
“I thought we played really well,” Moyes said. “We had long periods of the game, but couldn’t score. Apart from the lapse in concentration for their goal, we played well.”
In the other early kickoff, Swansea City picked up their first points of the season with victory over West Bromwich Albion, who lie bottom of the table with a single point and no goals scored.
Ben Davies opened the scoring in the 22nd minute with a classy side-foot volley after being set up by Pablo Hernandez, who sealed all three points in the 83rd minute, capitalizing on good work by fellow Spaniard Michu.
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