Defending champion Chelsea stayed perfect in the Premier League, defeating Tottenham 2-0 Saturday for the Blues' fourth straight victory -- all by shutouts -- on goals by Asier del Horno and Damien Duff.
Chelsea was helped when Tottenham's Egyptian striker Ahmed "Mido" Hossam was sent off in the 25th minute for appearing to throw an elbow at Del Horno.
The Spaniard answered 14 minutes later, scoring on a header, his first goal for Chelsea. Duff scored in the 71st minute, finding the net despite miss-hitting the shot.
PHOTO: AP
Also Saturday, it was: Aston Villa 1, Blackburn 0; Fulham 1, Everton 0; Manchester City 2, Portsmouth 1; West Bromwich 2, Birmingham 3; West Ham 1, Bolton 2; and Wigan 1, Sunderland 0.
Today, Middlesbrough faces Charlton and Newcastle hosts Manchester United. Arsenal and Liverpool are off this weekend.
Chelsea leads the league with 12 points, followed by surprising Manchester City with 10. Bolton and Tottenham have seven each, with Sunderland remaining on the bottom without a point from four games.
PHOTO: AFP
"I think the three points went to the best side on the pitch," Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said. "But they are a very good team and they gave us a very difficult game."
Manchester City rallied from 1-0 down with a tying goal by American Claudio Reyna. Andy Cole netted the winner in the 69th minute. City is unbeaten in 12 consecutive Premier League games under new manager Stuart Pearce.
In Fulham's victory, American striker Brian McBride got the winning goal in the 57th.
Czech Republic international Milan Baros scored the winner for Aston Villa in his first game since moving from Liverpool.
Emile Heskey scored two goals to lift Birmingham City to its first victory of the season. Geoff Horsfield scored both West Brom goals.
Kevin Nolan and Ivan Campo helped Bolton to victory at West Ham. Teddy Sheringham scored on a penalty in second-half injury time for the Hammers.
Newly promoted Wigan picked up its first Premier League victory with Jason Roberts scoring on a second-minute penalty.The penalty was called for Gary Breen's challenge on Roberts.
Second-half substitute Ivan Sproule scored a hat trick and Hibernian handed defending champion Rangers a 3-0 loss.
It was Hibernain's first win at Rangers in 10 years.
After beating rival Celtic a week ago and then advancing to the Champions League a few days later, Rangers slumped badly.
Sproule scored in the 67th and 86th, and then completed his hat trick in second-half injury time.
Also Saturday, it was: Aberdeen 3, Falkirk 0; Hearts 2, Motherwell 1; and Kilmarnock 3, Livingston 0.
Hearts leads the Premier League with 15 points, followed by Kilmarnock and Hibs with 10, Rangers with nine and Celtic with seven. Celtic plays at Dunfermline on Sunday, while Inverness plays at Dundee United.
Surprising leaders Hearts kept their record perfect with the 2-1 victory over Motherwell behind goals from midfielder Rudolf Skacel and striker Edgaras Jankauskas.
Manager George Burley, who took over the Edinburgh team this season, said he will ask major shareholder Valdimir Romanov for money to buy a few more players. Burley wants to build a side to challenge Rangers and Celtic.
"The bottom line is we want to compete against the Old Firm," Burley said. "We said that six weeks ago and people laughed at us. But, if we can add two or three new faces, who knows what we can do."
Jamie Smith scored two goals in Aberdeen's 3-0 victory over Falkirk. Chris Clark added the other. Colin Nish registered a hat trick for Kilmarnock in a 3-0 victory against Livingston.
Goalkeeper Roberto Bonano thwarted four first-half shots in quick succession and then denied Ronaldinho three times to give newly promoted Alaves a 0-0 draw with defending champion FC Barcelona in the opening match of the season.
Barcelona dominated the game at Mendizorroza stadium but couldn't solve Bonano, who played for the Catalan club from 2001-2004.
"I can't fault my players. They worked as hard as always. We created a lot of chances but we missed out on a victory because of the woodwork and goalkeeper Bonano, who did really well," Rijkaard was quoted as saying by news agency Efe.
In later games, Athletic Bilbao's Fran Yeste scored the season's first goal in his team's 3-0 victory over Real Sociedad, while a Pablo Aimar strike gave Valencia a 1-0 win over Real Betis.
Newly acquired Stefano Fiore and Luca Toni scored first-half goals and Fiorentina beat Sampdoria 2-1 in the opening round of the Serie A season.
Striker Cristiano Lucarelli scored one goal and set up another to help Livorno defeat Lecce 2-1 in the only other match of the day.
Defending Serie A champion Juventus and other title favorites, including AC Milan and Inter Milan, play today.
Michael Ballack scored one goal and set up another Saturday to help Bayern Munich beat Hertha Berlin 3-0 and open a two-point lead atop the standings.
Mehmet Scholl and Roy Makaay added late goals to complete the rout that gave Bayern a perfect 3-0 start and its 500th home victory in the Bundesliga.
Bayern's challengers all drew, leaving the defending champion as the only team with a perfect record.
Werder Bremen drew 1-1 against visiting Stuttgart, Hamburger SV came from behind to draw 1-1 against visiting Hannover and Schalke rallied in Moenchengladbach for another 1-1 stalemate.
Promoted Cologne, which came into the third round with two wins, suffered its first loss by going down 3-2 to visiting Kaiserslautern in a dramatic match.
Bayern now has nine points, followed by Bremen, Hamburg and Schalke with seven each.
Kaiserslautern moved past Cologne and into fifth place with six points.
In other games, Wolfsburg beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 and Eintracht Frankfurt scored its first victory of the season by beating Nuremberg 1-0.
Nice handed Paris Saint-Germain its first loss of the season, winning 2-1 in the capital.
The loss left PSG with 10 points from five games, same as Lyon, which faced Auxerre today in its firth-round match. In today's other game, Monaco will host Lens.
Elie Kroupi scored three goals and newcomer Nancy earned its first points of the season with a 6-0 victory over Rennes, leaving Marseille in last place with two points.
Marseille was held to a 1-1 draw at home by Ajaccio and remained winless.
In other games, it was: Le Mans 1, Troyes 0; Nantes 0, Metz 0; Saint-Etienne 0, Sochaux 0; and Strasbourg 0, Bordeaux 0
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