Chelsea maintained their superb start to the season with a 2-0 win over Stoke City on Saturday that kept the Premier League champions on top of the table, but Arsenal and Manchester United also won and moved onto Chelsea’s shoulders in second and third place respectively.
Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea side have been in fine form in the opening weeks, romping to successive 6-0 wins over West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic, and Stoke were unable to halt their momentum at Stamford Bridge.
Florent Malouda struck in the first half and Didier Drogba converted a late penalty to extend Chelsea’s 100 percent start.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Frank Lampard wasted a chance to give Chelsea an early lead when his penalty was saved by Thomas Sorensen after Ryan Shawcross fouled Malouda.
Lampard’s miss didn’t hinder Chelsea for long as France winger Malouda opened the scoring in the 32nd minute with a fine strike from John Terry’s pass.
Ivory Coast striker Drogba drove home a 77th-minute spot-kick after Sorensen fouled Nicolas Anelka.
“It wasn’t our best performance, but it was an important result,” Ancelotti said. “I am happy because we won, we didn’t concede a goal, we kept a clean sheet, we maintained our position at the top of the table.”
Manchester United moved to within two points of Chelsea after Wayne Rooney’s first goal since March set up a 3-0 win over struggling West Ham United at Old Trafford.
Rooney had gone 13 matches without scoring since netting against Bayern Munich last season, but the England striker put United ahead in the 33rd minute.
Ryan Giggs was fouled by Jonathan Spector in the penalty area and Rooney sent Robert Green the wrong way from the spot.
United had squandered the lead twice in their draw at Fulham last weekend, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s team went further ahead this time in the 50th minute when Portugal winger Nani collected Rooney’s pass and lashed his shot past Green.
Dimitar Berbatov condemned West Ham to a third successive defeat when he volleyed home Nani’s cross in the 69th minute.
Ferguson saluted Rooney’s display and said: “The performance was the thing that stood out for me. He’s not had a lot of football lately with a virus that has meant he has not trained, but he looked much more like himself.”
Tottenham Hotspur crashed back down to earth after their European exploits as Hugo Rodallega gave Wigan a shock 1-0 win at White Hart Lane.
Harry Redknapp’s team had qualified for the main draw of Europe’s elite competition for the first time in nearly 50 years thanks to their midweek win over Young Boys, but they seemed to be suffering a hangover from that result when Rodallega fired home a deflected effort from Hendry Thomas’ pass in the 80th minute to seal the points.
It was Wigan’s first goal of the season after two successive heavy defeats and went some way to avenging last season’s 9-1 defeat in the corresponding fixture.
Earlier, Andrei Arshavin’s winner gave Arsenal a 2-1 victory at Blackburn Rovers.
“If you have ambitions in the league you want to win at Blackburn,” Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said. “If you don’t win then your ambition will not be respected by other teams, so it was an important test for us.”
Andy Carroll underlined his growing reputation with Newcastle United’s equalizer in their 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Chris Hughton’s Newcastle had scored six against Aston Villa last weekend, but they fell behind at Molineux in the 43rd minute when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake converted Jelle van Damme’s pass.
England under-21 striker Carroll, the hat-trick star of that Villa demolition, netted Newcastle’s equalizer in the 62nd minute with a powerful header from Joey Barton’s free-kick.
Fulham rescued a 2-2 draw against Blackpool as Dickson Etuhu’s late equalizer denied the hosts in their first top-flight game at Bloomfield Road for 39 years.
Meanwhile, Chelsea pair Lampard and Terry will both miss England’s Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland next month after being ruled out by their club because of injury.
Ancelotti revealed after the Blues’ defeat of Stoke that Lampard will undergo a hernia operation this week and the London side later released a statement saying Terry had glute and hamstring problems.
“John [Terry] has spoken personally to the England management team, and Chelsea and England medical staff have also been in touch,” the Chelsea statement said. “All are agreed that John’s injuries, that he has carried since pre-season, would benefit from a period of rest and rehabilitation.”
Adding to England coach Fabio Capello’s selection headache, strikers Peter Crouch and Bobby Zamora both sustained injuries in action for their clubs on Saturday that make them doubtful for the qualifying matches.
Crouch suffered a suspected broken rib for Spurs against Wigan, while Fulham’s Zamora left the pitch early after picking up a knock against Blackpool.
Also on Saturday, Portugal midfielder Raul Meireles left Porto after signing a four-year deal with Liverpool.
The Premier League club said on their Web site they had paid 14 million euros (US$18 million) for the 27-year-old.
Meireles, who started all his country’s matches at the World Cup in June, is known for his dynamism and will help fill the gap left by the departure of Javier Mascherano to Barcelona.
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