The Hindu : Sport : Chelsea hits back, downs Reading

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Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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Sport

Chelsea hits back, downs Reading

Portsmouth holds Manchester United to a draw

LONDON: Chelsea hit back in the second half to beat Reading 2-1 on Wednesday, but champion Manchester United stumbled to its second successive draw when it was held 1-1 at Portsmouth and had Cristiano Ronaldo sent off.

Manchester City, with its first home goal since January 1, beat Derby County 1-0, Fulham beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1, Wigan Athletic beat Middlesbrough 1-0 and Sunderland snatched a last-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 at Birmingham City.

Reading earned a point from a goalless draw at Old Trafford last Sunday, but on home soil had a real go at Chelsea. Reading took the lead on the half hour through Andre Bikey after goalkeeper Petr Cech had failed to gather a high ball but paid a heavy price for missing further chances.

Jose Mourinho made two changes at halftime and it paid immediate dividends as Chelsea equalised through Frank Lampard in the 47th minute and took the lead with a nicely-curled effort by Didier Drogba two minutes later.

Tevez’s debut

Carlos Tevez marked his Manchester United debut by setting up Paul Scholes for the opening goal at Fratton Park after 15 minutes. United produced some lovely football, but Portsmouth, who had beaten it in three of their four previous Premier League meetings at Fratton Park, stunned the champion with a 53rd-minute equaliser via a Benjani Mwaruwari header.

Portsmouth’s Sulley Muntari was sent off in the 83rd minute for a second booking and Ronaldo followed him two minutes later after an off-the-ball flare-up. The winger will miss three games, including Sunday’s derby against a resurgent Manchester City.

Sven-Goran Eriksson’s City followed up its impressive opening 2-0 success at West Ham United by beating a promoted Derby with a well-taken goal by the 19-year-old Michael Johnson. That 43rd-minute effort brought to an end the longest home top-flight drought since the league was founded in 1888. Alexei Smertin capped an impressive Fulham fightback as Lawrie Sanchez’s side defeated Bolton 2-1 to claim its first win of the season on Wednesday.

Smertin’s deflected first-half effort came three minutes after David Healy had cancelled out former Fulham striker Heidar Helguson’s opener for the visitors. Bolton chairman Phil Gartside must already be regretting his claim that the club would benefit from former manager Sam Allardyce’s move to Newcastle.

Sammy Lee’s team had been easily beaten by Newcastle on Saturday and it slumped to a second successive defeat here.

It started well enough and Kevin Nolan fired in an overhead-kick at Fulham goalkeeper Tony Warner in the early stages.

The results: Birmingham 2 (McShane 28-og, O’Connor 82) drew with Sunderland 2 (Chopra 75, John 90); Fulham 2 (Healy 23, Smertin 26) bt Bolton 1 (Helguson 12); Manchester City 1 (Johnson 43) bt Derby 0; Portsmouth 1 (Benjani 53) d rew with Manchester United 1 (Scholes 15); Chelsea 2 (Lampard 47, Drogba 50) bt Reading 1 (Bikey 30); Wigan 1 (Sibierski 55) bt Middlesbrough 0. — Agencies