The Hindu : Sport / Football : Manchester United held; Chelsea starts with a bang

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Manchester United held; Chelsea starts with a bang

— PHOTO: AP

Joe Cole.

LONDON: Defending champion Manchester United was held to a 1-1 draw by Newcastle United, but Chelsea crushed Portsmouth 4-0 when the two favourites for the title began their English Premier League football campaigns on Sunday.

United, without Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Owen Hargreaves, was rocked when Newcastle went ahead at Old Trafford, the unmarked Obafemi Martins powering home a header after 22 minutes.

United was level, though, inside two minutes when Darren Fletcher put the finishing touch to a fine sweeping move.

In contrast to United’s faltering start, Chelsea, which finished runners-up last season, gave its new Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari the perfect start with a stunning four-goal rout of Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge.

It took Chelsea just 12 minutes to take the lead on a gloriously sunny day in west London when Joe Cole fired past his England goalkeeping colleague David James after being set up by Michael Ballack.

Nicolas Anelka took advantage of slack Portsmouth defending to head Chelsea 2-0 ahead in the 26th minute and Frank Lampard made it 3-0 from the penalty spot just before half time after Sylvain Distin was harshly judged to have handled a cross from Cole. Television replays showed the ball hit his arm while his face was turned away and he made no attempt to stop the cross.

Deco, named the Man of the Match afterwards, capped an excellent debut when he powered home an 89th-minute strike from 25 metres which James could only help into the net.

Lampard, who signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea on Wednesday, said he was delighted with their performance that left Chelsea on top of the new league table after the opening round of games. “The first half today was as good as we can play,” he told Sky Sports. “We went into the match with a real determination to do well. We didn’t win anything last season and wanted to show what we are all about now.”

Agbonlahor’s hat-trick

Aston Villa beat Manchester City 4-2 in the other match played on Sunday with Gabriel Agbonlahor scoring a hat-trick in seven minutes midway through the second half to lead Villa to victory.

The results: Manchester United 1 (Darren Fletcher 24) drew with Newcastle United 1 (Obafemi Martins 22); Aston Villa 4 (John Carew 47, Gabriel Agbonlahor 69, 74, 76) bt Manchester City 2 (Elano 64-pen, Corluka 89); Chelsea 4 (Joe Cole 12, Nicolas Anelka 26, Frank Lampard 45-pen, Anderson Deco 89) bt Portsmouth 0. — Agencies

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