The Hindu : Sport / Football : Salomon Kalou saves Chelsea’s blushes

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Salomon Kalou saves Chelsea’s blushes

LONDON: Chelsea rallied to hold Manchester United to a 1-1 draw, while Manchester City crushed Portsmouth 6-0 in the English Premier League football on Sunday.

Promoted Hull maintained its impressive start with a 2-2 draw with Everton despite squandering a 2-0 lead, Aston Villa won 2-1 at neighbour West Bromwich Albion and last-place Tottenham drew 0-0 at home with Wigan.

Park Ji-sung’s 18th-minute goal for Manchester United threatened to end Chelsea’s unbeaten home run of 84 league games as the visitor dominated the early stages at Stamford Bridge.

The South Korean drove the ball into an empty net after Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech had blocked a shot from Dimitar Berbatov.

After Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka had both missed chances, Salomon Kalou headed home a free kick in the 80th to make sure that run stayed intact in a stormy game in which referee Mike Riley showed the yellow card to seven United players and one from Chelsea.

He also angered Blues fans by blowing fulltime just after United defender Rio Ferdinand had clattered into striker Didier Drogba on the edge of the visitor’s area.

“This was strange for me, for the referee to finish the game at that time,” Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari said. “But he’s the boss on the pitch and it is his decision and we need to accept that.”

Arsenal in the van

Arsenal, which won 3-1 at Bolton on Saturday, leads the standings with 12 points from five games. Chelsea has 11 and is second on goal difference from Liverpool, which was surprisingly held 0-0 at home by Stoke on Saturday.

England goalkeeper David James let in six goals at the City of Manchester Stadium where the home side, watched by new owner Khaldoon Al Mubarak, had six different scorers — Jo, Richard Dunne, Robinho, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes.

Playing topflight football for the first time in its 104-year history, Hull marched into a two-goal lead against Everton. Michael Turner headed the Tigers ahead in the 18th and an own-goal by Everton midfielder Phil Neville made it 2-0 in the 48th.

Tim Cahill replied for the Toffees in the 73rd with a shot that struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down, the officials ruling it had crossed the line. Leon Osman volleyed the equaliser in the 78th.

Aston Villa’s John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor scored two goals in three first-half minutes at the Hawthorns to win a third straight away game. James Morrison replied for West Brom in the 34th.

The results: Chelsea 1 (Salomon Kalou 80) drew with Manchester United 1 (Park Ji-sung 18); West Bromwich 1 (Morrison 34) lost to Aston Villa 2 (Carew 27, Agbonlahor 29); Hull 2 (Turner 18, Neville 50-og) drew with Everton 2 (Cahill 73, Osman 78); Manchester City 6 (Jo 13, Dunne 20, Robinho 57, Wright-Phillips 68, Evans 78, Gelson 83) Portsmouth 0; Tottenham 0 drew with Wigan 0.

Saturday’s result: Bolton 1 (Davies 14) lost to Arsenal 3 (Eboue 26, Bendtner 27, Denilson 87). — Agencies

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