The Hindu : Sport / Football : Chelsea outclasses Villa

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Chelsea outclasses Villa

FOOTBALL / Liverpool rallies to down Manchester City

Tottenham languishes at the bottom of the table
Fernando Torres scores a brace for Liverpool

— PHOTO: AP

GOAL! Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka scores the team’s second goal past Aston Villa’s goalkeeper in the English Premier League on Sunday.

LONDON: Chelsea stayed top of the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Sunday while Liverpool kept pace after an astonishing comeback earned it a 3-2 win at Manchester City.

First-half goals by Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka steered Chelsea to a routine win and put it on 17 points from seven matches, the same as Liverpool which trailed 2-0 before a Fernando Torres double and Dirk Kuyt’s stoppage time winner.

Tottenham Hotspur remained rooted to the bottom of the table after losing 1-0 at home to Hull City as the pressure mounted on manager Juande Ramos. Promoted Hull is third with 14 points.

Portsmouth beats Stoke

Portsmouth beat Stoke City 2-1, with England strikers Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch both on target. Gianfranco Zola suffered his first league defeat as manager of West Ham United when it slumped 3-1 at home to Bolton Wanderers.

Chelsea, held 0-0 in Romania by CFR Cluj on Wednesday in the Champions League, made light of injuries to the likes of Michael Essien and Didier Drogba to outclass Villa.

Cole combined superbly with Frank Lampard before thumping a shot past Brad Friedel and it could have had five before the break as it dominated a Villa side which began the day in the top four.

Anelka doubled the lead before halftime when he tapped in from close range after a Friedel save from Michael Ballack.

With Liverpool trailing 2-0 at half-time to goals by Stephen Ireland and Javier Garrido it looked like Chelsea was heading for a two-point cushion in the early title race.

However Torres, who hardly got a kick in the first half, burst into life. He halved the deficit with a simple finish after a slick move that ended with an Alvaro Arbeloa cross.

Robinho should have put City 3-1 ahead but instead the home side had Pablo Zabaleta sent off for a bad tackle on Xabi Alonso before Torres headed in the equaliser.

Kuyt scores winner

The Spaniard should have completed his hat-trick when he wasted a glorious chance from Robbie Keane’s cross but it did not prove too costly as Kuyt slotted in a dramatic winner.

Tottenham’s early-season crisis shows no sign of easing as Hull won for the second week running in north London after its stunning 2-1 victory at Arsenal last week.

The only goal of the game came when Brazilian Geovanni curled a sensational free kick into the top corner in the ninth minute. Tottenham struck the woodwork twice before the break and mounted sustained pressure after it but Hull hung on. Tottenham has just two points from its seven matches.

The results: Chelsea 2 (J. Cole 21, Anelka 44) bt Aston Villa 0; Everton 2 (Arteta 17-pen, Fellaini 35) drew with Newcastle 2 (Taylor 45, Duff 47); Manchester City 2 (Ireland 19, Garrido 41) lost to Liverpool 3 (Torres 55, 73, Kuyt 90); Portsmouth 2 (Crouch 25, Defoe 51) bt Stoke 1 (Fuller 48); Tottenham 0 lost to Hull 1 (Geovanni 9); West Ham 1 (Cole 69) lost to Bolton 3 (Davies 30, Cahill 34, Taylor 86).

Saturday’s result: Blackburn 0 lost to Manchester United 2 (Brown 31, Rooney 64). — Agencies

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