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| August 17, 2003 | Sunday | Jumadi-us-Sani 18, 1424 |
Wins for United and 10-man Arsenal
LONDON, Aug 16: Manchester United and Arsenal opened their title assaults in style on Saturday with United beating Bolton Wanderers 4-0 at Old Trafford and Arsenal overcoming Everton 2-1 at Highbury.
But Arsenal’s day was marred by the first-half dismissal of England defender Sol Campbell for tripping Everton’s Thomas Gravesen after 26 minutes. Everton had Chinese international Li Tie sent off in the 87th.
On a day full of goals and drama, promoted Portsmouth also enjoyed their first match in the top flight for 15 years with a 2-1 home win over Aston Villa, who had skipper Gareth Barry sent off three minutes from time.
But there was no joy for Wolverhampton Wanderers, back among the elite clubs for the first time in 19 years as they crashed 5-1 at Blackburn Rovers. Leicester City, who also came up, lost a 2-0 lead in the last few minutes against Southampton to draw 2-2.
David Dunn, Birmingham’s record signing from Blackburn, scored the first goal of the new season with a 36th minute penalty which was good enough for a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at St Andrews.
In the other match played, Fulham won a 3-2 thriller over Middlesbrough at Loftus Road where Boro’s Malcolm Christie missed a second half penalty.
Arsenal 2 Everton 1
Birmingham City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Blackburn Rovers 5 Wolves 1
Fulham 3 Middlesbrough 2
Leicester City 2 Southampton 2
Manchester United 4 Bolton Wanderers 0
Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 1
Playing on Sunday: Charlton Athletic v Manchester City (1300 GMT) Leeds United v Newcastle United (1300) Liverpool v Chelsea (1505)
GLASGOW: Scottish champions Rangers bounced back from their unimpressive Champions League draw against FC Copenhagen by coming from behind to win 3-2 in a fiery league encounter at Aberdeen on Saturday.
Alex McLeish’s side — who were booed off the pitch after Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Copenhagen in the final qualifying first leg — looked likely to endure more misery when Australian striker David Zdrilic put the home side ahead on 24 minutes.
But Rangers did not panic and goals from Ronald de Boer, Mikel Arteta and Michael Mols handed the visitors a merited three points with Eric Deloumeaux’s last minute consolation giving the scoreline a false reflection of the gulf in class.
Celtic also enjoyed a comfortable afternoon as they revelled in a 5-0 home win over Dundee United, their 15th straight victory over United, courtesy of goals from Shaun Maloney, Didier Agathe, Alan Thompson, Jackie McNamara and Henrik Larsson.
Aberdeen 2 Rangers 3
Celtic 5 Dundee United 0
Kilmarnock 2 Partick Thistle 1
Livingston 1 Motherwell 0
Playing on Sunday: Dundee v Dunfermline Athletic (1400 GMT kickoff) Hibernian v Hearts (1400)
BERLIN, Aug 16: Results of German first division soccer matches played on Saturday:
Kaiserslautern 0 Werder Bremen 1
Bor. Moenchengladbach 0 VfB Stuttgart 1
Hertha Berlin 0 SC Freiburg 0
Hansa Rostock 3 Eintracht Frankfurt 0
Bayer Leverkusen 4 Hanover 96 0
Bayern Munich 2 VfL Bochum 0
Borussia Dortmund 3 TSV 1860 Munich 1
—Reuters
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