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| October 5, 2003 | Sunday | Sha’aban 8, 1424 |
Arsenal stay one point clear with win at Liverpool
LONDON, Oct 4: France’s Robert Pires struck a 68th-minute winner with a curling shot as premier league leaders Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1 at Liverpool on Saturday.
The Frenchman picked up a pass from Edu after 68 minutes, ghosted along the the edge of the Liverpool penalty area and curled a superb right foot shot into the far corner of Jerzy Dudek’s net from 20 metres.
Australian Harry Kewell had put Liverpool in front in the 14th minute with his first league goal since his summer move from Leeds United before Edu’s deflected header put the Londoners level on the half hour.
Arsenal’s win extends their unbeaten start to the league season to eight matches and takes them four points clear of Chelsea, who play the first of their two games in hand at Middlesbrough on Sunday.
Defending champions Manchester United will close the gap to one point if they beat in-form Birmingham City at Old Trafford later.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will be relieved to have come through the match with just two bookings — to Ashley Cole and Ray Parlour — and no serious injuries.
The Gunners’ poor disciplinary record and a string of injuries have threatened to overshadow their fine start to the league season and derail their Champions League campaign.
Manchester United stayed one point behind Arsenal with a 3-0 home victory over Birmingham City thanks to a Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty, after keeper Maik Taylor was sent off for bringing down Paul Scholes, and second-half strikes by Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
Chelsea, four points off the pace before playing at Middlesbrough on Sunday, are third following defeats for Birmingham, their first of the season, and Manchester City, who lost 1-0 at lowly Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Leeds United responded to speculation about the future of manager Peter Reid with their first home win of the season, 2-1 against Blackburn Rovers with both goals scored by midfielder Seth Johnson.
Former England captain Alan Shearer claimed his 250th career league goal to give Newcastle United a 1-0 win at home to Southampton, their first victory of the season, and Tottenham Hotspur, under caretaker manager David Pleat, beat Everton 3-0.
Results
Fulham 2 Leicester City 0
Leeds United 2 Blackburn Rovers 1
Liverpool 1 Arsenal 2
Manchester United 3 Birmingham City 0
Newcastle United 1 Southampton 0
Portsmouth 1 Charlton Athletic 2
Tottenham Hotspur 3 Everton 0
Wolves 1 Manchester City 0
Playing on Sunday:
Aston Villa v Bolton Wanderers
Middlesbrough v Chelsea
CELTIC GO TOP
GLASGOW: Celtic shattered the 100 percent record of champions Rangers in the Scottish Premier League this season when they beat their Glasgow rivals 1-0 at Ibrox on Saturday to go top of the table.
Celtic’s goal came less than 20 seconds into the second half when striker John Hartson’s effort was deflected into the net by Rangers’ Georgian defender Zurab Khizanishvili.
Rangers had won all seven of their previous Premier League games this season but Celtic’s win lifted them a point clear of the champions on 22 points after eight games. Third-placed Hearts, on 13 points, were due to play host to Dundee later on Saturday.
Martin O’Neill’s side fully deserved their victory in a scrappy first Old Firm encounter of the season with Alan Thompson, Henrik Larsson and Hartson all going close to scoring further goals for the visitors.
Celtic’s third successive win against Rangers and their fourth at Ibrox in six visits was achieved despite having several defenders injured or suspended.
Chris Sutton reverted from attack to defence and was outstanding alongside Stanislav Varga as Celtic defended manfully to keep Rangers, who lacked imagination in the vital areas, out in the second half.
Rangers had complained about the timing of the match after Wednesday’s 1-1 Champions League draw with Panathinaikos in Greece.
They played some lovely possession football at times but lacked the necessary penetration or vision to trouble the visitors.
Celtic carved out the first real chance on 10 minutes when the outstanding Larsson skipped away from home captain Craig Moore and Thompson’s shot from the Swede’s cutback brought an excellent stop from Stefan Klos.
Rangers’ first real attempt saw Brazilian midfielder Emerson thrash an effort at goal but Sutton did well to deflect the ball over.
But Rangers lost Moore due to injury at halftime and were caught cold at the restart as Larsson showed all his experience to pick out Hartson.
His chip took a wicked deflection and left Klos clutching at fresh air as it dropped into the net off the underside of the bar.
Results
Dundee United 0 Motherwell 2
Hearts 2 Dundee 2
Kilmarnock 1 Aberdeen 3
Livingston 0 Dunfermline Athletic 0
Partick Thistle 0 Hibernian 1
Rangers 0 Celtic 1
BAYERN ROUT HERTHA
BERLIN: Champions Bayern Munich closed the gap on Bundesliga leaders VfB Stuttgart to one point by crushing struggling Hertha Berlin 4-1 on Saturday.
First-half goals from Dutch striker Roy Makaay and playmaker Michael Ballack, followed by two more after the break from midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Hasan Salihamidzic, helped the Bavarian club climb two spots into second.
Hertha, still chasing their first victory of the season, were 3-0 down when midfielder Niko Kovac pulled one goal back, but the capital club drop to third from bottom in the standings.
Stuttgart were held to a 0-0 draw by bottom-placed Cologne, but still extended their unbeaten run to eight matches as their their goalkeeper made Bundesliga history.
Timo Hildebrand has now gone 825 minutes without conceding a goal, breaking the previous record of 802 minutes set last season by Bayern’s Oliver Kahn.
Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen, two points off the pace in third and fourth place, are in action on Sunday against VfL Wolfsburg and Hansa Rostock respectively. Either club can capture the Bundesliga lead if they win.
Results:
Hanover 96 1 Schalke 04 2
Eintracht Frankfurt 0 B. Dortmund 1
SC Freiburg 1 TSV 1860 Munich 0
VfB Stuttgart 0 Cologne 0
Bayern Munich 4 Hertha Berlin 1
Hamburg SV 2 B. Moenchengladbach 1
VfL Bochum 4 Kaiserslautern 0
—Reuters
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