LONDON, Oct 18: Thierry Henry ended Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season and fired Arsenal to the top of the Premiership on Saturday.

A shocking blunder by Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini gifted the French striker a 75th-minute goal and handed Arsenal a 2-1 win that leaves them a point clear of Manchester United, who beat Leeds 1-0 at Elland Road earlier in the day.

Roy Keane was United’s hero, powering into the box to head a Gary Neville cross past Paul Robinson and finally break Leeds’ dogged resistance nine minutes from the end.

Brazilian midfielder Edu got Arsenal off to a perfect start at Highbury when his fifth minute free-kick from 25 yards took a deflection off Ray Parlour to beat Cudicini.

But Arsenal’s joy was shortlived. Three minutes later Hernan Crespo took a pass from Geremi on the left, sidestepped Lauren and hammered an unstoppable 25-yard shot that hit the top corner of the net before Jens Lehmann had moved.

From then on Chelsea appeared to have a slight edge over their London rivals but it was Arsenal who claimed the points with 15 minutes left when Cudicini spilled a Robert Pires cross, allowing Henry to bundle the ball over the line.

Liverpool’s hopes of hauling them back to within touching distance of the top three were dealt a severe blow when they crashed to a third straight league defeat.

Liverpool old boy Patrik Berger’s fourth minute strike was enough to earn Portsmouth a 1-0 win at Fratton Park and end the Premiership newcomers’ own run of three straight defeats.

Things might have been different if Emile Heskey’s shot had not come back off the post two minutes earlier but Liverpool could have no complaints after another lacklustre display.

Manchester City brought Bolton’s five-match unbeaten run to an end with an incident-packed 6-2 win at the City of Manchester stadium.

Shaun Wright-Phillips scored twice before being sent off mid-way through the second half but that did not prevent ten-man City claiming only their second league win at their new home.

Kevin Nolan had given the visitors a 25th minute lead. But Wright-Phillips equalised within two minutes and City took control with goals from Sylvain Distin and Wright-Phillips in the space of 13 minutes after the restart.

Bolton were given hope when Ivan Campo pulled a goal back and Wright-Phillips received his second yellow card of the afternoon.

But their attempts to push forward were punished by slick City breakaways which ended with Nicolas Anelka and Claudio Reyna adding to their score.

Newcastle escaped from the relegation zone for the first time this season with a barely deserved victory over north east rivals Middlesbrough.

Boro had the visitors pinned back for virtually the entire 90 minutes but they were unable to match Shola Ameobi’s 21st-minute strike for Newcastle.

The England under-21 striker, standing in for the injured Craig Bellamy, bundled the ball into the net after an Alan Shearer knockdown had created panic in the Middlesbrough defence.

Wolves moved off the bottom of the table by holding Fulham to a goalless draw at Loftus Road. It was Dave Jones’s side’s sixth draw in their first nine matches back in the top flight.

Premier League

Arsenal 2 Chelsea 1

Fulham 0 Wolves 0

Leeds United 0 Manchester United 1

Manchester City 6 Bolton Wanderers 2

Middlesbrough 0 Newcastle United 1

Portsmouth 1 Liverpool 0

Playing on Sunday:

Birmingham City v Aston Villa (1100 GMT) Everton v Southampton (1505) Leicester City v Tottenham Hotspur (1300)

Scottish Premier League results

Aberdeen 0 Dundee United 1

Celtic 5 Hearts 0

Dundee 1 Partick Thistle 0

Dunfermline Athletic 2 Kilmarnock 3

Hibernian 0 Livingston 2

—Agencies