WHICH BALL? Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina reacts to Darren Bent's shot which deflects off a beach ball thrown onto the field. (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Chelsea took the lead with a long range dipping shot from Didier Drogba that bounced in front of American keeper Brad Friedel to find the back of the net. Friedel should’ve made the save.
But new central defender Richard Dunne was then given a free header from an Ashley Young corner to level the score just over a quarter of an hour later.
Villa’s other central defender James Collins headed in the winner with Ashley Young providing the service again from a corner early in the second half.
Chelsea kept up the pressure to the very end and came close as a heroic tackle from Collins stopped Drogba’s shot. Nicolas Anelka also had a glorious chance on Friedel, but failed to score.
Chelsea is now one point behind the league leader Manchester United, and Aston Villa moved into sixth place.
“We can definitely compete. We’ve a lot of good players in the team and it was a great effort against a top-quality team,” said Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill to the BBC.
“My view is that anybody who finishes in front of Chelsea will win the Premier League.”
O’Neill also spoke about play from set pieces, in reference to how his team’s two goals were scored. “Set pieces are part of the game,” he said. “World Cup finals have been settled on set pieces, but that tended to overlook what we can do.”
“We lost the game because of two set plays,” said Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti. “Chelsea played a good game and we don’t want to lose the game in that situation, only if the other team plays better than us.”
Manchester United 2, Bolton Wanderers 1
Manchester United fought off Bolton at home to take a shaky win and return to the top of the table.United took a very early lead with a Michael Owen header that took a deflection off Bolton defender Zat Knight. The goal will be recorded as an own goal for Knight.
The defending champions followed up with a goal from Antonio Valencia, his first for the club just after half an hour of play.
Bolton got one back when Kevin Davies sent a cross in for Matt Taylor who scored to get the visitors back in the game. From then on Bolton pushed hard for the equalizer, setting up camp in their opponents’ half.
United will have to improve on the performance in the coming week, as they have games against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League Wednesday and then Liverpool in the Premiership next Sunday.
“It was more tense than we would have liked,” Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson told the BBC.
“We made it hard for ourselves and we were panicking at times. But we got through it, just. This is a tough league. There have been some surprise results already.
“But we have had a couple ourselves, losing at Burnley and drawing at home to Sunderland.”
Sunderland 1, Liverpool 0
Liverpool’s season took another setback as they were beaten by Sunderland and overtaken by them in the Premiership table. The Reds have now lost four of nine games to start the season.Darren Bent put the home side ahead with a bizarre goal. His shot hit a beach ball that had been thrown onto the pitch at the edge of the six-yard box and deflected into the net. The highly controversial goal is the subject of intense debate. Should the goal have counted or not?
The irony was that a Liverpool supporter threw the beach ball onto the pitch.
Despite protests from the Liverpool camp, the goal stood even though the rules state that a drop ball should be given in this circumstance.
Regardless of his fellow keeper’s tribulations, Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon foiled chances from Dirk Kuyt and David Ngog to enable the home side to record an important win.
Liverpool fielded a side without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, and the lack of firepower showed.
Reds manager Rafael Benitez opted for an attacking formation with three defenders, however, the tactic did not pay off with Liverpool looking out of sorts at crucial times.
Arsenal 3, Birmingham 1
Arsenal were not on their best form, but still managed to overpower Birmingham.Robin van Persie put the Gunners ahead with a low shot after being put through by Alex Song at the quarter-hour mark.
Two minutes later, Abou Diaby got the second with a shot to the top corner. Lee Bowyer got one back for Birmingham who went in at the break only one down.
Substitute Andrey Arshavin made an impact when he came on. He gave the Gunners some breathing room with a clever low shot to the far side of the net in the 84th minute.
The bad news for the Gunners was that Theo Walcott had to come off injured after a hefty tackle from Liam Ridgewell.
“We had plenty of opportunities today, perhaps it became a little bit too easy at 2–0,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told the BBC.
“We needed to regain our composure when they came back to 2–1. In the Premier League, you need to keep your focus for 90 minutes.”
