English Premiership update
Chelsea beat Liverpool and Man Utd lose to Arsenal.
The Big Four clash on "Grand Slam Sunday".
The first big clashes of the English Premiership season happened on Sunday where champions Chelsea faced Liverpool in West London, and Manchester United took on Arsenal at Old Trafford.
Both games were played on Sunday afternoon due to all four sides having played midweek in the Uefa Champions League and satellite TV company channel Sky Sports (who have the rights to show the games live in the UK) had given the matches the collective moniker: GRAND SLAM SUNDAY.
It was always far too early for these matches to be considered definitive in the chase for the title (what with another eight months to go) so there was no repeat of Sky's portentous JUDGEMENT DAY from last year, but while Chelsea and Man Utd have been going well in the league, Arsenal and Liverpool have found wins hard to come by and didn't want to slip any further behind the the leaders.
Sadly for Liverpool, they did. They travelled to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium on the back of an insipid 0-0 draw away at PSV in the Champions League and an embarrassing 3-0 reverse to City rivals Everton in the Liverpool derby last weekend.
Their bad form continued early on a sunny Sunday afternoon, going down 1-0 to the champions, even after the home side had German World Cup star Michael Ballack sent off for a nasty stamp on Liverpool midfielder Mohamed Sissoko after 51 minutes.
The first 45 minutes was a cagey affair, the main talking point being Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho waiting for his Liverpool counterpart, Rafa Benitez, in the tunnel before the kick off to shake hands and dispel rumours of their on-off spat.
Liverpool just couldn't get the ball to stick with their front line pairing of Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy, although the Dutchman did rattle the bar from inside the box with a fierce drive.
Chelsea found it hard to break down the counter-attacking Reds but a moment of brilliance from Didier Drogba broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute.
The Ivorian received the ball on the edge of the box with his back to goal, chested it down, swivelled and unleashed an unstoppable left foot shot past the helpless Pepe Reina in goal.
Liverpool's chase to get back in the game looked to be aided when Ballack stamped on Sissoko after a skirmish between the two to get hold of the ball a little earlier.
Although they carved out a few more chances with Peter Crouch tamely heading straight at Peter Cech and the goalkeeper also saved from Steven Gerrard from point blank range, these were the most memorable of the few chances that came their way.
Didier Drogba battled up front bravely by himself for the Blues and his excellent holding-up of the ball ensured that Chelsea still posed a threat even a man down.
The victory leaves Chelsea third on 12 points and Liverpool languishing on four points down in fifteenth.
Manchester United entertained Arsenal just 45 minutes after the Chelsea-Liverpool match finished and the hosts knew that Chelsea had gone level on points with them.
The Mancunians would have liked to have left Arsenal's championship challenge in the same state as Liverpool's -- especially as there is no love lost between the two coaches, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal had a miserable start to the season domestically with no wins in three attempts while Man Utd have been flying, so a trip to Old Trafford was a daunting challenge for a young side missing Thierry Henry through injury.
In the event Arsenal's five man midfield stifled United's creativity and they returned south with all the points after a fine 1-0 victory.
Although Darren Fletcher had an early chance well blocked by William Gallas, Arsenal had the best of the early chances and won a penalty when debutant goalie Tomasz Kuszczak brought down Emmanuel Adebayor after he was released by Freddie Ljunberg.
The former West Brom goalie was only playing because Edwin Van der Sar had a stomach bug and was looking at a nightmare first game for the Old Trafford side.
In the event, Arsenal's Gilberto Silva slipped and sent his penalty to close to the Polish keeper and he managed to push the ball away to keep the scores level.
The travelling support must have thought they would live to regret the miss but apart from Cristiano Ronaldo drilling a shot right into the face of Arsenal goalie Jens Lehmann and the German pulling off a fabulous save from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer late on, Arsenal were rarely troubled.
With only five minutes to go, Adebayor nicked the winner that the previously hesitant Togolese player never looked like scoring for the Londoners.
Portuguese pantomime hate-figure Ronaldo lost the ball in his own half to Arsenal's industrious Cesc Fabregas and his surging run upfield was finished with an excellent through pass to Adebayor.
The lanky front-runner stabbed the ball under the on-rushing Kuszczak and gave Arsenal a deserved win.
Manchester United stay in second place with 12 points, while Arsenal kick-start their season as they rise to tenth with five points.
Portsmouth are still the surprise early leaders on 13 points -- more about them later on in the week.
