Date:28/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/28/stories/2008092860061500.htm

Sport - Football

Chelsea, Liverpool march on

— Photo: AFP

MARKSMEN: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney (left) celebrates his strike with fellow goal-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.

LONDON: Chelsea’s drive to reclaim the Premier League title gathered pace on Saturday with a 2-0 win at Stoke extending its unbeaten start to life under Luiz Felipe Scolari to eight matches.

A Fernando Torres double ensured Liverpool returned to winning ways, comfortably overcoming ten-man Everton 2-0 in the Merseyside derby to match Chelsea’s return of four wins and two draws from their opening six games.

It was also business as usual for champion Manchester United, who climbed into the top half of the table for the first time this season with a 2-0 win at home over Bolton in which Cristiano Ronaldo opened his league account.

Chelsea was put on track to victory by right-back Jose Bosingwa. The Portugal defender demonstrated the finishing touch of a seasoned striker as he fired in his first goal for the club from an acute angle ten minutes before half-time.

Nicolas Anelka then made sure of the points with just under quarter of an hour left.

Liverpool — which surrendered top spot when it was held at home by Stoke last weekend — reasserted its title credentials with its derby victory.

Brace by Torres

Fernando Torres’s second half double at Goodison Park sealed the points long before Everton had Australian midfielder Tim Cahill sent off for a studs-up challenge on Xabi Alonso.

At Old Trafford, Ronaldo made it two goals in as many games with a 60th-minute penalty that he won himself with what the Bolton defenders insisted was a blatant dive.

Wayne Rooney then added his first goal for United since April to make sure of the points with 13 minutes left.

The results: Aston Villa 2 (Young 18, Carew 33) bt Sunderland 1 (Cisse 10); Everton 0 lost to Liverpool 2 (Torres 59, 62); Fulham 1 (Murphy 59-pen) lost to West Ham 2 (Cole 43, Etherington 45); Manchester United 2 (Ronaldo 60-pen, Rooney 77) bt Bolton 0; Middlesbrough 0 lost to West Bromwich 1 (Olsson 53); Newcastle 1 (Owen 51-pen) lost to Blackburn 2 (Samba 31, Santa Cruz 41); Stoke 0 lost to Chelsea 2 (Bosingwa 36, Anelka 76). — AFP