LONDON, Aug 25 —
Chelsea stayed atop the Premier League standings after Deco scored with a free kick yesterday to give the
London club a 1-0 victory at
Wigan.
Chelsea has six points after two games and leads Liverpool on goal difference.
Deco’s curling free kick caught Wigan’s stand-in goalkeeper Mike Pollitt out of position in the fourth minute and drifted into the top corner.
Chelsea successfully took the sting out of the second half and Wigan’s last chance came in injury time when Olivier Kapo’s free kick hit the Chelsea wall.
In yesterday’s other game, Manchester City beat 10-man West Ham 3-0 behind two goals from Elano to give new manager Mark Hughes a win in his first home game.
Daniel Sturridge also scored for City, which took advantage of West Ham’s Mark Noble being sent off in the first half after getting two yellow cards.
Defending champion Manchester United, which only managed a draw against Newcastle in last weekend’s opening round, was to play Portsmouth today.
In PARIS, Nice edged Auxerre 1-0 with a goal from Alaeddine Yahia, while Rennes rallied late to beat Lille 2-1 in the French league.
Bruno Cheyrou and substitute Moussa Sow scored in stoppage time to give Rennes its first win this season.
Yohan Cabaye gave Lille the lead in the 34th, but Cheyrou equalised in the first minute of injury time, before Sow scored in the 93rd.
In Auxerre, Yahia headed Nice in front in the 29th minute. Auxerre had a chance to equalize in the 45th with a penalty, but Kevin Lejeune missed.
Marseille and Lyon share the lead with seven points after three rounds.
In FRANKFURT, Wolfsburg rallied from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw at Bochum and Frankfurt also came from behind to draw 1-1 at Cologne in the Bundesliga.
Stanislav Sestak put Bochum ahead in the 12th minute and the home side doubled the lead with a header from Christoph Dabrowski shortly after halftime.
But Ricardo Costa pulled one back two minutes later and Mahir Saglik salvaged the draw for Felix Magath’s team.
In Cologne, Milivoje Novakovic outran Eintracht’s defence and slotted home a goal in the 33rd.
Roda Antar then hit the post from the penalty spot and Eintracht struck back in the 81st, when captain Ioannis Amanatidis’ cross was turned in by Martin Fenin. — AP