SUNDAY, HINDUSTAN TIMES, CHANDIGARH 18 | sport | SEPTEMBER 18, 2011 Blackburn fly over misfiring Arsenal Two own goals add to Arsene Wenger’s woes

■ Arsenal's Gervinho (right) scores the opening goal of the match against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday. AFP PHOTO

Agencies ■ [email protected] SATURDAY’S RESULTS ■ Blackburn 4 — Arsenal 3 BLACKBURN: Ayegbeni Yakubu scored twice to turn up the heat ■ Wolves 0 — QPR 3 on Arsene Wenger as Blackburn ■ Bolton 1 — Norwich City 2 twice came from behind to ■ Aston Villa 1 — Newcastle 1 defeat Arsenal 4-3 at Ewood ■ Everton 3 — Wigan 1 Park on Saturday. It leaves Arsenal with just ■ Swansea 3 — West Brom 0 four points from their opening five games and means Wenger’s side have now conceded 12 goals We had so many in the last two away games in chances in the game and the Premier League. on top of that we scored two The Gunners had taken the lead on 10 minutes, Alex Song own goals so it is unbeliev- splitting the defence with a able to understand but we weighted pass to find Gervinho who rifled a low angled shot shot (have to take it on the chin) beyond Paul Robinson. ARSENE WENGER But despite dominating play Coach, Arsenal Arsenal were unable to add to their lead and were rocked on FERGUSON WARY OF 25 minutes when Yakubu con- CHELSEA THREAT jured a goal out of nothing, pick- MANCHESTER: Sir Alex Ferguson ing up David Hoilett’s pass to believes Chelsea still represent finish past Wojciech Szczesny. one of Manchester United’s Arsenal were back in front sternest challengers for the within nine minutes, when new Premier League despite man- signing Mikel Arteta swept in ager Andre Villas-Boas’s rela- Aaron Ramsey’s cross with tive lack of experience. aplomb to put Arsenal 2-1 up. The spotlight has been off However, the Gunners’ age- Chelsea, who have been chal- old defensive problems returned lengers for the last seven years, to haunt them as two own goals and switched closer to home from Alex Song and Laurent with Manchester City joining Koscielny put Blackburn 4-2 up. near-neighbours United at the Marouane Chamakh ensured top of the Premier League. a nervous finish for Rovers when “They will be there at the end he headed in Robin van Persie’s of the season, there is no doubt cross to pull one back for about that,” Ferguson said. Arsenal on 85 minutes, but the “At the moment, the two home side hung on for their first Manchester teams are enjoying win of the season. the publicity that comes from The defeat leaves Arsenal the predictions that they are with four points from five games, going to be involved in the win- just two points above the rele- ning of the league. In the back- gation zone, and eight points ground lurks Chelsea. They behind leaders Manchester don’t need the publicity. They United, who face Chelsea on will be enjoying being out of the Sunday. profile at the moment.” Dempo, Bagan left stunned Somshuvra Laha/Agencies to the field wearing a different ■ [email protected] numbered jersey. Peter Carvalho’s extra-time strike KOLKATA/PUNE: By way of first day from close came too late for upsets at the Federation Cup, Dempo to save the match. former champions Dempo bore Chenco fired in two goals as the ignominy against a fast and qualifiers Royal Wahingdoh composed 10-man Pune FC. stunned fancied Mohun Bagan Jeje Lalpekhlua set up Keita 2-1 in their opening tie with Mandjou with a searing cross strikes in the 49th and 54th min- from the right in the 7th minute utes. Mohun Bagan reduced the and the Pune FC striker had no margin in the 75th minute difficulty in drilling home the through Ashim Biswas. first goal. In the 19th minute Defending champions East Lester Fernandes provided a Bengal were held by cross to Lalpekhlua who placed Mohammedan Sporting. the ball past Dempo custodian Stanley Okoroiowe’s 17th minute Subhasish Roychowdhury. penalty, after East Bengal cus- Pune FC had Fernandes sent todian Sandip Nandy tripped off in the 70th minute after it Han Wook, was cancelled by was found out that he had taken Sanju Pradhan’s 25-yard strike. ‘MARADONA TOOK THRASH BRIBES AS WELL’ SRI LANKA 13-0 BUENOS AIRES: Diego Maradona, who this week accused his suc- : India thrashed Sri cessor as Argentina coach Lanka 13-0 in the 3rd girls U-18 Sergio Batista of accepting Asia Cup hockey tournament at bribes, is also tainted by cor- Saturday. ruption, according to a claim The goal scorers for India made here Saturday. who led 7-0 at half time were Gabriel Buono, Maradona’s Jaspreet Kaur (2nd minute) former private secretary, made (13th 22nd min) the accusation, saying: “He talks Poonam Rani (14th 34th min) about bribes but if you are look- Sandeep Kaur (19th min) ing for someone who is corrupt Anupa Barla (33rd 65th min) the first person is Maradona - Namita Toppo (37th min) I’ve got all the evidence.” Navjot Kaur (42nd and 55th AFP min) and (54th 70th min) Published by M. Venkatesh for and on India earned fourteen penal- behalf of H.T. Media Ltd, SCO – 6, 2nd Floor, Sector 17-E, Chandigarh - UT and ty corners and converted five printed at Presses of HT Media Ltd., through Jaspreet Sandeep C – 164 -165, Phase VIII - B, Industrial Focal Point, Mohali, SAS Nagar, Punjab. Neha Namita and Navjot. and B – 21, Industrial Focal Point, India had beaten Kazakhstan Jalandhar, Punjab. Editorial -0172--5050640 12-0 in their tournament open- Circulation - 0172-5050656 er Friday. India next face South Advertising - 0172-5050607 Editor-in-Chief : Sanjoy Narayan Korea Tuesday. Editor : Ramesh Vinayak IANS R.N.I. No. {Applied For}