By Xinhua
London : A controversial penalty earned Chelsea a fortunate 1-1 draw at Liverpool while Manchester United’s English Premier League opening woes aggravated as they crashed to a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Elsewhere, a mistake by goalkeeper Jens Lehmann cost Arsenal two points Sunday against Blackburn Rovers as the sides drew 1-1 at Ewood Park.
City made it three wins out of three this season to top the league table after Geovanni’s 31st-minute strike gave his team an unlikely victory in the highly charged Manchester derby at Eastlands.
United, who have two draws and a loss, trail Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side by seven points just three games into the new season.
At Anfield, referee Rob Styles adjudged Liverpool’s Steve Finnan to have fouled Florent Malouda in the 62nd minute although the Chelsea player appeared to have deliberately bumped into the defender.
Frank Lampard scored the resulting spot-kick to equalise Fernando Torres’ 16th-minute goal for the Liverpool as both sides saw their 100 percent starts to the season come to an end.
Even as the penalty award was hotly contested by the home side, Styles created another talking point when he later flashed the yellow card at both John Terry and Matt Essien, who had been booked earlier in the match.
However, the Hampshire official later clarified that he had only booked Terry.
“Unbelievable” was Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez’s comment on Styles’ decision to award Chelsea the penalty.
A fuming Steven Gerrard, who played against Chelsea with a pain-killing injection for his broken toe, accused Styles of cracking under pressure.
“I think a very, very unfair decision has got Chelsea a point today. But I think we proved today we are capable of challenging,” said the Liverpool captain.
“I felt the referee didn’t play well today. There was a lot of pressure from the Chelsea players and I thought he eventually cracked.”
The game deteriorated into a spiteful battle in the latter stages and it finished with nine bookings in total.
Carragher was booked for arguing before Lampard drove the spot-kick home. Two minutes later Ben-Haim was also shown yellow with Lampard and Terry following as Chelsea fumed at what they perceived as a Torres dive looking for a free-kick.
Manchester United dominated the local derby right from kick-off and the home side had created nothing until they took the lead when Geovanni’s shot deflected home off Nemanja Vidic.
The Brazilian scored just past the half-hour mark with only City’s second shot of the game, as he fired past Edwin van der Sar from 25 yards.
Vidic almost made amends just after the break when he headed against the bar and United set the tone for a one-way half of football.
However, Carlos Tevez missed a host of chances, including one in the final minute when he headed over at the far post after City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel had failed to gather a corner.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was actually celebrating a goal when Tevez headed wide to leave City fortunate winners.
At Ewood Park, Robin van Persie’s second goal of the season put visiting Arsenal in front and on course for victory.
But with 18 minutes remaining, Lehmann allowed a shot from David Dunn to slip through his hands for his second high-profile blunder in as many weeks.
Blackburn was forced to hang on in the closing minutes after defender Ryan Nelsen was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.