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Everton ends Mourinho’s unbeaten return to Chelsea

Sept. 15, 2013 - 20:25 By Korea Herald
LONDON (AP) ― Jose Mourinho endured his first Premier League loss since returning to Chelsea, and Manchester City was frustrated in a draw at Stoke.

For Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham, however, there were routine victories as the league swung back into action for the first time since the transfer window closed in the international break.

Samuel Eto’o failed to make an immediate scoring impact on his Chelsea debut as Steven Naismith gave Everton a 1-0 win.

Naismith headed into the net from close range in first-half stoppage time on his 27th birthday after Nikica Jelavic nodded the ball across to the forward.

While it was Roberto Martinez’s first win as Everton manager after three draws, Chelsea has two wins in four league matches since Mourinho returned after six years.

“We didn’t deserve to lose because we were the best team, because we played the best football because we dominated the whole game,” Mourinho said.

Arsenal reaped some early reward from its decision to spend a club-record $66 million on Mesut Ozil on transfer deadline day two weeks ago. The German playmaker set up Olivier Giroud for the opener before in-form Aaron Ramsey scored twice in a 3-1 win at Sunderland. United States striker Jozy Altidore was denied a goal for Sunderland that would have made it 2-2.

Manchester City’s mixed start to the season continued by scraping a 0-0 draw at Stoke. United was also far from fluent in a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace that turned on a contentious decision to send off Kagisho Dikgacoi in the 43rd minute for a foul on Ashley Young.

Despite the challenge coming outside the area, a penalty was awarded ― and converted by Robin van Persie ― before Wayne Rooney curled in an 81st-minute free kick to hand David Moyes a first success at Old Trafford. Rooney was playing with a thick headband to cover a deep cut to the forehead sustained in a training-ground incident two weeks ago. Tottenham began life without Gareth Bale, who joined Real Madrid two weeks ago, by outclassing Norwich 2-0 with a double from Gylfi Sigurdsson. Arsenal and Tottenham are level on nine points while the Manchester rivals both are on 7.

Spain

Gareth Bale had a bittersweet debut for Real Madrid following his world-record transfer fee, scoring a goal while his new team played to a 2-2 draw at Villarreal.

The draw left Barcelona and Atletico Madrid as the only perfect teams through four rounds in the Spanish league following their wins.

Barcelona needed an injury-time goal by Alexis Sanchez to edge Sevilla 3-2 after conceding two late goals at home, while Atletico rolled to a 4-2 win over Almeria.

Other than Bale’s goal in the 38th minute, Madrid was outplayed in the first half and only Diego Lopez’s goalkeeping kept it 1-1 by halftime after Ruben “Cani” Garcia beat him in the 21st.

Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo hit off the break two minutes after an exhausted Bale was substituted in the 62nd, but Cani’s hard strike led to Giovani Dos Santos netting the rebound to split the points in the 70th. Real Sociedad was held to 0-0 in a lackluster performance at Levante.

Germany

Borussia Dortmund maintained its winning start to the Bundesliga with a comprehensive 6-2 rout of Hamburger SV on Saturday. Bayern Munich also won, defeating Hannover 2-0 for an 11th straight league win at home.

Former Bayern midfielder Luiz Gustavo was sent off for the second time in his third game for new club Wolfsburg, which lost 3-1 at Bayer Leverkusen. Eintracht Frankfurt won 3-0 at 10-man Werder Bremen, Augsburg came from behind to beat Freiburg 2-1, and Schalke won 1-0 at Mainz.