MANCHESTER, England, Sept 25, (Agencies): Premier League champions Chelsea found their goal-scoring form abruptly halted on Saturday by a depleted Manchester City defence and the individual brilliance of Carlos Tevez. The Argentine forward’s excellent solo run from the halfway line ended with a right-footed strike through Ashley Cole’s legs and past keeper Petr Cech as the ball hit the left post on its way into the net in the 59th minute. Coming into the match with too few fit defenders against a team who had scored 21 goals in five matches was not ideal preparation but City coach Roberto Mancini brought in young Dedryk Boyata at right back, also adding pace to that flank.

Keeper Joe Hart did not have a save to make as Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure dealt calmly with rare Chelsea threats but it was in midfield where the battle was won with Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry pivotal in winning and keeping the ball.
Yaya Toure and James Milner built the momentum forward, while David Silva was lively although still lacking an instinctive connection with Tevez.
Despite his team being the first to tame the league leaders, Mancini still believes the Londoners will retain the title.
“I think Chelsea is the better team in the Barclays Premier League. I think they will probably win the title,” he told a news conference.
“It is not possible that they score four or five goals every game, sometimes (it is) like today, but I think they are a better team.”

Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti put the defeat down to a bad day at the office, with Didier Drogba barely threatening and Florent Malouda also quiet. Michael Essien provided most of the attempts but his speculative long-range shots went well wide.
“It is not a good place for us,” said the Italian. “It was not a good performance by the team. We did well five times, we missed this time.”
Tevez lived up to his reputation as a thorn in Chelsea’s side after scoring in both of City’s wins over Chelsea last season. Despite his individual brilliance, he refused to lap up the glory.
Instead he diverted attention to a birthday greeting to his mother which he revealed when he pulled up his shirt in celebration and when he got a standing ovation he responded by applauding the crowd.
While City are far from the finished article with their expensively assembled team still working out how to gel, they proved to their critics that they can compete with the top four.

West Brom 3, Arsenal 2
In London, manager Arsene Wenger was left scratching his head after Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday, going down 3-2 to promoted West Bromwich Albion in their Premier League match at the Emirates.
It could have been worse for Arsenal as West Brom missed a penalty before surging into a 3-0 lead.
Samir Nasri’s late goals proved too little too late for the Gunners who travel to Partizan Belgrade in the Champions League on Tuesday before visiting leaders Chelsea next weekend.
While Wenger refused to criticise individuals, the performance of goalkeeper Manuel Almunia will worry him and lead to fresh scrutiny of the Spaniard.

Despite saving a first-half penalty from Chris Brunt, having conceded the foul, Almunia was at fault as Gonazalo Jara made it 2-0 and was not blameless when former Arsenal player Jerome Thomas put the visitors 3-0 in front.
West Brom, regarded as a yo-yo team who rarely last more than a season in the Premier League, have made a tremendous start under former Chelsea midfielder Roberto di Matteo.
The Italian’s side faced a daunting start with Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in quick succession, but after six games they are fifth with 10 points.

Liverpool 2, Sunderland 2
In Liverpool, Steven Gerrard saved Liverpool from another embarrassing defeat as the Reds captain salvaged a 2-2 draw against Sunderland at Anfield on Saturday.
Roy Hodgson’s side trailed 2-1 early in the second half as Darren Bent’s double for Sunderland stunned the struggling hosts, who had taken the lead through Dirk Kuyt’s controversial early goal.
The prospect of a third league defeat in six matches this season was looming large for Hodgson, who had been strongly criticised following Liverpool’s dismal League Cup exit on penalties against fourth-tier Northampton in midweek. But Gerrard levelled to leave Liverpool relieved to escape a traumatic week without another loss.

Hodgson freely admitted before the game that the loss to Northampton was entirely his fault because of how weak the team was that he had selected.
For the Northampton game, he replaced every member of the side that lost to Manchester United last Sunday in the belief his squad was still good enough to cruise past the Cobblers but it backfired badly.
Hodgson went back to his first choice squad for this encounter, while Sunderland defender Titus Bramble, who was arrested during the week on suspicion of rape, kept his place in the visitors’ team.
It took Liverpool just two minutes to show their desire to erase that League Cup misery as Fernando Torres volleyed into the roof of the net, only for his goal to be ruled out for offside.
It set an early marker and just three minutes later Liverpool opened the scoring in bizarre fashion.

West Ham 1, Spurs 0
In London, West Ham moved off the bottom of the Premier League table after inflicting defeat on former manager Harry Redknapp for the first time with a 1-0 victory over Spurs.
Frederic Piquionne’s first-half goal earned West Ham their first victory of the season as their London rivals stumbled badly ahead of next week’s Champions League tie with FC Twente. The result ended former West Ham manager Redknapp’s proud record of being undefeated against the Hammers since he left the club.
West Ham manager Avram Grant made six changes to his starting line-up, despite seeing his side beat Sunderland 2-1 in the League Cup in midweek.
Among the players recalled were goalkeeper Robert Green and midfielder Kieron Dyer, but there was no place for Carlton Cole, named on the bench.
As expected, Tottenham also made wholesale changes from the team that lost to Arsenal in the League Cup. Just Sebastien Bassong started both matches.
West Ham started the brighter with Victor Obinna squeezing his shot wide of the post in the opening minute. Defender Manuel da Costa then headed wide.

Everton 0 Fulham 0
In London, Everton slipped to the bottom of the Premier League after being held to a frustrating 0-0 draw against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
David Moyes’ side have taken just three points from their opening six matches of the season and this result combined with West Ham’s victory over Tottenham to leave them stuck to the foot of the table.
The Toffees were tipped to challenge for the title by Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in August, but they are still waiting for their first league win and could be facing a fight just to preserve their top-flight status.
Everton had been boosted by the return from injury of Australia midfielder Tim Cahill, who had missed the last two games with a knee injury, and Moyes’ men made a bright start.
South Africa midfielder Steven Pienaar saw his long-range effort saved by Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
Fulham suffered a blow when right-back Stephen Kelly limped off to be replaced by Chris Baird midway through the first half.
But Mark Hughes’ side finally threatened as Zoltan Gera fired wide from outside the penalty area.

Birmingham 0 Wigan 0
In Birmingham, Wigan and Birmingham ground out a dull 0-0 draw on Saturday but some consolation for the hosts was that it equalled a club record of 18 matches unbeaten at home in the top flight.
However, the draw leaves Wigan hovering over the relegation zone while Birmingham — who have just two wins in their last 16 Premier League matches — are mid-table but only three points clear of the drop.
Charles N’Zogbia who had been on the point of moving to Birmingham before the deal collapsed last month had the only worthwhile shot on goal in the opening half hour but Ben Foster proved equal to the task.
The hosts, though, had the better of the remaining 15 minutes of the first-half with Swedish international Sebastian Larsson going close with two efforts.

Blackburn 2 Blackpool 1
In Blackpool, Australian midfielder Brett Emerton came off the substitutes’ bench to score a stoppage time winner as Blackburn beat Blackpool 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Blackburn was gifted the lead in the 20th minute when a cross by El-Hadji Diouf was flicked on by Nikola Kalinic and Blackpool defender Charlie Adam intervened with a cushioned header back for his ‘keeper, only for Matthew Gilks to be caught completely wrong-footed by the pass.
Blackpool looked to have snatched a 1-1 draw, though, when Matt Phillips came on as an 84th minute substitute and scored an equalizer one minute later.

But Emerton, who had replaced Mame Diouf at the start of the second half, grabbed the winner in the third minute of stoppage time.
It was a bitterly frustrating finish for the home side as Blackpool had started well, with 33-year-old striker Brett Ormerod forcing Blackburn’s Spanish defender Michel Salgado to head against his own bar.
The own goal proved to be a major setback and Blackburn could have been 2-0 up just six minutes later when Chris Samba met a Morten Gamst Pedersen cross with a deft header against the post.
El-Hadji Diouf was an even bigger threat in the second half, setting up Emerton inside the box for a drive which Gilks did well to parry and then teeing up Kalinic for an elaborate attempt at a volley which flew wide. Diouf whipped in yet another cross soon after and Gilks produced an even better save to keep out a Phil Jones header from point-blank range.