LONDON: Manchester City’s tough week ended on a high note on Saturday when they won 4-0 at Blackburn Rovers to maintain their unbeaten start in the Premier League and stay level on points with Manchester United at the top of the table.

They sent Blackburn crashing to their biggest defeat of the season with second half goals from Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli and substitutes Samir Nasri and Stefan Savic who both scored their first goals for City.

It was their first match since their Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich on Tuesday when Carlos Tevez allegedly refused manager Roberto Mancini’s instructions to come on as a substitute and their delight at the end was in stark contrast to the gloom that has hovered around the club since then.

Champions United also maintained their unbeaten start with a 2-0 home win over Norwich City thanks to second half goals from Anderson, who scored with a header, and Danny Welbeck which gave them a club record 19th successive home league win.

United, who were far from convincing and could easily have fallen behind to any number of Norwich chances including one that hit a post, stay top on goal difference from City with both teams taking 19 points from their opening seven games. United have a goal difference of +19 compared to City’s +18.

United manager Alex Ferguson agreed Norwich made it difficult for his side, telling Sky Sports: “I thought we were far too slow in the build up in the first half but we changed things around in the second and we dominated, but the thing about that kind of game is when you dominate and don’t take your chances you’re liable on the counter-attack, but we deserved to win it in the end.”

In the day’s lunchtime kickoff, Liverpool won 2-0 at Everton in the 185th Merseyside league derby with late goals from Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. Everton played for more than an hour with 10 men after Jack Rodwell was sent off in the 23rd minute.

The dismissal was a controversial one because Rodwell played the ball cleanly and made minimal contact with Suarez as the momentum of his body carried him forwards, but referee Martin Atkinson showed him an instant red card.

Everton manager David Moyes said aftewards he was disappointed that a foul was given, never mind a sending off.

“It’s not for me to criticise the referee, but he probably ruined this game of football today,” he told Sky Sports.

THIRD PLACE

Newcastle United maintained their surprisingly good start to the season to remain unbeaten after seven matches following their 2-1 win at Molineux to inflict a fourth consecutive league defeat on Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Newcastle won with goals from Demba Ba, his fourth in two games, and Jonas Gutierrez to climb to third after their best start in 17 years and they will stay there at least until Chelsea play at bottom-placed Bolton Wanderers on Sunday.

Wolves had a late goal ruled out when a linesman, wearing a cap to shade his eyes from the sun, ruled that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up, although it appeared he might have got his call wrong.

Aston Villa, also unbeaten with two wins and five draws from their opening games, sent Wigan Athletic to a fourth successive league defeat and down to 17th with a 2-0 win at Villa Park.

Gabriel Agbonlahor and Darren Bent were on target for Villa who ended the day in sixth place.

Sunderland drew 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion after trailing 2-0 inside the opening five minutes at the Stadium of Light.

Steve Morison and Shane Long gave West Brom the early initiative but Sunderland were level with two quick goals of their own midway through the first half from Nicklas Bendtner and Ahmed Elmohamady.

City were the highest scorers of the day with their four at Ewood Park, but their afternoon was marred when Argentine striker Aguero limped off in the first half with groin injury. (Agencies)

New Delhi: Olympic hero Vijender Singh was on Saturday ousted in the very first round, upstaged by his Cuban nemesis Emilio Correa Bayeux, but Jai Bhagwan entered the second round on a mixed day for Indian boxers at the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Vijender, a bronze-medallist at the previous World Championships in Milan and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, lost 9-16 to Bayeux in the opening bout of the 75kg middleweight category.

Bayeux had beaten the Asian Games gold-medallist Indian in the Olympic semifinals before a hand injury took away almost a year from him.

“Bayeux kept a shell guard in the first round and scored through occassional uppercuts. That spoilt the bout for us. Besides he managed to connect a very powerful uppercut in the final round which resulted in an eight count for Vijender,” national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said.

The loss means that the seventh-seeded Indian will have to wait till next year’s Asian Olympic qualifiers to make the cut for the London Games as he needed to reach at least the quarterfinals to qualify from the ongoing event.

But Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Jai Bhagwan thrashed Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania to enter the second round. Jai beat Petrauskas, a Youth Olympics gold-medallist, 15-8 to enter the second round where he will take on Czech Miroslav Serban. Serban beat Nuwan Thennakoon of Sri Lanka 16-10 in his opening bout.

Vijender, who has slipped from top to number eight in the world rankings, was trailing from the start, finishing the opening round 1-4 down.

However, Jai ensured that India had something to cheer about with his win in the afternoon session. (PTI)

New Delhi: If the ‘Steve McMahon Football Academy’ has its way, English Premier League giants and one of the most widely followed club, Liverpool FC could soon visit India for a pre-season friendly.

Kids enrolled at the academy, whose chief coach and mentor is the former England and Liverpool player, had their first training session at the Genesis Global ground in Noida today.

After a brief session with the kids, former English footballer Paul Masefiel, who is McMahon’s assistant at the academy, said, “If we are doing so much (in terms of promoting the sport) we hope to bring Liverpool to India in the near future.”

Masefield said that the aim is to produce someone like Sachin Tendulkar in Indian football.

“We have to create role modes like Sachin Tendulkar and Bhaichung Bhutia who have played against better teams abroad to develop his game. He has been fantastic for Indian football.

“The talented ones will be taken to Liverpool where they can develop their skills.”

Even though the academy is charging an exorbitant fee of Rs 45,000 annually, they said they will make provisions for the ones with extraordinary talents even if they struggle to pay the fees.

“This is not a finishing school. And compared to sending kids to other countries to obtain training, it is much cheaper,” said Gurveer Singh, sports director at Genesis. The academy will cater to kids from age-group of eight to 16 with the aim of targeting them at young age. (PTI)

Beijing: Caroline Wozniacki hopes to keep the World No.1 ranking at the end of the tennis season.

The 21-year-old Wozniacki, who is the defending champion of China Open beginning here Saturday, reached the top of the ranking ladder by beating Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2 in the third round last year. Wozniacki regarded it as the highlight of her tennis career.

“I reached No.1 ranking for the first time here, and it definitely brings back good memories,” Wozniacki was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“Reaching the top is always something special and not a lot people have done it, so definitely thinking back on Beijing last year it is a great memory.”

Wozniacki hoped that she could still keep the ranking after the year-ending Istanbul WTA tour championships later this month. If that happens the Dane will be end as No. 1 for the second consecutive year.

“I definitely hope that I will. After being so many weeks at No.1, I wish to stay there until the end of the season and until the new year. I will do everything to try to do well here and in Istanbul.”

As the reigning champion of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Wozniacki was eliminated in the third round by the 43rd-ranked Estonian Kaia Kanepi, but she is still confident about defending the title here.

“Of course, every time I go into a tournament I want to win it.” (IANS)

New Delhi: With only 30 days left for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, the Delhiites on Saturday got the first taste of Formula One with young racer Daniel Ricciardo burning the rubber of a Red Bull Racing car on the historic Rajpath.

It was a fast and furious drive on a two-mile long stretch, with speed metre touching around 250kms during the show named ‘Speed Street’.

Ricciardo ran his car thrice on the Rajpath, enthralling the 2000-strong crowd. Incidentally, Ricciardo replaced India’s Narain Karthikeyan in the Hispania for the second half of the 2011 season,

Before Ricciardo’s performance, Ghost Riders — a group of five bikers — performed breath-taking freestyle stunts.

Ricciardo also shook a leg with a Bhangra Group, which performed in between.

At the end of his performance, Ricciardo held the Indian tri-colour and waved to the crowd, drawing huge cheers.

The Australian racer later addressed a chaotic press conference and said F1 would prove to be beneficial for motorsport in the country.

“With Karun and Narain racing (in home race), it’s good for the country. Force India are also doing well,” he said.

Karthikeyan is the only Indian driver confirmed for the October 30 race as Karun Chandhok’s Team Lotus has not yet made it clear whether he will get a chance to race on his home track.

Ricciardo said Narain is his “main competitor in the Hispania team” as the two shared 2011 calender races between them with Vitatonio Liuzzi being the lead driver. Asked what speed he managed while driving today, he said, “I am not sure but I think I was close to 270kms.”

Then there was rock-group Indian Ocean belting out their chartbuster — ‘Areey Ruk Ja Re Bandey’.

Six Renault Koleos cars added to the excitement by putting up a decent stunt show during the event. (PTI)