LONDON, 1 September 2003 — Arsenal opened a three-point lead at the top of the early premier league standings with a 2-1 victory at Manchester City after Manchester United lost 1-0 at Southampton yesterday.

Arsenal recovered from a Lauren own goal with strikes by Sylvain Wiltord and Freddie Ljungberg to make it four straight wins, their best start since 1947, and move to 12 points.

Champions United, the only other team to win their first three games, were sunk by James Beattie’s 88th-minute header and remained second on nine points.

Cameroon defender Lauren, under pressure from Trevor Sinclair as he ran toward his own goal, sliced the ball past a bemused Jens Lehmann to give City a 10th-minute lead, which they did not look like losing as Arsenal failed to spark in the first half.

However, French forward Wiltord, left unmarked in the box, scrambled an equalizer three minutes after the break and Arsenal dominated the rest of the match.

Lehmann saved twice in a minute to deny Antoine Sibierski and Nicolas Anelka during a lively City spell midway through the second half but a defensive mix-up between China’s Sun Jihai and former Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman allowed Ljungberg to poke the visitors ahead after 72 minutes. Veteran defender Martin Keown then came close to a second own goal in the 88th minute when he deflected the ball against his own crossbar but Arsenal survived.

United also looked jaded as they suffered their first league defeat since last December.

Two long-range shots by Diego Forlan, both parried by Paul Jones, were the nearest they came to scoring, and American goalkeeper Tim Howard made good saves to deny Beattie and Kevin Phillips.

The game looked to be heading for a draw, which would have been Southampton’s fourth in a row, until Howard failed to collect a Graeme Le Saux corner and Beattie accepted the gift from point-blank range.

Juventus Make Impressive

Start to Title Defense

Italian champions Juventus led a sweep of season-opening victories for the top Serie A clubs as they crushed Empoli 5-1 yesterday.

Juve strikers Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and Marco Di Vaio scored in Turin but it was a different story at the San Siro, where Inter Milan struggled against Modena before late goals sealed a 2-0 victory for last season’s runners-up.

Both Rome-based clubs won, Lazio, inspired by former AC Milan midfielder Demetrio Albertini, outclassing promoted Lecce 4-1 and AS Roma beating Udinese 2-1.