LONDON, 26 October 2003 — Champions Manchester United crashed to a sensational 3-1 home defeat by Fulham, while Chelsea went top with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in a pulsating day of Premier League action yesterday.
Lee Clark gave Fulham a third minute lead, Diego Forlan leveled for United just before the break but second-half goals from Steed Malbranque and substitute Junichi Inamoto gave the west Londoners their first win over United since 1964.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored Chelsea’s first-half winner to put them top on goals scored but level on 23 points with Arsenal, who play at Charlton Athletic today. United stay third on 22 points.
Elsewhere, Wolverhampton Wanderers produced an astonishing comeback to beat Leicester City 4-3 after trailing 3-0 at the break, Liverpool ended a three-match losing streak by beating Leeds United 3-1 and Newcastle United’s revival continued with a 3-0 win over Portsmouth.
Stuttgart Extend Unbeaten Run to Recapture Lead
In Berlin, VfB Stuttgart recaptured the lead in the Bundesliga by extending their unbeaten run to 10 games with a 1-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg yesterday.
Substitute striker Ioannis Amanatidis hit the winner in the 74th minute to send Stuttgart two points ahead of previous leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who entertain Borussia Moenchengladbach today. Two goals from prolific Brazilian striker Ailton helped Werder Bremen win 4-2 at SC Freiburg to move into third, level on points with second-placed Leverkusen.
Germany midfielder Sebastian Deisler and Dutch striker Roy Makaay both struck twice to present Bayern with a 4-1 win over Kaiserslautern that lifted the champions one place to fourth, three points off the pace.
Kaiserslautern were 3-0 down when Germany striker Miroslav Klose scored their goal in the 78th minute, two minutes after having a penalty saved by Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.
Troubled Hertha Berlin recorded their first victory of the season by winning 1-0 at Hansa Rostock.
Celtic Capitalize as Rangers Only Draw
In Glasgow, Scottish champions Rangers dropped five points behind Celtic at the top of the Premier League after in-form Livingston held them to a 0-0 home draw yesterday.
Leaders Celtic beat Aberdeen 4-0 at home thanks to a Henrik Larsson hat trick and a penalty from Chris Sutton.
Hearts moved into third place on 17 points, six adrift of Rangers, with a 4-1 win at Partick Thistle. Andy Kirk scored twice with Mark De Vries and Stephen Simmons adding one each. Richard Waddell grabbed Thistle’s consolation goal. Hibernian beat Kilmarnock 3-1 with early goals from Colin Murdock and Derek Riordan. Colin Nish pulled one back to make it an uncomfortable last 10 minutes for the Easter Road side until Gary O’Connor scored in the 90th minute.
