LONDON, 22 August 2004 — Chelsea went top of the Premier League with a 1-0 victory at Birmingham City, while Manchester United got back to winning ways by beating promoted Norwich City 2-1 on Saturday.
Chelsea, who started the season by beating United 1-0 last weekend, had been struggling to break Birmingham down before substitute midfielder Joe Cole scored with a deflected shot.
Frenchman David Bellion and new striker Alan Smith, volleying a superb first league goal, set United on their way at Old Trafford before substitute Paul McVeigh pulled one back for Norwich to set up a tense finale.
Captain Steven Gerrard fired Liverpool to a 2-1 comeback victory over Manchester City, Newcastle United suffered their first home defeat of 2004 when they went down 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur and 10-man Everton won 3-1 at Crystal Palace.
Fulham made a winning return to Craven Cottage, beating Bolton Wanderers 2-0 with both goals from Andy Cole, and striker James Beattie converted a stoppage-time penalty to give Southampton a dramatic 3-2 win over Blackburn Rovers.
Rangers Set Pace After Thrashing Hibernian
In Glasgow, Rangers warmed up for the second leg of their final Champions League qualifier with CSKA Moscow on Wednesday by thrashing Hibernian 4-1 to go top of the Scottish Premier League.
The Glasgow side are bidding to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit against the Russian champions and reach the Champions League group stages for a second successive season. Hearts joined Rangers on seven points after three games with an impressive 3-0 home rout of Kilmarnock.
Aberdeen continued their unbeaten start to the season and move on to five points as Noel Whelan’s 23rd minute goal gave them a 1-0 win at Dunfermline Athletic while Motherwell won 2-1 at Dundee. Dundee United and Livingston drew 1-1.
Hamburg Humbled in Cup; Kaiserslautern Score 15
In Hamburg, SV Hamburg yesterday became the first Bundesliga club to fall victim to lower opposition in the German Cup, when they were bundled out of the competition by third division Paderborn.
Second division club Erzgebirge Aue also fell prey to a third division club, Osnabruck, who won 3-2.
Troubled Bundesliga club Kaiserslautern, on the other hand, slammed 15 goals past Schoenberg.
There was no such embarrassment for Kaiserslautern, who trounced fourth division Schoenberg 15-0.
Former German international striker Carsten Jancker scored six, Ferydonn Zandi and Selim Teber each scored a hat-trick, while Christian Nerlinger, Kamil Kosowski and Marco Engelhardt scored one a piece.
Young German international Lukas Podolski, who plays for Cologne in the second division, scored four as his club trounced Saarbruecken 4-1.
Also not impressive were Dortmund, who managed a hard-fought 1-0 victory at third division Luebeck through a freekick goal by Nigerian Sunday Oliseh.
In other matches yesterday, Fortuna Duesseldorf lost 3-1 at home against VfL Bochum, the second side of Hanover 96 lost 3-0 at home against Rot Weiss Oberhausen, while Frankfurt won 1-0 at Rot Weiss Erfurt. Freiburg won 4-0 at Union Berlin.
