Chelsea ruin Robinho's dream start

Robinho, Britain’s most expensive footballer, made an instant impact on his Premier League debut for Manchester City yesterday, even though his side lost 3-1 to Chelsea. The Brazilian, who had flown 16,000 miles in the last week to play two World Cup qualifiers for his country in South America, only arrived back in England late on Thursday night. But he showed no signs of jet lag, scoring from a direct free kick just 12 minutes into the game in front of a record City of Manchester stadium crowd of 47,331.

In an irony that would not have been lost on the visitors, it was Chelsea who had first courted Robinho until City’s £32.4m bid at the close of the summer transfer window tempted Real Madrid. The goal prompted a furious row between Chelsea keeper Petr Cech and captain John Terry about the positioning of the defensive wall. However, Chelsea struck back within five minutes through Ricardo Carvalho.

Shortly after the interval, Frank Lampard added a second and Nicolas Anelka scored his second of the season with 20 minutes left. Chelsea are top of the Premier League but the win was overshadowed by the dismissal of Terry for bringing down Jo. He will be suspended from the game against Manchester United a week today. Lampard queried the sending-off, saying: “I’ve never seen a player get sent off for a professional foul with two players behind him,” and Chelsea are expected to appeal.

There was an unhappy club debut for the other big signing of the summer. Although £30m Dimitar Berbatov supplied the cross for Carlos Tevez to put Manchester United ahead against Liverpool after three minutes, it was the Merseysiders who took the points. A Wes Brown own goal and a 78th-minute strike from Ryan Babel gave manager Rafael Benitez a first league triumph over United in four years. United’s Nemanja Vidic was sent off. Liverpool are second behind Chelsea on goal difference.

Meanwhile, after the initial optimism that had surrounded news of Friday’s talks between Kevin Keegan and owner Mike Ashley, the gloom returned to Newcastle United. A 2-1 home defeat by Hull City was accompanied by protests, with home fans unveiling a banner calling for the departure of the “Cockney Mafia” – a reference to Ashley and Dennis Wise, the club’s director of football. Neither Ashley nor Wise were present at St James’ Park yesterday.

An Emmanuel Adebayor hat-trick helped Arsenal to a 4-0 win at Black-burn, while West Bromwich Albion earned their first victory of the season, coming from 2-1 down to beat West Ham 3-2.