Their meeting with the champions at Highbury on 12 December appears increasingly decisive

Their meeting with the champions at Highbury on 12 December appears increasingly decisive and is one to relish.Mourinho is already breaking records. This comfortable victory, over a Southampton side in a pathetic, self-inflicted freefall, gave Chelsea their best start to a season in the top flight and two more wins would establish their most successful start ever Not that Mourinho stayed around to discuss it. Granted, Manchester United may join them but, as their midfielder Darren Fletcher – young as he is – noted, they are already playing catch-up. And on Saturday two more dropped points meant that they slipped further behind, setting them, before August is out, a daunting task.
Chelsea are in the Kelly Holmes position, meanwhile Tucked in, comfortable, waiting to strike They are winning within themselves. Six goals for and one against may sound like just a single scoreline for Arsenal, but it has garnered Jose Mourinho’s side 12 points from four games and with it parity at the top. Just four games in and the Premiership is looking like a two-horse race Both are thoroughbreds. Not so encouraging were the early departure of David Thompson with an ankle injury on his long-awaited comeback and the subdued debut of winger Morten Gamst Pedersen.Goals: Dickov (17) 1-0; Smith (90) 1-1.Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel; Neill, Short, Amoruso, Matteo; Thompson (Emerton, 17), Ferguson, Tugay, Pedersen; Stead (Yorke, 64), Dickov (Johansson, 71).

Substitutes not used: Enckelman (gk), De Pedro.Manchester United (4-3-3): Howard; G Neville, O’Shea, Silvestre, Spector (Miller, 75); Djemba-Djemba (Bellion, 80), Scholes, Kleberson (Saha h/t); Ronaldo, Smith, Giggs. Substitutes not used: Carroll (gk), P Neville.Booked: Blackburn Rovers: Stead, Amoruso, Tugay. As for the handball, we would have given it if we had spotted it.”The main plus point for Souness was Rovers’ admirable work ethic. Saha clearly handled, accidentally and cruciall, in the build-up, while the Blackburn manager, Graeme Souness, not always the most accurate barometer when it comes to touchline rantings, insisted the final whistle should already have gone.Despite his pride that what he termed “a small club in east Lancashire” had gone so close to bringing down United’s superstars for the second time in five months, he was seething, yet more restrained than when cursing Andy D’Urso for awarding Southampton a contentious late penalty a week earlier.But the referee Alan Wiley, who also allowed a controversial David Beckham equaliser in this fixture three years ago, said: “The fourth official indicated there should be three minutes’ stoppage time I said there should be four. If recent events on Merseyside have finally fractured what Wayne Rooney once declared to be undying love between himself and Everton Football Club, then those a few degrees north-east might have convinced him about where to next tie the knot. Substitutes not used: Postma, Whittingham, Moore.Newcastle United: (4-4-2) Given; Carr, Hughes, O’Brien, Bernard (Elliott, 72); Bowyer (Ameobi, 77), Jenas, Butt, Robert; Kluivert (Shearer, 77), Bellamy.

Substitutes not used: Harper, Milner.Booked: Aston Villa: Samuel, Sorensen, Hendrie. Newcastle: Given.Referee: M Riley (Yorkshire).Man of the match: Olof Mellberg.Attendance: 36,305.. With the second period just 10 minutes old, Lee Bowyer mis-controlled and lost possession to JLloyd Samuel. With the Newcastle defence out of position, the full-back advanced and crossed. Given saved Gareth Barry’s initial strike, but Carlton Cole bundled in the rebound.Minutes later, after Thomas Sorensen had handled outside the area and then superbly saved Laurent Robert’s free-kick, Barry headed Villa back in front. The goal may have been scored while Newcastle’s Kluivert and the full-back, Olivier Bernard, were injured, but Solano was given far too much time to pick him out.