LONDON
- Premier League leader Chelsea extended its season-opening winning
streak with a 2-0 home win over Stoke on goals by Florent Malouda and
Didier Drogba on Saturday, while Arsenal and Manchester United also
posted victories to remain close behind.
Malouda
opened the scoring for the defending champions in the 31st minute,
before Drogba joined the winger on four goals for the season by sealing
Chelsea's third successive win with a 77th-minute penalty.
Russia
forward Andrey Arshavin scored a 51st-minute goal to give Arsenal a 2-1
victory over Blackburn. United also stayed unbeaten and two points
behind Chelsea after thrashing West Ham 3-0, with Wayne Rooney ending
his scoring drought.
Rooney ends drought in Man U win; Wigan suprises Tottenham
Wenger: Gunners proved a point
Wenger: Gunners proved a pointArsene Wenger believes Arsenal have answered questions about their Premier League title credentials following a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Blackburn Rovers.
Goals from Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin cancelled out a solitary reply from Mame Biram Diouf as the Gunners left Ewood Park with three points in the bag.
The north London club lost the corresponding fixtures by the same scoreline last season as their title challenge crumbled during the second half of the campaign.
But with the critics still suggesting that Arsenal do not have the stomach necessary to grind out results against certain opposition, Wenger believes they have now answered some of those questions.
"Last year we had bad memories here and because we knew they would play the kind of game we don't like we had not enough confidence to deal with that," said the Frenchman.
"If you have ambition in this league you have got to win at Blackburn.
"If you fail to win at Blackburn - if you go to clubs like that and you don't win - your ambition will not be respected by the other teams so it was an important test for us.
"The players are committed and we had that little bit more experience today, even if on just one or two occasions we were a bit lucky."
Meanwhile, Wenger expects to be without Robin van Persie for around 10 days after the Netherlands striker limped out of his first start of the season with an ankle injury.