LONDON — Robin van Persie's late penalty earned below-par Manchester United a 2-1 victory over 10-man Liverpool in an emotionally-charged Premier League clash at Anfield and champion Manchester City was held to a 1-1 home draw by Arsenal Sunday. United's prolific Dutchman sealed the points when he fired his spot-kick past the despairing dive of Pepe Reina after Glen Johnson had brought down Antonio Valencia. Despite being well below its best, United moved into second spot with 12 points, one point behind leader Chelsea. City drew for third time in its opening five games, Laurent Koscielny equalizing late for Arsenal after Joleon Lescott had headed the host into a halftime lead. Both sides are unbeaten with nine points. Tottenham Hotspur has eight after Jermain Defoe scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers, Spurs' first home win under new manager Andre Villas-Boas. Demba Ba scored in a 1-0 win for Newcastle United over their former manager Chris Hughton's Norwich City. The first match at Anfield since this month's Hillsborough report cleared Liverpool's fans of blame for the deaths of 96 of supporters at the 1989 FA Cup semifinal sparked into life after 39 minutes when Jonjo Shelvey was red-carded. However, Liverpool deservedly went ahead straight after halftime through Steven Gerrard's volley, only for United to hit back six minutes later through a curling effort by fullback Rafael. Van Persie's late strike, his fifth league goal of the season, left Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers still awaiting his first league win of the season after five games, the club's worst start to a Premier League campaign. On Saturday, Chelsea needed a late winner by England fullback Ashley Cole to beat Stoke City 1-0. The European champion, without a win in its last three matches in all competitions, moved on to 13 points from five games ahead of Everton and West Bromwich Albion who have 10. Everton played superbly to win 3-0 at Swansea City, while West Brom won its third successive home match from the start of the season for the first time since 1954 with a 1-0 win over promoted Reading who dropped to bottom place. Fulham, which won 2-1 at Wigan Athletic moved up on nine points. Promoted Southampton climbed off the bottom of the table as it collected its first points of the season with a come-from-behind 4-1 win over a ragged-looking Aston Villa. Chelsea's Cole struck with five minutes to play when he hammered the ball past Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. — Agencies
