Champions Manchester United were held to a disappointing goalless home draw by ten-men Birmingham while rivals Chelsea defeated Birmingham 3-2 in record-breaking fashion in their Premier League opener on Sunday.
In the day's other game, Arsenal came from behind to snatch a dramatic late 2-1 win over Fulham at the Emirates Stadium, leaving the Red Devils the only one of England's big four without a winning start.
Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-1 on Saturday with a fine late strike by captain Steven Gerrard.
At Old Trafford, the hosts dominated game but could not find a way past a stubborn Reading defence and an inspired Marcus Hahnemann.
To add to the Reds' misery, forward Wayne Rooney suffered a serious-looking foot injury, which proved to be a hairline fracture, mafter Michael Duberry accidentally landed on his left foot in the 37th minute and was forced off at the break.
United missed his spark badly and even after Dave Kitson had been sent off 37 seconds after his introduction as a substitute for a foul on Patrice Evra, the hosts could not penetrate the Royals' defence.
United will be devastated to lose Rooney, who had already suffered two broken metatarsals in his short career, at the start of the season, with fellow forwards Carlos Tevez and Louis Saha short of match fitness.
It also casts doubt on whether the 21-year-old will be fit for England's Euro 2008 qualifiers on September 8 and 12 while England manager Steve McClaren is virtually certain to be without Rooney for the friendly against Germany on August 22.
Michael Essien grabbed the winning goal for Chelsea as they set an English record of 64 league matches unbeaten at home, one better than Liverpool's efforts between 1978 and 1981.
Mikael Forssell opened the scoring for the visitors with a shock 15th-minute header before Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda scored on their home debuts.
City levelled with a left-footed strike from their new signing Olivier Kapo, but Essien gave Chelsea a deserved victory with a curling shot from Shaun Wright-Phillips's cut-back five minutes into the second half.
A terrible mistake by Gunners keeper Jens Lehmann gave Fulham a shock lead after just 52 seconds through David Healy's tap-in.
However, a late penalty from Robin van Persie and Alexander Hleb's strike in the 90th minute finally broke the brave resistance of replacement keeper Tony Warner, taking place of Antti Niemi who injured himself during the warm-up.
Source: Xinhua
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