/world sport
LONDON, England -- Premier League leaders Arsenal maintained their superb start to the season with a hard-earned 1-0 win at West Ham to leave them two points clear of Manchester United at the top.
Van Persie takes the plaudits of his team-mates after his 13th minute strike.
United won 1-0 at Birmingham in the late kick-off with Cristiano Ronaldo marking his 100th league appearance for the champions with the only goal of the game.
Liverpool got their title challenge back on track with a 1-0 win at Wigan, but Chelsea had Didier Drogba sent off in the 74th minute as they were held to a disappointing 0-0 home draw by west London neighbors Fulham.
Robin van Persie's close-range header on 13 minutes proved enough for an eighth straight Arsenal victory, but were pushed all the way by West Ham with England hopeful Dean Ashton proving a handful up front.
Ashton came close to putting West Ham ahead in the early flourishes before Arsene Wenger's men took a 13th minute lead.
Emmanuel Adebayor held the ball up well on the right side of the area and fed a pass out to Alexander Hleb.
His cross flew across the six-yard box, where van Persie arrived on queue at the far post to glance a header past Robert Green, who was at full stretch and could only push the ball onto the post and in.
Avram Grant's first home game in charge of Chelsea proved calamitous as captain John Terry did not come out for the second half with a fractured cheekbone.
Terry could miss up to six weeks and miss Euro 2008 qualifiers for England against Estonia and Russia.
Drogba, who was returning after injury, was kept largely quiet by a strong Fulham defense and was shown his marching orders for a second bookable offence, meaning a one-game ban.
Yossi Benayoun ended Liverpool's mini-crisis at Wigan as he netted in the 75th minute for his first league goal for his new side.
Record signing Fernando Torres was in the starting line-up and impressed in the first half, but it was Israeli Benayoun who grabbed a valuable three ponts for Rafa Benitez's men.
Elsewhere, there was an extraordinary match at Fratton Park as Portsmouth thumped Reading 7-4 with Benjani Muraruwari scoring a hat-trick.
It was the highest scoring match in Premier League history and there could have been a 12th with Nicky Shorey having a penalty saved by Pompey's David James when his side trailed 3-2.
"I have never been involved in a game like that before," Reading manager Steve Coppell said. "It's hard to remember anything like that either as a player or a manager."
Blackburn won 2-1 at struggling Sunderland and the bottom two clubs Derby and Bolton drew 1-1. E-mail to a friend 
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