Liverpool back to winning ways in Premier League

LONDON (AP) :

Fernando Torres opened his account for the season as Liverpool beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 yesterday to claim their first win in the Premier League, while Darren Bent scored Sunderland's injury-time winner against Manchester City.

Liverpool started the match in the league's bottom three on just one point but Torres' 65th-minute volley allowed his team to climb into 13th place on four points. West Brom had James Morrison sent off with five minutes left.

Bent converted a penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time as Sunderland won 1-0 against big-spending City, which was looking to join Arsenal and Manchester United on seven points.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa beat Everton 1-0 thanks to Luke Young's ninth-minute strike to go fourth and Robbie Blake scored with a late free kick as 10-man Bolton recovered from going two goals down to draw 2-2 with Birmingham.

Chelsea leads the table with nine points after winning its first three games, the latest coming against Stoke on Saturday.

Torres started on his own up front after being rested for Liverpool's win in Trabzonspor last Thursday, which qualified the five-time European champions for the group stage of the Europa League, and played an integral part of most of his side's attacking moves at Anfield.

The Spain striker squandered a number of half-chances in the first half but found the target in the 65th minute when he met a cross by Dirk Kuyt with a right-foot volley into the bottom corner.

Confidence booster

"He is trying very hard at the moment and he is playing catch-up but I think that goal will be great for his confidence," Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson said of Torres.

Centreback Martin Skrtel also went close for Liverpool, who bounced back from a 3-0 defeat at City last Monday.

Morrison was sent off by referee Lee Probert after being penalised for a lunge at Torres as West Brom slipped to their second defeat in three matches.

A glaring miss by Carlos Tevez proved costly as City lost for the first time this season, dropping to ninth spot as a result.

Tevez missed an open goal in the 16th minute after being played in by Yaya Toure, and Bent made City pay by shooting his penalty low past Joe Hart deep into injury time after the England striker was fouled by Micah Richards.

City dominated the first half but failed to take advantage of their grip on the game, while Sunderland made the most of their opportunity despite losing striker Fraizer Campbell with what looked a serious injury.

At Villa Park, right back Young ran onto a through ball by namesake Ashley Young and placed his left-foot strike past the despairing dive of Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard for the winner.

Villa required some desperate defending to maintain their lead and climb to six points, with Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar seeing a shot strike the bar in the first half and Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel producing two great saves to deny substitute Louis Saha in the closing minutes.

Central defender Roger Johnson put Birmingham in front after four minutes against Bolton and was then involved in the incident that led to the sending off of Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen in the 37th.

Craig Gardner added a second for Birmingham in the 50th minute but Bolton bounced back, with Kevin Davies' penalty reducing the deficit and Blake's curling free kick 10 minutes from time sealing a superb comeback.