Chelsea, Juventus simply perfect

SOCCER ROUNDUP

Defending champion Chelsea kept its English Premier League record perfect with a 4- 1 victory at Liverpool yesterday behind goals by Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Joe Cole and Geremi.

Chelsea has won its first eight league games — allowing only two goals — and is unbeaten in 37 straight.

It was the seventh game between the two clubs in a year and second in four days. Chelsea is 4- 2- 1 in those games.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, irritated that his club’s style of play has been called boring, responded after the victory.

“ I think it’s time to respect a little bit more my players and my team and Chelsea football club,” Mourinho said. “We’ve showed that we deserve a little bit more respect.

“ I think nobody, or almost nobody, gives us the respect we deserve. We are the team with more points, with more victories with more goals . . . What more do they want?”

Earlier, Arsenal escaped with a 1- 0 victory over Birmingham on an own- goal by Stephen Clemence in the 81st minute.

Arsenal has 13 points from seven games while Birmingham has six points from eight games. ITALY: Italian champion Juventus opened a five- point lead in Serie A with a 2- 0 win over Inter Milan behind goals from David Trezeguet and Pavel Nedved.

Juventus ( 6- 0- 0) has started the Champions League with two wins. Its last loss was to Inter in the Italian Super Cup on Aug. 20.

“ The most important thing is we played a great game and showed a lot of character,” Juventus coach Fabio Capello told Italy’s Sky TV. “ We dominated in midfield. ( Patrick) Vieira was excellent. We really allowed Inter very little.”

Paolo Maldini’s first two- goal game led AC Milan to a 2- 1 win over Reggina. The goals were Maldini’s first this season and the 26th and 27th of the 37year- old defender’s career.

“ My first two- goal game was very satisfying, also because playing central defence it is not often that I have scoring chances,” Maldini said.

Maldini was contemplating retirement a few weeks ago, worried that his battered knees could not hold up. “We will evaluate month by month. The cartilage, what little remains at least, is OK,” said Maldini, who made his Serie A debut in 1985 at the age of 16. SPAIN: Three Brazilians gave Real Madrid all the goals in a 4- 0 win over last- place Mallorca.

Roberto Carlos scored twice and Ronaldo and Julio Baptista added the others. It was the third straight win for Madrid.