Manchester United moved top of the league, but it is Chelsea who will steal the headlines after a stunning 6-0 demolition of Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Much has been made of Avram Grant’s plans to reinvent Chelsea as a more attacking side but nobody can have expected as quick or emphatic a statement as this against a City side that had previously conceded just seven goals in ten Premier League matches. Didier Drogba, in particular, ran Sven-Goran Eriksson’s third-placed side ragged, registering Chelsea’s second and third strikes either side of half time and nodding Alex’s ball forward into Joe Cole’s path for the fourth.

Earlier Michael Essien had opened the scoring, taking Frank Lampard’s pass into the box and lashing the ball across the face of City goalkeeper Joe Hart. Salomon Kalou and Andriy Shevchenko then added gloss to the win, the latter finally snatching his second goal in 25 Premier League games when he buried an inviting throughball from Essien.

For all they were eclipsed by events at Stamford Bridge Manchester United will be extremely pleased with their own 4-1 defeat of Middlesbrough at Old Trafford. Briefly pegged back by Jeremie Aliadiere after Nani opened the scoring with a stunning effort from outside the box, United responded through Wayne Rooney before Carlos Tevez added gloss with a well-taken brace.

At the other end of the table Birmingham twice came from behind to pick up their third win over the season, Oliver Kapo scoring twice in a 3-2 win over Wigan. Fulham, on the other hand, had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Sunderland after blowing yet another lead when Kenwyne Jones’s late header cancelled out Simon Davies’s first-half opener.

Newcastle, meanwhile, fell to their third defeat in five away Premier League games under Sam Allardyce, going down 2-1 at Reading. The Magpies looked to have secured a point when Michael Duberry put through his own net with just over ten minutes remaining, but substitute Shane Long secured the points for Reading minutes later with one of his first touches after coming off the bench.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his plan to set up a Mediterranean Union, a loose grouping of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, in 2008 — a move that is likely to raise eyebrows in some parts of Europe.

“I invite all the heads of state and government of countries bordering the Mediterranean to meet in France in June 2008 to lay the foundations of a political, economic and cultural union founded on the principles of strict equality”, Mr Sarkozy said during his visit to Morocco on Tuesday (23 October).

He added that “in the Mediterranean will be decided whether or not civilisations and religions will wage the most terrible of wars…whether or not the North and the South will clash”.

The idea of a Mediterranean Union is not a completely new one — it was floated by Mr Sarkozy leader during the French presidential campaign in spring of this year.

Under the plans, the group should tie southern Europe with Northern Africa as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours and tackle topical issues such as counter-terrorism, immigration, energy, trade, water and sustainable development.

However — after offering Turkey that it could be the backbone of the club — the project has been widely seen as another attempt to give Ankara an alternative for its bid for full EU membership.

Mixed reactions

According to the European Commission, it is “good” to have initiatives promoting regional cooperation, however, they “should build on existing structures”.

There are fears that France’s proposal would try to bypass the 12-year-old Barcelona process, designed to foster dialogue between the EU bloc and ten countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean — Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Libya has observer status since 1999.

“It is a successful process”, the commission spokesperson said on Thursday (25 October), indicating the executive body will want more details on any new union.

According to media reports, some EU capitals are also set to seek clarification of Mr Sarkozy’s ideas, with a few even indicating it may be part of his efforts to push his own country’s interests in the region.

Only seven EU countries — Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain — would be part of the new bloc, the rest would have a role of silent observer.

In his speech in Morocco, Mr Sarkozy himself drew a rather blurry picture of the project.

On the one hand, he called on Mediterranean people “to do the same thing, with the same goal and the same method” as the 27-nation EU bloc has done, but at the same time, he said it would not be based on the EU model.

Andy Murray battled past third seed Mikhail Youzhny in three sets to reach the final of the St Petersburg Open and maintain his slim hopes of playing in next month’s Masters Cup.

Murray eventually needed a just over two and a half hours to tie up the 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-1) to see off home favourite Youzhny, one of his direct rivals for the remaining places in Shanghai, but had briefly threatened a far more straightforward victory as he stormed into a 4-0 first set lead. Youzhny finally held serve to make it 4-1 but had rarely threatened Murray as he served out the set.

World No19 Youzhny, however, continued to improve, finally forcing a break point in the fourth game of the second set. Murray dug deep to hold, but Youzhny continued to keep him under pressure before finally breaking him in the final game of the set.

Murray appeared to be losing his composure, racking up an increasing number of unforced errors before alternate forehands into the net and then beyond the baseline saw him broken in the fourth game of the decider. Immediately he had two points to break back, but Youzhny found powerful serves to eventually hold for 4-1.

After three more games the home favourite served for the match but Murray dug in and claimed a match-saving break to stay alive. Youzhny forced a match-point in the next game only for the Briton to scramble for a morale-boosting hold to make it 5-5.

The match went to a tie-break and Murray raced into a 4-0 lead before Youzhny’s double fault handed him a 7-1 win and a place in the final where he will meet either Marian Cilic or Fernando Verdasco.