champions United contested the Community Shield against Chelsea, the winners of the previous season's FA Cup. The game finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, United winning the game on penalties. Premier League August–December Manchester United started the season by drawing their opening two games against Reading and Portsmouth. United lost Wayne Rooney to a foot injury picked up against Reading and Cristiano Ronaldo to suspension after he was sent off for appearing to headbutt Portsmouth's Richard Hughes. A derby defeat to Manchester City saw the club slip into 17th place in the table. Results elsewhere pushed them into the relegation zone for the first time in years. The following week at home to Tottenham Hotspur, Nani scored his first competitive goal for the club to give United their first win of the season. Two more 1–0 victories followed, first against Sunderland, where Louis Saha scored in his first game back from injury, and then away to Everton through a Nemanja Vidić header. Next up were Chelsea, fellow members of the Big Four who had parted company with manager José Mourinho only two days earlier, following a run of poor form, appointing his assistant Avram Grant in his place. Chelsea's poor form continued into their next match, and the Reds claimed a 2–0 victory, goals from Carlos Tevez and Louis Saha coming at the end of each half. After eight games of the season, United had conceded just two goals, three less than at the same point in the previous season. However, the team was having trouble in front of goal, only scoring seven goals in the same eight games. This changed on 6 October, however, when United beat Wigan Athletic 4–0, followed by their 7th and 8th consecutive league wins, both 4–1, against Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, the latter being their fourth consecutive game in which they have scored four goals, the first time in 100 years they had done so. United then travelled to London where they played Arsenal, in a very media-hyped game, which ended 2–2 after a William Gallas equaliser for the Gunners in the last minute of stoppage time. Despite the Arsenal draw, United got back on track by beating Blackburn 2–0 the following week, as Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in two minutes to secure the win. United's ten-game unbeaten streak in the league came to an end when they travelled to the Reebok Stadium to