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Sunday 6 October 2002:
  • Arsenal 3-1 Sunderland
  • Aston Villa 0-0 Leeds United
  • Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
  • Fulham 1-0 Charlton Athletic
  • Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea

English football discovered an unusual new goalscoring celebration - with Fulham striker Facundo Sava donning a Zorro mask to mark his winner against lowly Charlton at Loftus Road.  

The Argentinian striker, who wore wolf masks to mark goals for his home-country club Gimnasia La Plata, today unveiled the black headgear after he tucked home Dean Kiely's 36th-minute parry for the winner.  Fulham started like a steam train and were desperately close to scoring twice in the first three minutes.  First, Steve Marlet met Steed Malbranque's left-wing free-kick with a glancing header which cannoned into the far post, back onto his head and over thecrossbar.  

Then Luis Boa Morte scooped over a cross from the left and Facundo Sava'sclose-range header looped just over Dean Kiely's crossbar.  

Charlton should have taken the lead when Jason Euell benefited from a luckydeflection inside the Cottagers penalty area but chose to square the ball rather than shoot.  

Charlton's Shaun Bartlett flashed a drive over the top after a Zat Knight andAndy Melville mix-up in the 13th minute while Boa Morte fired just past the far post after a great run down the inside-left channel.  

Addicks' centre-back Mark Fish sailed close to the wind with 18 minutes onthe clock, shoulder-barging Steve Marlet to the floor as he raced onto Malbranque's threaded through-ball.  

The French striker did appear to fall rather easily however and referee Jeff Winter ignored furious Fulham claims for a foul with Marlet racing in ongoal.  Jean Tigana's men were in the ascendancy now, with Malbranque's cleverpasses in behind the Charlton backline and Boa Morte's threatening runs on the left appearing the most likely source of the opening goal.  

The pace had slackened as the half wore on, although Euell injected some lifeinto the game when he jinked inside Sylvain Legwinski and Knight in the 35th minute - but disappointingly curled his shot into Edwin van der Sar's midriff.  The first goal did arrive 60 seconds later - but at the other end.  

Malbranque had a pot-shot from 20 yards and Kiely pushed the ball straight to Sava, whoscored easily from six yards.  And the Argentinian delighted Fulham's fans as he celebrated by pulling a black face mask from his sock, strapping it over his ears and racing to thecrowd.  

The celebration stems from his time at Gimnasia la Plata in his homeland, whenhe marked his goals by wearing wolf masks.  Van der Sar made an incredible mistake on the stroke of half-time, rolling theball straight to Charlton's John Robinson.  

He squared it to Euell, who - when faced only with van der Sar - saved thekeeper's blushes by again declining to shoot and instead returning a poor pass to Robinson.   He shot and van der Sar saved.