London - Arsenal sent out a warning that they intend to be contenders for the English Premier League title this year after they stormed to a 6-1 win at Everton on the opening day of the new season.

Chelsea and Manchester City, two sides with title ambitions of their own, claimed hard-fought victories, while Wigan, Fulham, Sunderland, Stoke City and West Ham United also picked up three points.

Arsenal were at their flamboyant best at Goodison Park, with Cesc Fabregas scoring twice and Thomas Vermaelen scoring on his debut.

Denilson and William Gallas also got their names on the scoresheet, while Eduardo tapped in the sixth two minutes from time. Everton scored a consolation through Louis Saha in injury time.

Didier Drogba scored a fortuitous winner in injury time as Chelsea beat Hull City 2-1, giving new manager Carlo Ancelotti a successful start to his reign at Stamford Bridge.

New Hull signing Stephen Hunt put his side ahead midway through the first half, slotting the ball into an empty net after George Boateng's shot had been deflected into his path.

Their lead lasted just nine minutes, though, as Drogba, after Chelsea were awarded a soft-free-kick on the edge of the box, found the corner of the net with a sweet strike.

Chelsea dominated the second half and Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Salomon Kalou and Michael Essien all went close before Drogba, in the second of six added minutes, tried a cross from an acute angle and looked on in delight as the ball found the far top corner.

"For sure we have to improve because we didn't always play well in this match," Ancelotti said, after Chelsea won their opening match for the eighth successive season.

"We made some mistakes. But this is normal after one month. But we didn't lose the idea to play and at the end we deserved to win.

Hull manager Phil Brown was disappointed at conceding the winning goal so late on.

"We got to 92 minutes and were done by a cross which Didier has admitted," Brown said. "It was a pleasing performance and the game plan was to frustrate Chelsea. We knew they had the quality to beat us and turn the game on its head and that happened in the 92nd minute."

Emmanuel Adebayor needed just three minutes to make his mark for Manchester City after his move from Arsenal, rounding off a neat move to put his side ahead at Blackburn.

Carlos Tevez came off the bench in the second half but it was Stephen Ireland who made sure of the points with a second goal in the final minute to make it 2-0 to City.

City have spent more than 100 million pounds on transfers this summer but manager Mark Hughes said his side had showed they mean business.

"Many people might have been looking to see if we were going to fall flat on our face today and I thought we gave a great response," he said.

"You saw great character from City today. If we continue to play with the character we showed today then we will keep progressing. We stood up to the challenge and we showed the qualities we will need."

Aston Villa, who occupied a position in the top four for much of last season, suffered a bad start as they were humbled 2-0 at home by Wigan.

Darren Bent scored on his competitive debut for Sunderland to give them a 1-0 win at Bolton, while Bobby Zamora scored the only goal as Fulham triumphed 1-0 at Portsmouth.

The two promoted sides in action on Saturday both lost, Burnley going down 2-0 at Stoke, while West Ham won at Wolverhampton Wanderers by the same score.

Champions Manchester United and last year's runners-up Liverpool are both in action on Sunday.(dpa)