Man City, United win, Arsenal fume at first defeat
Manchester City roared back to the top of the Premier League with a 6-1 thrashing of Bournemouth after Manchester United steadied the ship with a last-gasp win at Fulham on Saturday.
Third-placed Arsenal’s unbeaten start came to a bitter end though as they went down to a controversial 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United which led to a furious outburst by manager, Mikel Arteta.
Young Belgian winger, Jeremy Doku, was outstanding for champions City, opening the scoring and creating two more goals as struggling Bournemouth were hammered at The Etihad.
Pep Guardiola’s team have 27 points after 11 matches, one more than Tottenham Hotspur who host Chelsea today. Arsenal have 24 points with Liverpool on 23 ahead of the latter’s game against Luton Town, yesterday.
Newcastle are sixth with 20 points.
At the bottom, Sheffield United earned their first win since being promoted as they edged Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 with a last-gasp penalty, but Burnley suffered a sixth successive home defeat when they went down 2-0 to Crystal Palace.
Doku’s goal in the 30th minute opened the floodgates for Guardiola’s treble winners who scored three goals in seven minutes to all but put the game away.
He then assisted on two more goals while Bernardo Silva fired a brace for the rampant hosts.
Arsenal had the chance to join City at the top but a bruising battle at St James’ Park was settled by an Anthony Gordon goal that stood despite a lengthy VAR review.
VAR checked whether the ball had gone out of play in the build-up, whether there was a foul and for offside, but Newcastle could eventually celebrate.
“It’s embarrassing what happened; how this goal stands. In the Premier League – this league that we say is the best in the world. I’ve been 20 years in this country and now I feel ashamed. It’s a disgrace,” a fuming Arteta said.
United have suffered their worst start to a season since 1962 with eight defeats from 15 matches in all competitions leaving manager Erik Ten Hag under intense pressure.
His side were lacklustre at times against Fulham in the day’s early kickoff and needed some fine goalkeeping from Andre Onana to keep on level terms in the second half.
But with 90 minutes on the clock, captain Bruno Fernandes fired a winner that sparked huge celebrations among the visiting players and fans at Craven Cottage.
Sheffield United claimed a morale-boosting victory thanks to an Oliver Norwood penalty 10 minutes into stoppage time.
The Blades had gone ahead in the 72nd minute when Cameron Archer sprinted to the edge of the area and unleashed a shot that went in off the bar but Jean-Ricner Bellegarde equalised for the visitors a minute before the end of normal time.
A late own goal by Everton’s Ashley Young rescued a point for Brighton & Hove Albion in their 1-1 draw at Goodison Park after a rare Vitaliy Mykolenko strike had put the home side ahead early in the contest.
Burnley’s home woes continued as they lost to Palace, with Jeffrey Schlupp and Tyrick Mitchell on target. Vincent Kompany’s strugglers are level on four points with bottom side Sheffield United.
West Ham United suffered a third successive league defeat as they went down 3-2 at Brentford who have won three on the bounce to move into the top half of the table.
– Supersport
