Manchester City continued their imperious home form by easing to a 4-0 win over Southampton while Chelsea and Newcastle United enjoyed comfortable victories and Tottenham Hotspur responded well after a difficult week to win at Brighton & Hove Albion.
City, who had trounced Manchester United 6-3 last week, barely had to break stride against Southampton, with Joao Cancelo, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez netting before Erling Haaland struck the fourth goal to stretch his scoring streak to 10 straight matches in all competitions.
City have won all five of their Premier League games at the Etihad Stadium, scoring 24 goals in the process. Southampton are 16th on seven points and coach Ralph Hasenhuettl faced questions about his future following reports he is on the brink of losing his job.
“It is not my decision to make. As long as I’m here we will still fight,” he said.
The victory took champions City top of the table with 23 points after nine matches and cranked up the pressure on early title rivals Arsenal, who host Liverpool on Sunday with the chance to reclaim the lead.
Tottenham rose to third on 20 points after a Harry Kane header earned them a gritty 1-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion after a chastening seven days in which they were beaten 3-1 by rivals Arsenal, drew 0-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League and their fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone died.
Spurs players wore t-shirts before the game saying ‘Always in our hearts, Gian Piero’ in honour to Ventrone, who passed away on Thursday aged 61 after being diagnosed with leukaemia.
“It’s been a difficult week to say the least and it was nice to get a win today. It was a scrappy goal but I’m really proud of the boys,” said Kane, who stooped to meet a cross from Son Heung-min and glanced it into the net.
Chelsea continued to show signs of improvement under coach Graham Potter as they strolled to a 3-0 win at home to Wolves, who are without a manager after sacking Bruno Lage last week.
Former Chelsea forward Diego Costa made his first start for the visitors but Potter’s side were dominant and goals from Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Armando Broja secured a third consecutive win in all competitions following successes over Crystal Palace and AC Milan.
“It’s exciting. It’s been a really strong week,” said Potter, whose side moved up to fourth in the table on 16 points. “It’s a strong performance, especially in the first half. We had to hang on a bit in the second half but overall we deserved to win.”
Newcastle climbed up to fifth with an emphatic 5-1 home victory over Brentford, one year and one day after the completion of their Saudi Arabia-backed takeover.
Bruno Guimaraes, a 40-million-pound arrival from Olympique Lyonnais and one of the club’s biggest signings since the takeover, scored in each half on a memorable afternoon for the club, who were languishing in the relegation zone when the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquired the club from previous owner Mike Ashley for a reported 300 million pounds ($333 million).
Bournemouth came from behind to beat Leicester City 2-1, scoring two goals in the space of five second-half minutes to and inflict a fifth consecutive away defeat on Brendan Rodgers’ side.
The result put renewed pressure on Leicester coach Rodgers, whose side are 19th in the table with only four points.
“I know if you’re in the bottom three, there will always be pressure,” Rodgers said.
Leeds had deservedly taken the lead early in Sunday’s game when Pascal Struijk drove in after Brenden Aaronson hit the post following excellent work inside the box.
Palace were struggling to impose themselves and Patrick Bamford, making his first Leeds start since August, forced a save out of Vicente Guaita.
But the hosts equalised midway through the first half when Odsonne Edouard headed in from Michael Olise’s free-kick.
Jordan Ayew was unable to put Palace ahead in the second half when he appeared in on goal, only for Rasmus Kristensen to make an excellent last-ditch challenge.
But Eze secured the three points with a superb individual strike, running across the edge of the area before firing low into the back of the net.
The win – Palace’s first in five Premier League games – moves them up to 15th and three points clear of the relegation zone, level on nine points with Leeds, who are 14th.
Gianluca Scamacca scored for a third successive game as West Ham came from behind to beat Fulham.
Fulham led after six minutes as Andreas Pereira fired in from a tight angle.
But Pereira then fouled Craig Dawson from a corner, Jarrod Bowen scoring the penalty.
Scamacca missed a series of good chances but netted when it counted as he lobbed Bernd Leno, before a defensive mix-up
Bukayo Saka’s penalty settled a thrilling encounter and put Arsenal back on top of the Premier League with victory over Liverpool at Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal got off to a perfect start when Gabriel Martinelli put them ahead after 58 seconds but Liverpool responded well and striker Darwin Nunez deservedly got them level when he slid home Luis Diaz’s cross after 34 minutes.
Saka restored Arsenal’s lead in first-half added time after Martinelli broke clear on the counter-attack only for Liverpool to level once more eight minutes after the break when substitute Roberto Firmino, on for the injured Diaz, fired beyond keeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Liverpool, who felt they were denied a penalty when defender Gabriel handled in the first half, felt a further sense of injustice when Thiago Alcantara was penalised for a challenge on Gabriel Jesus with 14 minutes remaining, with Saka coolly converting from the spot.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 700th club goal as Manchester United came from behind at Goodison Park to end Everton’s two-game winning run.
It has been a frustrating season so far for Ronaldo, who has been reduced to the role of substitute after failing to get his hoped-for summer move away from Old Trafford.
But introduced as a first-half substitute after Anthony Martial suffered another injury just three games into his comeback from the last one, Ronaldo raced on to Casemiro’s through ball and beat Jordan Pickford with a low drive to the England man’s near-post.
It was the 37-year-old’s first goal on this ground since 2005 and was enough for United, who kept Everton at arm’s length after Alex Iwobi capitalised on Casemiro’s early mistake to put the hosts in front.
Antony became the first United player to score in his first three Premier League games when he levelled after being sent through by Martial.
The evening would have been more comfortable for the visitors had Marcus Rashford not had a goal disallowed for handball eight minutes from time and it took an acrobatic clearance from David de Gea to deny Amadou Onana and preserve their victory.
