Premier League Round Up

A second successive Chelsea win under Maurizio Sarri, 3-2 over an Arsenal side who have suffered back-to-back defeats under Unai Emery, gave both managers a crash course in the unpredictability of the Premier League on Saturday.

Marcos Alonso pounced on Eden Hazard’s cross to settle the game in the second half after the visitors fought back from two down but spurned further chances in a game that lifted Chelsea joint top of the table alongside Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Fulham 3-1, and Bournemouth, who won 2-1 at West Ham United.
Sergio Aguero scored a superb hat-trick as Manchester City continued their strong start to their Premier League title defence by thrashing Huddersfield at Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola’s side, who beat Arsenal 2-0 in their opener, lost only once at home all of season and victory never looked in doubt against the Terriers, who have two defeats from their first two matches of the campaign.

Huddersfield did manage to hold City at bay for 25 minutes but were undone when goalkeeper Ederson superbly picked out Aguero with a pinpoint pass and the striker drew out Terriers keeper Ben Hamer before lifting the ball into the net.

Gabriel Jesus added a second seven minutes later with a crisp low strike from the edge of the area, before Aguero pounced on a Hamer error to stab in his second soon after.

Jon Gorenc Stankovic gave the visitors the slightest glimmer of hope before half time when he poked in from Steve Mounie’s flick-on, but any optimism was snuffed out early in the second half by a brilliant free-kick from David Silva.

Aguero then wrapped up his hat-trick with a smart flick from Benjamin Mendy’s cross – before a Terence Kongolo own goal sealed an emphatic win for an impressive City.

Guardiola’s side are top of the table and have scored eight goals in two games, conceding just one. Huddersfield, meanwhile, drop to the bottom of the standings on goal difference.

Andre Gray struck on his return to Turf Moor as Watford scored away from home for the first time since January to continue their winning start to the Premier League season.

Gray, who left Burnley for Watford in August 2017, produced a brilliant volley from Troy Deeney’s cross in the first three minutes – their first away goal since Javi Gracia was appointed head coach.

But Burnley, returning from mid-week victory over Istanbul Basaksehir in Europa League qualifying, offered the perfect response little over three minutes later as James Tarkowski headed his first goal for Sean Dyche’s side.

But Watford scored twice in the first six minutes of the second half to secure victory – with captain Deeney hitting his first Watford goal since March by latching on to Abdoulaye Doucoure’s perfectly weighted pass.

Will Hughes fired a third for the Hornets when he collected Matt Lowton’s loose pass and drove the ball in from outside the area, well beyond the reach of goalkeeper Joe Hart.

With 20 minutes remaining, Sam Vokes almost scored with his very first touch after coming on as a substitute for Burnley, heading narrowly wide as Ben Foster scrambled to his bottom corner.

However visitors Watford, who defeated Brighton 2-0 last weekend, finished the superior side as their opponents – playing their sixth competitive match in the space of 25 days – failed to find a route back into the match.
Manchester United’s troubled start to the season took another unexpected twist as they lost limply 3-2 at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.

Woeful defending led to two Brighton goals in two first-half minutes as Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy outsmarted United’s 117 million pound ($149.21 million) back four to demonstrate why manager Jose Mourinho had sought to upgrade it.

Eric Bailly was particularly exposed and, having conceded a needless corner that led to Duffy’s first Premier League goal, he blundered in to foul Pascal Gross, who put away the penalty via David de Gea’s leg on the stroke of halftime.

Although Romelu Lukaku had earlier reduced the deficit with a trademark header, United looked ill-equipped to mount a comeback and Paul Pogba’s injury-time penalty, after Marouane Fellaini was brought down, made the scoreline closer than the match.

Liverpool’s James Milner’s converted a penalty on the stroke of halftime and Sadio Mane added a late second goal to secure a hard-fought 2-0 win at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Monday.

It was an accomplished performance from Juergen Klopp’s side who, with Virgil Van Dijk in commanding form at centre-half, looked solid at the back as well as a threat going forward.

Elsewhere, Leicester City and Everton posted their first victories, against Wolves and Southampton respectively, while the day’s other game between league newcomers Cardiff City and Newcastle United ended goalless.

That sort of scoreline was never a possibility at Stamford Bridge, where the visitors raced into the lead through Alvaro Morata and Pedro, but were lucky to go into the interval level after Arsenal squandered opportunities either side of goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi.

Chelsea brought Hazard off the bench midway through the second half and were rewarded when he broke free on the left and crossed for Alonso to shoot low under Petr Cech’s body.

“It is better to be on the pitch than watching on the bench, but the boys when they are playing they did well so I am just happy for the win,” Hazard said.

In the week that Spurs apologised to their supporters for further delay in their return to White Hart Lane, their victory gave a reminder of how accustomed they have grown to Wembley, with two of their England internationals leading the way after Fulham equalised Lucas Moura’s opener.

IMPRESSIVE WIN

Kieran Trippier replicated his free-kick goal for England in the World Cup with another superb strike before Harry Kane rounded off an impressive win by scoring his first ever Premier League goal in August.

“It is one of those things that you can’t explain,” Kane said of his previous slow starts to seasons. “I am not silly and I know people talk about it, but it is nice to put it to bed.”

Bournemouth took full advantage of comic home defending to strike twice in six second-half minutes through Callum Wilson and Steve Cook, inflicting Manuel Pellegrini’s second successive defeat since returning to the Premier League with West Ham.

Everton also changed managers in the summer but Marco Silva has enjoyed a more promising beginning and secured a 2-1 win in his first home game with new signing Richarlison scoring his third goal in two games since his move from Watford.

The Brazilian only managed five in total last season but looks a different proposition since reuniting with his former manager.

Richarlison headed Everton’s second after former Southampton forward Theo Walcott had opened the scoring after a well-worked free-kick move from Leighton Baines and Morgan Schneiderlin.

Another Brazilian, Newcastle United’s Kenedy, had a less memorable day, missing a stoppage-time penalty which would have given the 10-man visitors victory at Cardiff City, who were playing their first home Premier League game for four years.

Cardiff’s hero was keeper Neil Etheridge, who saved his second spot-kick in successive games to spark wild celebrations at the Cardiff City stadium.

Leicester also ended their 2-0 win over Wolves with 10 men after their England striker Jamie Vardy was dismissed for a reckless tackle on Matt Doherty.

The challenge that was all the more needless because Leicester were in control through a Doherty own goal and a strike from James Maddison, his first Premier League goal since his 24 million-pound ($30.6 million) move from second-tier Norwich City.