Rooney-less United wins; Arsenal beats Chelsea

By reeling off a sixth successive English Premier League soccer victory on Saturday, Manchester City underlined just how formidable it is under Spanish coach Pep Guardiola.

But José Mourinho might finally have found the way to stop Manchester United being eclipsed by City this season — drop Wayne Rooney.

Having fended off mounting criticism of his captain, Mourinho left Rooney on the bench and the reward was a 4-1 victory over champion Leicester.

It ensured City, with a 3-1 victory at Swansea, couldn’t pull further away from United, which is six points behind its neighbour.

The most impressive performance of the day came from Arsenal, which marked the 20th anniversary of coach Arsene Wenger, by ruthlessly beating Chelsea, 3-0.

Here is a closer look at some of the Premier League games: MANCHESTER UNITED 4, LEICESTER 1 United goals all came in a sparkling first-half display. Juan Mata — Rooney’s replacement in the No. 10 role — Marcus Rashford, and Paul Pogba scored in a rampant five-minute spell. United took the lead through Chris Smalling, the captain in place of Rooney.

SWANSEA 1, MANCHESTER CITY 3 Back from suspension and immediately back in the goals, Sergio Aguero scored twice to take his tally to 11 in six games. Raheem Sterling grabbed the other goal for City and the only blot was the sight of playmaker Kevin De Bruyne limping off late on with an apparent hamstring injury.

ARSENAL 3, CHELSEA 0 Chelsea’s defensive frailties were exposed as Antonio Conte’s team was left with one point from three league games in September. Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil provided the goals in the first half that gave the Gunners their first win over Chelsea in five years.

LIVERPOOL 5, HULL 1 With nine goals in its first two home games, a new-look Anfield is becoming a fortress for Liverpool under Juergen Klopp.