Wood’s own goal puts Liverpool on path to victory
There was a fourth straight win for Liverpool, another big victory for Manchester City and more disappointment for Manchester United and Chelsea in the Premier League
Oh, and the usual dose of VAR controversy.
It was a typical afternoon in the Premier League.
By beating Burnley 3-0 thanks to Chris Wood’s early own goal, Liverpool achieved a club-record 13th straight league victory and stayed in first place on a maximum 12 points heading into the two-week break for internationals. No other team in England’s four professional leagues has won all its games since the start of the season.
City are hot on Liverpool’s heels in second place, already seemingly reprising the northwest clubs’ duel for the title last season.
It is now 14 goals this season for the defending champions after a 4-0 home win over Brighton that included a double from Sergio Aguero, who is the top scorer in the league with six goals.
City’s win was marred by a first-half injury to arguably the team’s best defender, Aymeric Laporte, which manager Pep Guardiola said could keep the centreback out for ‘‘a while’’.
Meanwhile, pre-season predictions that this will be a transitional year for United and Chelsea under inexperienced coaches are proving to be true, with the two teams already seven points off Liverpool with just one win apiece so far.
Both squandered leads yesterday, United failing to build on Daniel James’ early goal — his third of the season following his off-season arrival from secondtier Swansea — and drawing 1-1 at Southampton.
Chelsea will be even more unhappy, surrendering a twogoal lead at home to promoted team Sheffield United and drawing 2-2.
Every weekend has featured some sort of contentious issues with VAR, which is being used for the first time in the Premier League this season, and the latest dispute was at Crystal Palace’s 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
Villa thought they had scored an equaliser in the seventh minute of stoppage time through Henri Lansbury, only for the goal to be ruled out because team-mate Jack Grealish was adjudged to have dived in the buildup. Villa’s players were furious and it looked a tight call, with the video assistant referee choosing not to overturn the on-field decision of the referee.
A touch of fortune and a defensive error helped Liverpool ease to a 13th straight win.
Trent Alexander-arnold’s cross from the right glanced off the back of Burnley’s All Whites striker Wood and spun high and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Nick Pope into the far corner of the net in the 33rd.
Four minutes later, Burnley defender Ben Mee passed the ball straight to Roberto Firmino in midfield and the Brazil forward played in Sadio Mane, who slotted home his finish.
Firmino added the third in the 80th from a counter-attack.
In other matches, Jamie Vardy scored twice in Leicester’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth, West Ham beat Norwich 2-0 through goals by Sebastian Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko, while Watford collected their first point of the season by drawing 1-1 at Newcastle.