De Bruyne’s brilliant goal sinks Chelsea
Kevin De Bruyne capped a dominant performance from Manchester City with a brilliant long-range goal in a 1-0 victory at Chelsea in the English Premier League yesterday.
The midfielder exchanged passes with Gabriel Jesus before shooting left-footed from just outside the area in the 67th minute, a goal that earned City a sixth win from seven games and kept the team in first place.
The goal would have been sweet for De Bruyne, who was sold by Chelsea in 2014 after 18 months at Stamford Bridge. He made just nine appearances and never felt he was given a real chance.
Chelsea, who lost star striker Alvaro Morata to an apparent left hamstring injury in the 35th, were overwhelmed by the visitors’ passing and movement in what will be regarded as a signature win in City’s toughest game of the season.
Manchester United’s 4-0 win over a hapless Crystal Palace kept the pressure on Manchester City. The result left Palace rooted to the bottom of the table after a record seventh successive defeat without a goal to start the season.
Two more goals from Harry Kane helped Tottenham consolidate their place in the Champions League positions with a comfortable 4-0 win away to Huddersfield Town.
In two key games at the wrong end of the table, West Ham left it late to beat Swansea 1-0 and move above them but Bournemouth were held to a scoreless draw at home by Leicester City.
Romelu Lukaku’s late strike at Old Trafford meant that freescoring United have hit four goals in a game six times this season.
Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini scored before halftime and when Fellaini headed in his second just after the interval, the points were made even more secure.
Victory took Jose Mourinho’s side three ahead of City, having played one game more.
Watford recovered from two goals down at West Bromwich Albion to go fifth after the home team scored twice in three minutes in the first half through Salomon Rondon and Jonny Evans.
Abdoulaye Doucoure kept Watford in contention and Brazilian Richarlison headed an equaliser in the final minute of added time.
Substitute Peter Crouch earned Stoke City a 2-1 win at home to Southampton after Maya Yoshida had equalised Mame Biram Diouf’s opener.