Perfect Man City steal limelight from neighbours
Manchester City beat Swansea 3-1 yesterday to make it a perfect 10 victories under Pep Guardiola, including six in the Premier League, as they recorded their best start to a top-flight campaign.
City’s victory was the perfect riposte to the Spaniard’s old rival Jose Mourinho, who earlier saw his remodelled Manchester United sparkle without the dropped Wayne Rooney, thumping Premier League champions Leicester City 4-1.
On a day of goals, both Manchester sides were outscored by Liverpool, who crushed Hull City 5-1 to take their tally to 24 in the past eight games while Arsenal eased past Chelsea 3-0 in a London derby.
As usual, Manchester City’s victory owed much to Argentine striker Sergio Aguero, who scored twice to take his tally to 11 in six games in all competitions.
With Raheem Sterling adding a superb third, City increased their lead at the top of the table to four points, although an injury to Kevin De Bruyne took some gloss off their day.
Everton’s unexpected 1-0 loss at Bournemouth meant Tottenham Hotspur moved into second place, on 14 points, after Son Heung-min scored both goals in the 2-1 win at Middlesbrough. The Korean striker has now scored four times in three games to equal his tally for the whole of last season.
Manchester United were fifth on 12 points, but Mourinho will not be looking too closely at the table just yet after going into the match under unexpected pressure following back-to-back league defeats.
His response was to drop Rooney, who cut a slightly bemused figure on the sidelines as United, and Paul Pogba in particular, made light of his absence. The world’s most expensive footballer was at the centre of most of United’s best moves, heading his first goal for the club on 42 minutes.
Three of the goals came via Danny Blind corners from the left as Leicester plunged to their third defeat, as many as they suffered in the whole of last season.
Liverpool went one better than United at Anfield where Adam Lallana, James Milner (two penalties), Sadio Mane and a trademark special from outside the area by Philippe Coutinho brushed aside a Hull side demoralised by the dis- Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says England captain Wayne Rooney was dropped for the 4-1 win over champions Leicester City because of the need for more speed.
With their out-of-form captain on the bench, United scored four goals in a sparkling first-half display yesterday.
Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba scored in a rampant fiveminute spell just before halftime after United had taken the lead through Chris Smalling. United ended a run of two straight league losses that had ruined their winning start to the campaign and led to missal of Egyptian winger Ahmed Elmohamady.
In north London, For once, a landmark game for Arsene Wenger wasn’t spoiled by Chelsea, and this time it was Arsenal humiliating their London rival.
Wenger’s 500th and 1000th games in charge of Arsenal both ended in losses to Chelsea, but his fortunes finally changed on the 20th anniversary of his appointment as Arsenal manager.
Arsenal turned on the style with a 3-0 victory that exposed Chelsea’s defensive frailties and showcased the north London side’s attacking prowess.
Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil provided the goals in the first half that gave the Gunners their first home win over Chelsea in six years. Chelsea hadn’t even allowed a league goal to Arsenal since January 2013 before this capitulation. widespread criticism of the makeup of Mourinho’s team.
Rooney bore the brunt of the criticism following his laboured displays in the ‘‘ No 10’’ playmaker role, and Mourinho decided to put his 30-year-old captain on the bench.
‘‘When our main striker is Zlatan, we need fast people surrounding him,’’ Mourinho said.
‘‘If he [Rooney] is on the pitch or at home, he is my captain. But we thought against a team like Leicester, the best solution for us was to play with the two fast kids and Mata in a position where he can interact with them.’’
But the result will matter little to Wenger, unless Arsenal has the trophy in their possession again when the season ends in eight months. The 66-year-old Wenger has survived in the Arsenal dugout despite last winning the league in 2004, and lifting only the FA Cup twice in the intervening years.
Chelsea were humiliated, and couldn’t even manage a shot on target until the 84th minute from Michy Batshuayi.
After opening the league campaign with three successive wins, Chelsea have collected only one point from the last three, and are already eight points behind leader Manchester City. Arsenal are only five points off the pace in third place.
There was late drama at Stoke City, where West Bromwich Albion forward Salomon Rondon rescued a point for Tony Pulis in his 1000th game as a manager, whose opposite number Mark Hughes was denied a first league win of the season.
With October not yet arrived, it is already looking tough at the bottom.
Another injury-time strike, this time by Christian Benteke, completed a remarkable comeback for Crystal Palace as they came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Sunderland, who are now in last place.
The Bulldogs were more stoic than slick, when they dug deep to snap a run of seven consecutive losses in preliminary finals.
The Giants were more refreshed after a week off but it was Luke Beveridge’s side who handled the dogfight better, much to the delight of many Bulldogs fans among the crowd of 21,790.
The visitors somehow took control of the see-sawing epic thanks to clutch goals from Dickson, Marcus Bontempelli and Zaine Cordy.
GWS key forward Jon Patton slotted his fourth goal in response as there threatened to be a late twist but Macrae steadied for the Dogs.
The Bulldogs will return to the grand final for the first time since 1961, while they will be shooting for only their first premiership since 1954.
The club’s short-term history also tells a tale. The Bulldogs have done it the hard way after finishing seventh on the ladder.
They backed up knock-out final wins over West Coast and Hawthorn, last year’s two grand finalists, with a performance worthy of immense praise. Clay Smith booted four goals in the first half to give the Bulldogs a ninepoint lead at the major break.
GWS threatened to bust the game open in the third term, with Patton, Heath Shaw and Rory Lobb all stepping up. Shaw was one of many players involved in heated exchanges, while Roughead is in doubt for the grand final.
The ruckman has vision issues after smothering the ball with his face.
Smith, Luke Dahlhaus, Josh Dunkley, Caleb Daniel and Liam Picken were all influential for the Bulldogs, while Shane Mumford dominated the ruck contests with 47 hitouts.