Wenger elated to finally beat Chelsea
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
IARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger hailed his side’s “style and steel” to overcome a recent hoodoo against Chelsea and come away with a 3-0 win at the Emirates.
First-half strikes from Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil were enough to earn Arsenal their first Premier League victory against Chelsea since October 2011.
The Frenchman, who celebrates his 20th anniversary as Arsenal manager next week, was delighted with the performance to secure the win that moves them up to third in the table.
He said: “I am very happy because we needed to change the recent history, I thought we did it with style and steel and that’s what we wanted. think we were committed with discipline. We lost [Francis] Coquelin – and Granit Xhaka came on and straight away, he was at the level of the game and that makes a big difference.”
Manchester United dropped Wayne Rooney and were rewarded with a convincing 4-1 Premier League victory over Leicester.
A run of three defeats from their past four games had led to scrutiny surrounding both Rooney’s form and the methods of new manager Jose Mourinho.
Chris Smalling headed them into a 22nd-minute lead, however, and thereafter they excelled as the impressive Juan Mata scored the first of three further goals in five minutes before half-time. Marcus Rashford added United’s third, before Paul Pogba made it 4-0 in the 42nd minute.
Demarai Gray produced the game’s finest finish when curling beyond David de Gea from distance in the 59th minute, but was unable to prevent the champions’ third league defeat of the season. Three was their total throughout the past season.
Rooney appeared as an 83rd-minute substitute. Mourinho played down the significance of his call to leave Rooney out of the starting line-up.
He said: “If I don’t play [Marcus] Rashford you ask why, if I don’t play [Jesse] Lingard you ask why. You prefer to ask why somebody is not playing.
“Sometimes when I read you I feel like I know nothing about football but there is one thing I know – the rules of the game. And I only can start with XI.
“My captain is my captain. If he is on the pitch, he feels at home. That’s not a problem. But we thought against a team like Leicester, the way they defend, the profile of their defenders, we thought that the best solution for us was to play with the two fast kids and Mata in a position where he can interact with these young kids. It went well for us.”
League leaders Manchester City strolled to a 3-1 victory at struggling Swansea. Two goals from the returning Sergio Aguero, and a third from Raheem Sterling, left City with the maximum 18 points from six league games and continued their 100 per cent record since Pep Guardiola’s appointment.
Fernando Llorente took Swansea level four minutes after Aguero had given them a ninthminute lead, before the Argentinian restored their advantage from the spot in the second half.
Liverpool took advantage of a red card for Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady to ease to a 5-1 victory.
Adam Lallana had already given the hosts the lead when Elmohamady conceded a penalty and was sent off for hand ball.
James Milner’s penalty put Liverpool 2-0 up, before further goals from Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho – either side of one for Hull’s David Meyler – and Milner’s second spot-kick secured all three points.