San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Man City easily dispatches Arsenal
Manchester City didn’t need Harry Kane or Cristiano Ronaldo to destroy visiting Arsenal.
With four scorers in the 5-0 win Saturday, maybe the attacking options currently available to Pep Guardiola are enough to defend the Premier League title.
Or maybe it’s just a sign of Arsenal’s frailties that City so easily dismantled a side that has lost all three league games without scoring. And the fact City played against 10 men for 55 minutes after Granit Xhaka was sent off for a two-footed lunge on Joao Cancelo.
But Arsenal’s defense had already ceded territory easily for Ilkay Gundogan to head in the opener and Ferran Torres to score in the opening 12 minutes. Gabriel Jesus was able to tap in again before halftime and, after the break, Rodri curled in a shot and Torres was on target again with a header.
It was a great end to a week when City had to give up on its attempt to bring Tottenham striker Harry Kane to the Etihad Stadium and thought it would sign Cristiano Ronaldo before Manchester United did so.
Elsewhere, in a matchup of title contenders, Chelsea held on with 10 men for half of the game to draw 1-1 at Liverpool. West Ham was held to a 2-2 tie by Crystal Palace and Brighton lost 2-0 to Everton. Only Tottenham is still in the running for a third consecutive win when Kane leads the London club Sunday against Watford.
Norwich, which lost 2-1 to Leicester, is yet to get off the mark. Newcastle picked up its first point in a 2-2 draw against Southampton. Brentford has five points in its first Premier League season after drawing 1-1 at Aston Villa.
Europe: In Serie A, Juventus slumped to a 1-0 loss at home to promoted Empoli in its first match without Ronaldo. Italy striker Ciro Immobile scored a first-half hat trick and saw his penalty saved as Lazio routed Spezia 6-1 to build on its opening victory . ... Robert Lewandowski had a hat trick and set a Bayern Munich record by scoring in 16 consecutive games across all competitions as he led the team to a 5-0 rout of Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga . ... Amid rising speculation in the Spanish capital that French striker Kylian Mbappe could be on his way, Real Madrid won 1-0 at Real Betis in La Liga. ... Lionel Messi could make his eagerly awaited debut in France’s Ligue 1 as Paris Saint-Germain visits Reims on Sunday. MLS highlights: Kevin Cabral scored in the 86th minute to give the host LA Galaxy a 3-3 tie with Los Angeles FC . ... Daniel Rios’ first goal of the season just before halftime started visiting Nashville to a 2-0 win over Atlanta United . ... Robert Beric scored in the 32nd minute and the Chicago Fire held off the New York Red Bulls 1-0 to end a 19-game road winless streak . ... Valentine Castellanos converted a pair of point-blank shots on feeds from Maximiliano Moralez to lift host New York City FC to a 2-0 win over the league-leading New England Revolution.