Jose Mourinho thrashed by fired up Chelsea on return to Stamford Bridge
● Manchester City held by Southampton
Manchester United have slipped to an embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Chelsea on former manager Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge.
The Blues scored two in either half as they cruised to a comfortable victory against their old boss - just the second time the Portuguese has witnessed his side ship four or more goals in a Premier League game.
That Pedro strike summed up United’s problems at the back, with Daley Blind losing his man and Chris Smalling also switching off just 30 seconds in - the quickest goal of the season so far and just the sixth the visitors have conceded inside the opening minute in their Premier League history.
There was a second 21 minutes in, however, when Gary Cahill blasted the ball over the line after it fell nicely into his path from a deflected corner into the box.
United did have chances of their own, though, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic outjumping Cesar Azpilicueta only to loop his header over the bar, while Ander Herrera and Jesse Lingard - in for Ashley Young in the only change by either side today - were denied by Thibaut Courtois in quick succession.
Mourinho inevitably turned to his bench for the second half, replacing the ineffective Fellaini with Juan Mata - another player with strong Chelsea links - and pairing Marcus Rashford with Ibrahimovic in a switch to a more traditional 4-4-2.
Openings were proving to be far harder to come by in the second period, but it was Chelsea who scored the killer third goal moments after that Courtois save thanks to a slick passing move.
A quick one-two saw Matic slide in Hazard, who tucked the ball past De Gea with ease to make certain of the points - the Serbian’s fourth assist in nine outings already this season, compared to two in 33 last term.
There was even better to come for the Blues, too - N’Golo Kante once again highlighting the fragile nature of the oppositions’ midfield by simply waltzing through and delicately placing the ball past De Gea to make it four.
Meanwhile, Manchester City have regained top spot in the Premier League table but only after a 1-1 draw against Southampton.
Nathan Redmond gave the Saints a first-half lead but despite being below par throughout the fixture at the Etihad Stadium, City were able to earn a share of the spoils thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho’s equaliser.
Jordy Clasie was the first man to have any kind of opening but he blazed high into the stand after being set up by Redmond, but it was not long before the Saints took the lead through the former Norwich City winger.
He latched onto a wayward back-pass from John Stones be- fore superbly taking the ball around Claudio Bravo and firing his shot just inside the near post.
Stones thought he had made amends five minutes later when converting a Kevin de Bruyne free kick at the back post but the goal was controversially ruled out after Sergio Aguero attempted to head the ball before it reached his teammate.
Pep Guardiola wasted no time in changing things around at the break and within 10 minutes of being introduced, Iheanacho found an equaliser for the home side.
After Leroy Sane was found on the left flank, he sent in a low cross for the Nigerian to convert from eight yards after getting in front of Virgil van Dijk.
However, while Iheanacho added extra urgency in the City attack, they still found it difficult to create anything significant in the final third and Forster was only called into the action to save routinely from David Silva.
Up the other end, Southampton were attempting to hit City on the break and Charlie Austin would have hoped to have done better with an effort from just inside the area which was saved by Bravo.
Aguero who was quiet on his recall to the side - fired a shot across goal during the closing stages but that was as good as it got for City as they failed to win for the fifth game in a row.
Yesterday Manchester City-Southampton ....... 1-1 Redmond 27’ (S), Iheanacho 55’ (M) Chelsea-Manchester United ............ 4-0 Pedro 1’, Cahill 21’, Hazard 62’, Kante 70’
Standings
Man. City Arsenal Liverpool Chelsea Tottenham Everton Man. United Southampton Watford Bournemouth Crystal Palace Leicester West Brom Burnley West Ham Stoke City Middlesbrough Hull City Swansea Sunderland
Leauge One
Today Bury-Bolton Premiership 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 6 6 6 6 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 1 2 1 0 2 2 2 1 4 3 2 4 3 3 2 2 4 1 1 3 4 1 2 2 1 20 9 20 1 19 9 20 1 20 11 20 2 19 9 19 0 13 4 19 2 13 8 15 3 13 12 14 2 11 8 13 3 13 13 12 3 12 12 12 4 12 12 11 4 11 15 11 3 10 10 10 5 813 10 5 10 17 10 4 9 16 9 4 7 11 7 6 8 22 7 6 8 15 5 7 6 16 2
Yesterday St Johnstone-Dundee FC ................... 2-1
Premiership
Yesterday Rangers-Celtic ................................... 0-1
SCOTLAND