Leicester outfox West Ham
LEICESTER City moved above Manchester United at the top of the embryonic Premier League table on goal difference with a 2-1 victory at West Ham United yesterday.
First-half goals by Shinji Okazaki and Riyad Mahrez put Leicester in control and though the hosts hit back through Dimitri Payet after the break, West Ham were unable to repair the damage at Upton Park.
Leicester and United both have six points with Everton and Swansea City on four after wins over Southampton and Newcastle United respectively.
Two first-half goals by Romelu Lukaku inspired Everton to an emphatic 3-0 victory at Southampton.
The Belgian put the visitors ahead midway through the first half after a classic counterattack ended with the former Chelsea striker heading home Arouna Kone’s cross. His second, just before half-time, was even better as he barrelled forward, exchanged passes with Ross Barkley and advanced to fire a shot low into the corner.
The home side were unable to apply any sustained pressure and Barkley’s curling finish after 83 minutes sealed Everton’s win.
Shortly before that Sadio Mane drew a fine save from Everton keeper Tim Howard with a dipping shot and the home fans cheered when forward Jay Rodriguez came on as a substitute after 16 months out, but it was a disappointing display from Ronald Koeman’s side.
New signing Andre Ayew scored for the second week running as Swansea cruised to a 2-0 home win.
Sunderland followed their 4-2 defeat by Leicester on the opening day with a 3-1 home loss to Norwich City and are bottom of the standings.
Stoke City recovered from 0-2 down at Tottenham Hotspur to draw 2-2, and promoted Watford drew 0-0 at home with West Bromwich Albion.
Today sees Crystal Palace welcome Arsenal to Selhurst Park (2.30pm SA time) before the battle of the bigspending giants takes place at the Etihad Stadium at 5pm, when Manchester City entertain champions Chelsea.
The weekend programme will be wrapped up tomorrow evening when Bournemouth make the trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool.
Tottenham boosted their depleted forward line by signing Cameroon international Clinton Njie from Lyon for an undisclosed fee yesterday. The 22-year-old, who has scored six goals in 11 appearances for his country, managed eight goals for Lyon in 33 appearances last term as they finished runners-up behind Paris St Germain in Ligue 1.
Holders Wolfsburg will host Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in the biggest game of the German Cup second round. Wolfsburg, who beat Dortmund last season to clinch their first German Cup crown, and were also runners-up in the league, will play Bayern in the tie on October 27 or 28.
The Bavarians, who kicked off their title defence with a 5-0 demolition of Hamburg on Friday, have won the German Cup a record 17 times.
Fifa presidential candidate Michel Platini has won the key backing of the head of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain.
Sheikh Salman said the world governing body would needed a leadership with “experience, wisdom and ability” to bring back stability to Fifa.
“Platini boasts such characteristics and has an ambitious vision to renew belief in the organisation.” – Reuters
SuperSport United confirmed they had loaned out winger Lebogang Manyama to Mpumalanga Black Aces for the season. The agreement includes an option to purchase at the end of the season. – ANA.
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Southampton . . . . . . 0 Everton . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sunderland ....... 1 Norwich City . . . . . . . 3 Swansea City . . . . . . 2 Newcastle United . . . . 0 Tottenham Hotspur . . 2 Stoke City . . . . . . . . . . 2 Watford . . . . . . . . . . . 0 West Bromwich Albion 0 West Ham Utd .....1 Leicester City . . . . . . . 2
Friday Aston Villa . . . . . . . . . 0 Manchester United . . . 1
Today Crystal Palace .....v Arsenal . . . . . . . 2.30pm Manchester City . . . . v Chelsea . . . . . . . . . 5pm
Tomorrow Liverpool . . . . . . . . . . v Bournemouth
PW D L F Leicester . . . . . . 2 2 0 0 6 Man Utd . . . . . . 2 2 0 0 2 Everton . . . . . . . 2 1 1 0 5 Swansea .....2 1 1 0 4 Man City . . . . . . 1 1 0 0 3 Crystal Palace . 1 1 0 0 3 West Ham ....2 1 0 1 3 Liverpool . . . . . . 1 1 0 0 1 Norwich ......2 1 0 1 4 Aston Villa ....2 1 0 1 1 Watford . . . . . . . 2 0 2 0 2 Chelsea ......1 0 1 0 2 Stoke ........2 0 1 1 2 Tottenham ....2 0 1 1 2 Newcastle . . . . . 2 0 1 1 2 Southampton . . 2 0 1 1 2 West Brom . . . . 2 0 1 1 0 Bournemouth . . 1 0 0 1 0 Arsenal . . . . . . . 1 0 0 1 0 Sunderland . . . . 2 0 0 2 3 . . . . 9pm A Pts 3 6 0 6 2 4 2 4 0 3 1 3 2 3 0 3 4 3 1 3 2 2 2 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 3 1 1 0 2 0 7 0
SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP Celtic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Inverness CT .......2 Dundee . . . . . . . . . . . 2 St Johnstone .......1 Hamilton Aca ......4 Dundee Utd ........0 Motherwell ........1 Aberdeen ..........2 Partick Thistle . . . . . . 2 Kilmarnock . . . . . . . . . 2 Ross County . . . . . . . 1 Hearts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
PW D L F A Pts Hearts . . . . . . . . 4 4 0 0 10 5 12 Celtic ........4 3 1 0 10 4 10 Aberdeen . . . . . 3 3 0 0 5 1 9 Dundee . . . . . . . 4 2 1 1 9 5 7 Hamilton Aca . . 3 1 1 1 4 2 4 Ross County ..4 1 1 2 4 5 4 Dundee Utd . . . 4 1 1 2 4 7 4 Partick Thistle . . 4 0 3 1 2 4 3 Motherwell . . . . 4 1 0 3 2 6 3 St Johnstone ..4 0 2 2 6 8 2 Inverness CT . . 4 0 2 2 3 6 2 Kilmarnock . . . . 4 0 2 2 4 10 2
GERMAN BUNDESLIGA Mainz ............0 Ingolstadt ..........1 Bayer Leverkusen . . . 2 Hoffenheim . . . . . . . . . 1 Augsburg .........0 Hertha Berlin .......1 Darmstadt . . . . . . . . . 2 Hanover ...........2 Werder Bremen ....0 Schalke . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Bayern Munich . . . . . 5 Hamburg . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Dortmund . . . . . . . . . L Moenchengladbach . . L
Today Wolfsburg .........v Frankfurt . . . . . . 3.30pm Stuttgart ..........v Cologne . . . . . . 5.30pm