Blues rescue point at Baggies
LONDON: Free-spending Chelsea came from 3-0 down to salvage a 3-3 draw at newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
But it is Everton who are setting the early pace in the Premier League as they secured a third straight win in controversial circumstances, 2-1 at Crystal Palace.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard handed the captain’s armband to Thiago Silva on his Premier League debut, but the Brazilian had a nightmare first 45 minutes as the Blues’ defensive deficiencies were easily exposed.
Callum Robinson pounced on errors from Marcos Alonso and Silva to fire twice beyond Willy Caballero, who replaced Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Chelsea goal.
Kyle Bartley then made it 3-0 to the Baggies, who had lost their opening two games back in the top flight.
Chelsea have spent a reported £220 million to try and close the gap to
Liverpool and Manchester City in the title race and even a spirited secondhalf fightback, which takes them to just four points from their first three games, could not hide the embarrassment of his side’s defending for Lampard.
“It’s two points lost,” said Lampard. “You can have as many meetings as you want, but if you make clear mistakes, you give yourself a mountain to climb.”
Mason Mount got the comeback started to a swerving long-range effort.
Substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi then swept home 20 minutes from time after a neat one-two with Kai Havertz.
And Tammy Abraham secured a point in stoppage time when he rolled in the rebound after Sam Johnstone had parried Mount’s initial effort.
Everton sit top of the embryonic table as they won the battle of two sides who started the day with a perfect record, thanks to a controversial penalty on their own.
James Rodriguez again starred for
Carlo Ancelotti’s men and played his part in Everton’s opener, converted by Dominic Calvert-Lewin for already his fifth Premier League goal of the season.
Palace quickly responded through Cheikhou Kouyate, but the game was decided by a VAR review five minutes before half-time.
After consulting the pitchside monitor, Kevin Friend pointed to the spot for handball by Joel Ward after he was struck on the arm by Lucas Digne’s header and Richarlison converted the spot-kick.
Former Liverpool striker Danny Ings fired Southampton to a 1-0 success at Burnley.
RESULTS
Brighton 2 (Maupay 40-pen, March 90+5) Manchester United 3 (Dunk 43-og, Rashford 55, Fernandes 90+10pen); Burnley 0 Southampton 1 (Ings 5); Crystal Palace 1 (Kouyate 26) Everton 2 (Calvert-Lewin 10, Richarlison 40-pen); West Brom 3 (Robinson 4, 25, Bartley 27) Chelsea 3 (Mount 55, Hudson-Odoi 70, Abraham 90+3)