MOURINHO’S SIDE TRAIL LEADERS MANCHESTER CITY BY FIVE POINTS
uddersfield Town stunned Manchester United 2-1 at the John Smith’s Stadium yesterday, a defeat that ended the visitors unbeaten start to the Premier League season and dropped them five points behind leaders Manchester City who beat Burnley 3-0.
Huddersfield’s victory in driving wind and rain was their first over United since 1952 and all the more unexpected after a run of one goal in six league games.
But the top-tier newcomers fully deserved their first league win since mid-August after hitting United twice in the first half and withstanding everything the visitors — and the appalling weather — threw at them.
Former City midfielder Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre scored twice in 33 minutes, with United’s afternoon made worse by an injury to Phil Jones.
Jose Mourinho responded by bringing on Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford for Juan Mata and Anthony Martial at halftime and Rashford scored his seventh of the season to set up a rousing finish in what was the sides’ first league meeting since 1972.
Mourinho blamed defensive mistakes for the defeat.
“A bad team deserved to be punished,” he said.
Impressive side
By Manchester City’s recent free-scoring standards, their 3-0 victory over Burnley was modest, with the match turning on a controversial first-half penalty when Bernardo Silva went down theatrically in the area.
TV replays showed no contact from Burnley keeper Nick Pope and the Portuguese may find himself in trouble with the threemember FA review panel which looks at simulation and last Friday issued its first retrospective ban on a player for diving.
The spot-kick decision infuriated Burnley’s players, but Sergio Aguero kept his cool to equal Eric Brooke’s all-time scoring record for the club with his 177th goal. Nicolas Otamendi and Leroy Sane made the scoreline more comfortable as City registered a club-record 11th straight win.
Elsewhere, Chelsea made up ground on third-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who play Liverpool today, by beating Watford 4-2 in the day’s early kickoff at Stamford Bridge.
The game was closer the scoreline suggests, Marco Silva’s impressive coming from behind to than with side lead at Stamford Bridge before two goals from Michy Batshuayi and another from Cesar Azpilicueta ended the argument.
Pressure will be growing on Stoke City manager Mark Hughes after a disappointing 2-1 home defeat by Bournemouth which left them into the relegation zone.
Hughes had hoped the return of Ryan Shawcross would
Yesterday’s matches
Chelsea 4 Huddersfield Town 2 Manchester City 3 Newcastle United 1 Stoke City 1 Swansea City 1 Watford 2 Man United 1 Burnley 0 Crystal Palace 0 Bournemouth 2 Leicester City 2 strengthen his defence after last week’s 7-2 demolition by Manchester City, but Shawcross gave away a penalty, which Junior Stanislas converted and Andrew Surman also found the net.
Mame Biram Diouf narrowed the gap but the goal was not enough to prevent Bournemouth recording their first away league win of the season.
A Federico Fernandez own goal and a second-half strike by Shinji Okazaki gave Leicester City caretaker manager Michael Appleton a much-needed 2-1 win at Swansea City in his first game in charge, lifting the Foxes out of the relegation zone.
But there was no escape for Crystal Palace, whose 1-0 defeat at Newcastle left them rooted to the bottom spot. Mikel Merino’s scored Newcastle’s 85th-minute winner.