LONDON:Manchester City cruised to the top of the Premier League with a 4-0 win overBrighton on Saturday as Chelsea lost further ground in disappointing draws withSouthampton and Sheffield United. Leicester moved up to third as the Foxesunbeaten start to the season continued in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth thanks totwo goals from Jamie Vardy, while victories for Crystal Palace and West Hamtake them into a share of fourth.
City win comes ata cost
Liverpool canmove back above City should they continue the only 100 percent start left inthe Premier League later at Burnley, but City were never in danger of droppingpoints at the Etihad as Kevin de Bruyne tapped home David Silva's cut-backafter just two minutes.
Victory came at acost for Pep Guardiola's men as Aymeric Laporte was stretchered off with a kneeinjury that looks certain to rule him out of winning a first cap for France inupcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers. City may come to regret not buying a replacementfor departed captain Vincent Kompany at centre-back as holding midfielderFernandinho had to deputise at the heart of the defence for the final 52minutes.
However, Aguerosoon made the game safe by blasting high into the net just before the break andproduced another sublime finish to curl into the top corner for his second 10minutes into the second-half. Substitute Bernardo Silva then rounded off thescoring for the champions.
BLADES BLUNTCHELSEA
After scoring hisfirst Chelsea goals away to Norwich last weekend, Tammy Abraham thought he hadgiven the Blues all three points at home to newly-promoted Sheffield United byscoring twice more before the break. However, the Blades hit back at the startof the second-half through Callum Robinson and Kurt Zouma's own goal a minutefrom time earned the visitors an unlikely point in a 2-2 draw.
As United andChelsea stumble, Leicester are the closest challengers to the top two so far asJamie Vardy scored twice and teed up Youri Tielemans for his side's other goal,but Brendan Rodgers's men were also lucky Tielemans did not see red in anothercontroversial VAR call. Vardy opened the scoring in stunning fashion by lobbingAaron Ramsdale from outside the box, but Bournemouth levelled thanks to a neatfinish from Callum Wilson. Tielemans tapped home Vardy's low cross to restoreLeicester's lead, but the Belgian should have been sent-off for a highchallenge on Wilson.
However, after aVAR review, the original decision to let Tielemans escape unpunished stood, andVardy sealed the points 17 minutes from time. Crystal Palace backed up theirshock victory at Old Trafford last weekend with a 1-0 win over 10-man AstonVilla thanks to Jordan Ayew's goal 17 minutes from time.
But Villa, whohad Egyptian international Trezeguet sent-off early in the second-half, feltaggrieved as Henri Lansbury's late goal was harshly ruled out for a dive beforethe ball reached the midfielder by Jack Grealish.
West Ham alsohave seven points from four games as goals either side of half-time fromSebastien Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko secured a comfortable 2-0 over Norwich.Watford got their first point of the season, but remain bottom after a 1-1 drawat Newcastle. - AFP