A round-up of all the reports and results from this weekend's Premier League action.
Still to come
MONDAY
Stoke City 3-1 Swansea City
Stoke: Bony 3’, 73’; Mawson 55’ (og); Swansea: Routledge 8’
• On-loan Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony supplied a double and led Stoke to their third successive win after a dire start to the season. Swansea, meanwhile, find themselves in a precarious spot, just second from bottom with five points from 10 matches and five from safety.
SUNDAY
Southampton 0-2 Chelsea
Chelsea: Hazard 6’; Costa 55’
• Once upon a time, Chelsea were far and away the best team in the Premier League. Eden Hazard was its best player. Diego Costa, at least arguably, its best striker.
Those long-off-seeming days were, uh, two years ago.
If it was hard to believe in front of your very eyes as late-stage-Jose-Mourinho-Chelsea crashed and burned, it’s maybe all the less believable now that they again look so good, still with pretty much the same cast of characters that won the 2014/15 title and then cratered.
As Eden Hazard scored one of his classic probing, rapid-action goals and Diego Costa scored a pretty one from about 20 yards out to go top of the scoring charts, it was easy to feel like this was October 2015.
Or, at least, the October 2015 that should have been.
As it is, Chelsea lost a year. Out went Mourinho, in came Guus Hiddink for a minute, and then in came Antonio Conte for good.
They controlled a very good Southampton team on Sunday. Their 2-0 win was their fourth in a row in the league and lifted them to fourth, one off the lead points pace set by Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool.
If it's premature to declare from the mountaintops Chelsea are all the way back, the evidence is at least piling that they are far, far closer in quality to 2015-title-winning Chelsea than they are to whatever kidnapped the real Chelsea and replaced them last season.
• In pictures: Eden Hazard and Diego Costa keep Chelsea on top-three's heels
Everton 2-0 West Ham United
Everton: Lukaku 50’; Barkley 76’
• Richard Jolly: For Everton, from defence to Lukaku-Bolasie pairing, 'perfection' in solidity
• In pictures: Romelu Lukaku and Everton get back into top-four mix
SATURDAY
West Bromwich Albion 0-4 Manchester City
Man City: Aguero 19’, 28’; Gundogan 79’, 90’
• Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan each scored twice as Manchester City crushed West Bromwich Albion 4-0 on Saturday to reclaim first place in the Premier League from Arsenal.
As well as keeping them top, City’s one-sided victory at The Hawthorns brought Guardiola out of a six-game winless run – the longest such sequence of his managerial career.
Guardiola, whose side host former club Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, made eight changes to his starting XI from Wednesday’s 1-0 League Cup defeat at Manchester United.
Aguero was among the players to return to the starting line-up and his first-half brace effectively settled the game.
He broke the deadlock in the 19th minute, slamming a shot between Ben Foster’s legs from Gundogan’s pass, and doubled his tally nine minutes later with a stunning shot from the edge of the box.
The goals ended Aguero’s six-game scoring drought and lifted his City tally to 149 – one more than club great Francis Lee.
Aguero teed up Gundogan for City’s third in the 79th minute and the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder sealed victory in the last minute of normal time.
• In pictures: Manchester City reclaim top spot thanks to Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan
*AFP
Sunderland 1 Arsenal 4
Sunderland: Defoe 65’ (pen); Arsenal: Sanchez 19’, 78’; Giroud 71’, 76’
• Hapless Sunderland improbably had a point tentatively in hand when Jermain Defoe converted a penalty on 65 minutes.
Petr Cech had upended Duncan Watmore as he rounded the keeper, Defoe scored the resulting spot-kick and Sunderland, with just two points this season, had at least a third in sight. Against second-placed Arsenal, no less.
They kept it in sight for all of six minutes.
Olivier Giroud broke the brief deadlock on 71 minutes, finishing a cross from Kieran Gibbs from about eight yards out. Then he broke it some more, seven minutes later, with a header.
Then Alexis Sanchez really stomped all over it. Two minutes after Arsenal’s third, the Chilean added his second goal of the day, cleverly rolling it past Jordan Pickford after a shot rebounded to Aaron Ramsey and he poked to Sanchez just in front of the net.
Arsenal (temporarily) went top, on 23 points. Sunderland still have just the two.
• In pictures: Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud double trouble for Arsenal
Crystal Palace 2-4 Liverpool
Palace: McArthur 18’, 33’; Liverpool: Can 16’, Lovren 21’, Matip 44’, Firmino 71’
• Greg Lea: Where Liverpool once lost Premier League title, now they show it can be theirs again
Manchester United 0-0 Burnley
• Richard Jolly: For Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Manchester United, decline and floundering in Fergie Time
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Leicester City
Spurs: Janssen 44’ (pen); Leicester: Musa 48’
• Tottenham were left three points off the pace in fourth place after drawing at home to Leicester, who climb one place to 11th.
Vincent Janssen gave Spurs the lead with a 44th-minute penalty, but Ahmed Musa equalised early in the second period, sliding in bravely to apply the finishing touch to Jamie Vardy’s cross.
*AFP
Middlesbrough 2-0 Bournemouth
Boro: Ramirez 39’; Downing 56’
• Middlesbrough pulled clear of the relegation places after beating Bournemouth 2-0 through a memorable Gaston Ramirez solo goal and a Stewart Downing strike.
*AFP
Watford 1-0 Hull City
Watford: Dawson 82’ (og)
• Watford stole above Manchester United into seventh place after edging Hull City 1-0 courtesy of a late Michael Dawson own goal.
*AFP
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