City, Liverpool notch impressive wins

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United frustrated by Saints, Chelsea held 2-2 by Sheffield

BURNLEY, Aug 31, (Agencies): Premier League leaders Liverpool set a new club record of 13 straight top flight wins with a 3-0 victory at Burnley on Saturday, maintaining their two-point advantage over champions Manchester City.

After Burnley started brightly, with forward Chris Wood forcing an early save out of Adrian, Liverpool got ahead in the 33rd minute, albeit in fortunate fashion.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attempted cross from deep on the right hit the back of Wood and looped over Burnley keeper Nick Pope into the far corner.

If Sean Dyche’s side felt luck was against them with the opener they had only themselves to blame when they handed Liverpool a second goal four minutes later.

Burnley skipper Ben Mee passed straight to Roberto Firmino, who burst forward and then slipped the ball left to Sadio Mane, who finished with precision into the bottom corner.

Firmino wrapped up the win nine minutes from the end, driving past Pope after good work from Mohamed Salah, who skipped past two challenges before setting up the Brazilian.

The club’s previous record run was set between April and October 1990, when the team was managed by Kenny Dalglish.

Sergio Aguero scored twice in Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Brighton that was marred by a serious-looking injury to center back Aymeric Laporte on Saturday.

Southampton 1, Man United 1

Manchester United’s patchy start to the Premier League season continued with a 1-1 draw at 10-man Southampton after a Jannik Vestergaard header cancelled out a brilliant Daniel James goal for the visitors on Saturday.

The result left United on five points from four games after last weekend’s shock 2-1 home defeat by Crystal Palace while Southampton, who stretched their winless league streak at home against United to nine games, have four points.

Wales winger James, signed from Swansea City during the close season, netted the third goal of his fledgling United career when he beat Angus Gunn with a 10th-minute rocket into the top corner which gave the Saints keeper no chance.

Chelsea 2, Sheffield 2

Chelsea threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with newly promoted Sheffield United on Saturday, leaving manager Frank Lampard still looking for his first home win.

Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham got his name on the score-sheet at Stamford Bridge for the first time with two first-half goals.

Abraham, one of several players from Chelsea’s youth academy given a chance by Lampard, slotted home in the 19th minute when Sheffield keeper Dean Henderson failed to gather the ball under pressure from Christian Pulisic.

Abraham doubled Chelsea’s lead in the 43rd minute when he capitalised on a defensive mix-up.

Palace 1, Aston Villa 0

Crystal Palace finally scored in front of their own fans at Selhurst Park as Jordan Ayew secured a 1-0 win in the Premier League on Saturday against an Aston Villa side hampered by the 54th-minute dismissal of Trezeguet.

But Villa were denied an equaliser in the final seconds when Henri Lansbury bundled the ball into the net but referee Kevin Friend disallowed the goal for an earlier dive by Jack Grealish, who was booked.

Leicester 3, Bournemouth 1

Jamie Vardy scored a long-range lob for the first of his two goals in Leicester’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth that kept the team unbeaten after four games in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Running onto Ben Chilwell’s searching ball forward, Vardy didn’t need to take a touch as he saw Bournemouth goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale rushing out of his goal and sent a lob from outside the area into the net in the 12th minute.

Bournemouth hit back within three minutes when Callum Wilson clipped the ball in off the post after latching onto Ryan Fraser’s pass that bisected Leicester’s defense.

West Ham 2, Norwich 0

Andriy Yarmolenko headed straight for West Ham’s medical staff after scoring his first goal after a lengthy layoff in a 2-0 win over Norwich in the English Premier League on Saturday.

The Ukrainian winger spent most of last season – his first at West Ham – out injured after seriously hurting his Achilles tendon in October.

Yarmolenko has battled back to regain full fitness and grabbed the second goal against Norwich by firing a rebound into the net after an effort from captain Mark Noble was blocked. He celebrated by running to the dugout, where West Ham’s medical staff was sitting.

French striker Sebastien Haller made it three goals in two games for West Ham after his club-record offseason move from Eintracht Frankfurt, putting the London club ahead in the 24th minute.

Watford 1, Newcastle Utd 1

After three successive Premier League defeats under manager Javi Gracia, Watford stopped the rot by hanging on for their first point of the season in a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United on Saturday.

Will Hughes took just 78 seconds to atone for his embarrassing miss on the goalline the previous weekend, slotting home after Tom Cleverley’s shot deflected off a defender into his path.

The goal was the second quickest Watford have ever scored in the Premier League and eased visiting nerves as they sought to avoid their worst start to a season for 85 years.

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