Jose Mourinho’s dismal away record against top-six sides continued, as Manchester United slumped to a 1-0 defeat away at Chelsea. United played the same team and system that beat Spurs at Old Trafford a week earlier, but were barely a threat, and Alvaro Morata scored a superb header in the second half to take Chelsea to just a point behind United.
Earlier in the day, Manchester City won their 9th game in a row, beating Arsenal 3-1 at the Etihad. Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring with a sweet left-footed strike, and Sergio Aguero doubled the lead from the spot at the start of the second half. Alexandre Lacazette came off the bench to halve the deficit, but Gabriel Jesus scored a simple tap-in to move City eight points clear at the top of the table, after United’s loss later in the day. Incidentally, this is the biggest lead a team has had in the league after eleven games.
Slaven Bilic seems unlikely to survive the international break, as West Ham were soundly beaten 4-1 by Liverpool at the London Stadium. The first goal came from a West Ham corner, from which Liverpool had a 3-on-1 break, calmly finished by Mohamed Salah. An error by Mark Noble from a Liverpool corner allowed Joel Matip to make it 2-0, and while Manuel Lanzini scored a fine goal in the second half to raise the Hammers’ hopes, the bubbles were still streaming across the ground as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored his first league goal for Liverpool. Salah scored his second of the game late on to send West Ham into the bottom three.
Everton managed to haul themselves out of the relegation zone with a thrilling comeback 3-2 win against Watford. Goals from Richarlison and Christian Kabasele made it seem as if Watford would stroll to a win; however, Oumar Niasse and Dominic Calvert-Lewin levelled it up with two goals in quick succession, and a 90th minute penalty from Leighton Baines sealed the points. There was yet more late drama, as with a staggering twelve minutes of stoppage time, Watford managed to win and miss a penalty as well. Tom Cleverley, captaining Watford on his first visit to his previous club, was the guilty party, and the Hornets’ bright early start has been tempered somewhat.
Spurs ground out a 1-0 win at home against Crystal Palace. Son Heung-min was the goalscorer, while Wilfried Zaha missed an open goal for the Eagles. Bournemouth won 1-0 away at Newcastle with a late goal from Steve Cook. The Magpies have only one win in their last six games now.
Stoke and Leicester played out a 2-2 draw at the bet365, with the goals coming from Xherdan Shaqiri, Vicente Iborra, Riyad Mahrez and Peter Crouch. Huddersfield won 1-0 at home against West Brom, Rajiv van la Parra scoring the only goal against the Baggies, who have been struggling recently. Burnley continued their astonishing away form with a 1-0 win away to Southampton, Sam Vokes scoring off the bench in what may have been Sean Dyche’s last game in charge. Brighton won away from home as well, at struggling Swansea, as veteran Glenn Murray kept the Swans in the bottom three.
This was the worst possible result to go into the international break with for United. City are now eight points ahead, while Chelsea and Spurs are only a point behind. United’s next two games, at home against Newcastle and Brighton, are absolutely must-win now.