JEREMAIN LENS SCORED and was sent-off as Sunderland squandered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with West Ham at the Stadium of Light.
A supportive home crowd was given reason to hope that a week full of speculation about the future of head coach Dick Advocaat would end on a positive note after Sunderland put in a brilliant first-half performance to go 2-0 up inside 22 minutes, through goals from Steven Fletcher and Lens.
But Carl Jenkinson pulled one back for West Ham just before half-time, and the afternoon turned sour for Sunderland in the second half as Lens was dismissed and Dimitri Payet levelled the scores on the hour mark.
The result extends West Ham’s unbeaten run to five Premier League games, while Sunderland are still without their first win of the season heading into the international break.
Reports before the game suggested Advocaat was ready to walk away from the job regardless of today’s result and it’s unlikely there was enough evidence to convince the Dutchman to change his mind.
“I don’t want to give an answer on that,” he told Sky Sports afterwards. “I cannot say I will be the manager for the next game.”
There are no such problems for Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City. They returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 victory away to Norwich City – a result which moves them back inside the top four.
Jamie Vardy’s penalty opened the scoring at Carrow Road for a Leicester team who made three changes from the loss to Arsenal, with Riyad Mahrez surprisingly left on the bench.
But Ranieri’s side coped well without the Algeria international as Jeffrey Schlupp fired home a second just after the break to put the visitors in control.
Substitute Dieumerci Mbokani halved the deficit when he turned in Jonny Howson’s cross before Leonardo Ulloa’s header was ruled out for a foul on John Ruddy.
Norwich poured forward in search of an equaliser, but Leicester – marshalled by the excellent Robert Huth – held firm to secure their fourth win of the campaign, while Alex Neil’s side remain on nine points.
Elsewhere, Marko Arnautovic scored the only goal of the game as Stoke City continued their upward momentum with a 1-0 win at Aston Villa that piles further pressure on Tim Sherwood.
Following a disappointing start to the season, Stoke have turned things around in recent weeks and claimed their third straight win in all competitions thanks to Arnautovic’s 55th-minute strike.
The Austria forward saw a 35th-minute goal dubiously disallowed for offside but would not be denied a second time, his low shot from 10 yards condemning Villa to a fourth-straight league defeat.
Arnautovic capitalised on some poor defending from the Villa backline to break the deadlock, and Mark Hughes’ men rarely looked like being pegged back.
Micah Richards did waste a glorious chance to level but Villa – who have not won in the Premier League since the opening day of the season - rarely tested Stoke after that.
Defeat for Villa keeps Sherwood’s men in the bottom three with just four points from eight games and, with a trip to champions Chelsea next on the agenda after the international break, life is unlikely to get any easier for the former Tottenham boss.
A dreadful error from Artur Boruc and a missed penalty from Glenn Murray cost Bournemouth as they were held to a 1-1 draw by fellow Premier League new boys Watford.
Murray’s first-half header on his full debut had the hosts set to go into the break in front after having the better of the first 45 minutes. Boruc, though, gifted an equaliser to Odion Ighalo with a poor pass just before half-time.
After struggling earlier on, Watford were much better after the break and could have gone on to win, with Ben Watson smashing an effort off the crossbar.
But it is Bournemouth who will be more regretful at not having secured three points after Murray saw his spot-kick saved by Heurelho Gomes with just seven minutes remaining.
The draw means the home side move on to eight points from as many games, while the visitors go up to 10 having lost just two of their first eight matches in the top flight.
Premier League results:
- Crystal Palace 2-0 West Brom
- Bournemouth 1-1 Watford
- Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke City
- Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle United
- Norwich City 1-2 Leicester
- Sunderland 2-2 West Ham
