MANCHESTER CITY MAINTAINED their blistering start to the season as the Premier League leaders demolished Stoke 7-2.
City made it seven wins from eight with goals from Raheem Sterling, David Silva, Fernandinho, Leroy Sane and Bernardo Silva — as well as a brace from Gabriel Jesus –making it an utterly dismal afternoon for Mark Hughes’ side.
With second placed Manchester United settling for a drab stalemate at Anfield earlier in the day, it was their Manchester rivals who provided the thrills as City moved two points clear at the top.
Pep Guardiola’s free-scoring side struck three times in the first 27 minutes at Eastlands, securing their sixth successive league win in swashbuckling style.
Elsewhere West Ham held Burnley to a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor as Andy Carroll was sent off for two bookable offences in the space of two minutes.
Michail Antonio gave the Hammers the lead before Carroll was given his marching orders just eight minutes later. Chris Loyd grabbed a late equaliser in the 85th minute as Sean Dyche’s side remain unbeaten in their last six Premier League outings.
Swansea grabbed their first win since the end of August with a comfortable 2-0 victory at home to Huddersfield Town, with a brace from 20-year-old Tammy Abraham drawing Paul Clement’s side further away from the drop zone and up to 13th.
Finally, Christian Eriksen scored the only goal of the game as Tottenham finally scraped to their first Premier League win at Wembley against struggling Bournemouth.
Having left White Hart Lane at the end of last season, Spurs had started the new league campaign with a loss and two draws at their adopted home before belatedly securing a 1-0 victory at the national stadium on Saturday.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino had, in his pre-match news conference, taken issue with Man City manager Pep Guardiola’s reference to Tottenham as “the Harry Kane team” — and it was Eriksen, not the England international, who inspired this much-needed triumph.
The win is Spurs’ first at home in the Premier League this season, but marks a fifth consecutive win in all competitions for the London club.
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Kevin De Bruyne is the best Irish player of all time.
@Leon L.: he’s up there with Christian O’Ronaldo.
Ah, best league in the world apparently.
@Ciaran Rice: what do you think the best league in the world is so. Do you mean the bundesliga where there is a monopoly. Serie a where there is a monopoly. Ligue 1 where there is a monopoly. La liga where there is a duopoly.
@Ardmore02: in terms of quality of play? La Liga. Players who can actually trap and pass a football right throughout the league.
If you want players who are big and strong then the EPL is your league.
@Ciaran Rice: it seems like you have no clue what you’re on about. Last year’s 3rd best team beat last year’s 13th best team handily, with the game including a massive 9 goals. Something similar happens in Spain often enough. While I don’t disagree that it probably isn’t the best league, basing that statement on that game is plain weird. The snorefest at Anfield is a better shout.
@Brian: I don’t know what I’m on about but then you go on to pretty much agree with me?
As an example, if Celtic put 7 goals past a league opponent everyone in the 42 is rushing to comment citing this as an example of how awful the league is due to the quality gap.
@Ciaran Rice: No, I basically said this argument on this report is irrelevant. So the point still stands. That’s a completely different situation as Celtic have had a monopoly on that league for years. City haven’t won the league in 3 years, and the champions were beaten by the bottom side today. As I said, the argument can certainly be made, but using today’s evidence is clutching at straws and using Scotland as an example is laughable.
@Ciaran Rice: City are an outlier at the moment. I hate to say it but they’re pretty phenominal to be honest so you can’t judge a league on this. The PL is by far the most competitive league in europe. Nobody ever mentioned it is the best quality league but what other league has a big 5 or 6 that sky pundits keep going on about. None is the answer.
@Ardmore02: sky pundits keep going on about them because it’s sky’s league. Of course they are going to, they fund it.
The bottom clubs in the EPL defeat the top sides about as much as in any other league, ie rarely. Sky like to make out this happens all the time. It doesn’t.
Again, it’s like any other league, you can tell fairly quickly the team or teams who are going to be close to the title. This season it’s undoubtably city. Even at this early stage.
@Ciaran Rice: Skys League? Pretty sure BT show a large portion of the games too. And pretty sure Sky show a large majority of the SPL games too so your point is irrelevant, The likes of a Spanish, French, German, Italian or even Scottish equivalent of Leicester winning their respective league would never happen ever because all them leagues are dominated by 2 or in scotlands case 1 team.
@Brian: Great point, bang on about the SPL
@Drogspur: sky turned the premier league into what it is today. They are the main broadcaster and always have been. To say anything different is wrong.
The Leicester title win was a complete one off as great as it was, and similar has happened elsewhere. France for instance. There have been 8 or 9 different winners of Ligue 1 in the last 25 years or so. If people are going to talk about competitiveness of leagues then surely you have to talk about France.
City are the new top team in English football they’re scoring for fun and their noisy neighbours proved that today when they came up against as their fans say a “mid table club” Liverpool they were scared sh!tless of a team that leak goals from set pieces. Goes to show United’s start to the season is a farce