Manchester City 3-1 Everton:
Sergio Aguero‘s 70th minute penalty gave Manchester City a much needed victory, after the thrashing received at the hands of Bayern Munich in their Champions League fixture. Aguero’s second goal of the night also ended Everton’s seven match unbeaten streak in the ongoing Premier League season.
The second half begun with City leading 2-1, thanks to goals from the strikers- Alvaro Negredo and Sergio Aguero. The home team completely dominated the half, in stark contrast to their performance prior to the break, and always looked the most likelier team to score. The scoreboard did not have much to show to their superiority, as they were able to add only one more to their tally from a resulting penalty as Pablo Zabaleta was brought down by Seamus Coleman.
Despite faring better than Manchester City in the first half, Everton could have easily been three down if not for their captain Phil Jagielka. Towards the end of the first half, just when Aguero was looking to pull the trigger inside Everton’s penalty area, a wonderfully timed intervention from Jagielka put the breaks on the Argentine from netting the goal.
Earlier Romelu Lukaku‘s opener was nullified in the very next minute by Negredo, assisted by Yaya Toure. In the 45th minute, Aguero, latching onto a pass from David Silva, gave City the lead with a stunning finish from the right flank.
Liverpool 3-1 Crystal Palace:
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers stuck with his 3-5-2 formation that reaped the benefits against Sunderland last weekend and with Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge upfront, the Reds looked menacing on their way to registering a thumping 3-0 victory against a hapless Crystal Palace side at Anfield.
Minutes after Cameron Jerome flicked a header wide for the Eagles, Suarez and Sturridge netted a goal each within 15 minutes of the game. Palace had their chances in the first half as both Jimmy Kebe and Jason Puncheon were presented with decent opportunities, which they could not make it count. While the latter was denied by the infallible Simon Mignolet, the former fluffed his lines.
An awkward foul from Dean Moxey on Raheem Sterling gifted Liverpool a penalty, which was slotted home with ease by Steven Gerrard to seal the fate of the game. Dwight Gayle grabbed a consolation goal in the 77th minute.
Cardiff City 1-2 Newcastle United:
A double from Loic Remy, the on-loan striker from Queens Park Rangers, helped Newcastle United register a 2-1 victory against Cardiff City at the Cardiff City stadium. Remy, who now has five goals for Newcastle in this season, more than compensated for his error earlier in the game by finding the back of the net twice within 38 minutes to give his team a clear advantage going into the break.
They could have had more as a shot from Yohan Cabaye rattled the post towards the end of the first half. Peter Odemwingie, capitalising on a poor clearance by Mike Williamson, cut down the lead by slotting one past Tim Krul in the 58th minute. But Newcastle held on to the game to give some relief to their boss Alan Pardew after a difficult start to the season.
Fulham 1-0 Stoke City:
Fulham, who were pretty much hanging on for most of game, managed to pull off a victory as Darren Bent scored the winner in the dying minutes of the game. Bent brilliantly turned Asmir Begovic and a defender with a backheel to slot in what happened to be the only goal of the game, much to the dismay of Stoke City.
The referee Roger East, who had a horror game, hogged much of the limelight for turning down as many as three rightful penalty claims for either sides.
Stoke were clearly the dominant side at Craven Cottage and could consider themselves unlucky not to get any points out of it after an encouraging start to their campaign while Martin Jol will be relieved to register the first home win of the season.
Hull City 0-0 Aston Villa:
Both the sides failed to break the deadlock at the Kingston Communications stadium, clinging onto a 0-0 draw. Not much to choose between the sides as the chances were few and far in-between. While Aston Villa had the better chances in the first half, the home team showed more intent in finding the winner in the second but the goal never came.
Sunderland 1-2 Manchester United:
Sunderland would be ruing the fact that they missed out on glorious opportunities in the first half to extend their lead to more than just one goal as Manchester United came back utterly dominant in the second half, thanks to a brace from Adnan Janujaz, to complete a 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light.
The last thing David Moyes would have wanted is another loss after a shock defeat to West Bromwich Albion last weekend left them in lurch, lying in the bottom half of the table. They could not have started on a poorer note though, as they were not only one goal down but also ended the first half of the game as the second best team to Sunderland.
However, they came back a rejuvenated side. While the first goal of Janujaz, assisted by Patrice Evra, was side-footed into the top left-corner, the second was a stunning finish into the right corner from 12-yards out.
Earlier in the game, Craig Gardener opened the scoring in the 5th minute of the game, as some lacklustre defending from Phil Jones and Nemanja Vidic set the Sunderland man up for the first goal of the game, who slid in a low shot past David de Gea into the bottom-left corner.