LONDON:
Manchester City cruised to the top of the Premier League with a 4-0 win over
Brighton on Saturday as Chelsea lost further ground in disappointing draws with
Southampton and Sheffield United. Leicester moved up to third as the Foxes
unbeaten start to the season continued in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth thanks to
two goals from Jamie Vardy, while victories for Crystal Palace and West Ham
take them into a share of fourth.

City win comes at
a cost

Liverpool can
move back above City should they continue the only 100 percent start left in
the Premier League later at Burnley, but City were never in danger of dropping
points at the Etihad as Kevin de Bruyne tapped home David Silva's cut-back
after just two minutes.

Victory came at a
cost for Pep Guardiola's men as Aymeric Laporte was stretchered off with a knee
injury that looks certain to rule him out of winning a first cap for France in
upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers. City may come to regret not buying a replacement
for departed captain Vincent Kompany at centre-back as holding midfielder
Fernandinho had to deputise at the heart of the defence for the final 52
minutes.

However, Aguero
soon made the game safe by blasting high into the net just before the break and
produced another sublime finish to curl into the top corner for his second 10
minutes into the second-half. Substitute Bernardo Silva then rounded off the
scoring for the champions.

BLADES BLUNT
CHELSEA

After scoring his
first Chelsea goals away to Norwich last weekend, Tammy Abraham thought he had
given the Blues all three points at home to newly-promoted Sheffield United by
scoring twice more before the break. However, the Blades hit back at the start
of the second-half through Callum Robinson and Kurt Zouma's own goal a minute
from time earned the visitors an unlikely point in a 2-2 draw.

As United and
Chelsea stumble, Leicester are the closest challengers to the top two so far as
Jamie Vardy scored twice and teed up Youri Tielemans for his side's other goal,
but Brendan Rodgers's men were also lucky Tielemans did not see red in another
controversial VAR call. Vardy opened the scoring in stunning fashion by lobbing
Aaron Ramsdale from outside the box, but Bournemouth levelled thanks to a neat
finish from Callum Wilson. Tielemans tapped home Vardy's low cross to restore
Leicester's lead, but the Belgian should have been sent-off for a high
challenge on Wilson.

However, after a
VAR review, the original decision to let Tielemans escape unpunished stood, and
Vardy sealed the points 17 minutes from time. Crystal Palace backed up their
shock victory at Old Trafford last weekend with a 1-0 win over 10-man Aston
Villa thanks to Jordan Ayew's goal 17 minutes from time.

But Villa, who
had Egyptian international Trezeguet sent-off early in the second-half, felt
aggrieved as Henri Lansbury's late goal was harshly ruled out for a dive before
the ball reached the midfielder by Jack Grealish.

West Ham also
have seven points from four games as goals either side of half-time from
Sebastien Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko secured a comfortable 2-0 over Norwich.
Watford got their first point of the season, but remain bottom after a 1-1 draw
at Newcastle. - AFP