A round-up of all the reports and results from this weekend’s Premier League matches. All kick-off times UAE.
SATURDAY
Liverpool 2 Swansea City 3
Liverpool: Firmino (55’, 69’)
Swansea: Llorente (48’, 52’), Sigurdsson (74’)
• Struggling Swansea City’s first league win at Anfield blew a huge hole in Liverpool’s title ambitions as Fernando Llorente struck twice in a shock 3-2 victory.
Swansea, bottom of the table before kick-off and without a victory in 15 previous league visits, became the first team since Manchester United a year ago to inflict a home defeat on Liverpool.
Paul Clement’s side did it the hard way after Llorente had put them into a surprise 2-0 lead, but just after half-time a double from Roberto Firmino levelled things up, with the visitors indebted once again to Gylfi Sigurdsson for their winner.
Llorente’s good recent form has seen him score seven times in the last 10 Premier League games and despite interest from Chelsea it is imperative to Swansea they keep hold of him as they fight for top-flight survival.
* Press Association
Bournemouth 2 Watford 2
Bournemouth: King (48’), Afobe (82’)
Watford: Kabasele (24’), Deeney (64’)
• Substitute Benik Afobe snatched a point for Bournemouth as they twice came from behind to draw 2-2 against Watford.
The visitors looked on course for a first win in seven matches after Troy Deeney headed them in front, but Afobe climbed off the bench to bail out Bournemouth eight minutes from time.
Bournemouth, smarting from back-to-back defeats by Millwall and Hull, had fallen behind to Christian Kabasele’s header before Joshua King pegged Watford back shortly after half-time.
* Press Association
Crystal Palace 0 Everton 1
Everton: Coleman (87’)
• Sam Allardyce’s anxious wait for a first Premier League win as Crystal Palace manager continued as his lacklustre side suffered a 1-0 home defeat by in-form Everton that left them stuck in the bottom three.
The pressure on Palace increased even before kick-off when Swansea’s shock win at Liverpool left the London club in the relegation places.
Had Christian Benteke’s header found the net rather than the crossbar early on, the jitters may have settled but Everton responded to dominate the game and took the points when Seamus Coleman fired the winner in the 87th minute.
Tom Davies split the Palace defence and Coleman did the rest with a shot that gave goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey no chance.
Palace managed only one shot on target and are in 18th spot with 16 points after a fourth consecutive defeat. Everton remained in seventh place.
* Reuters
Middlesbrough 1 West Ham United 3
Middlesbrough: Stuani (27’)
West Ham: Carroll (9’, 43’), Calleri (90’+4)
• Andy Carroll continued his good form for West Ham, netting the first-half double that consigned Middlesbrough to another dispiriting defeat at the Riverside.
Carroll, fresh from his brilliant strike against Crystal Palace, once again made West Ham fans forget the controversy over their absent midfielder Dimitri Payet as he delivered more delight for his under-pressure manager Slaven Bilic with a bullet header from a corner after nine minutes.
Then after Cristhian Stuani had brought Middlesbrough back into the game with a brilliant team goal, Carroll turned from destroyer into poacher as he snaffled a second just before the break in a frenetic game.
Boro cursed their luck after Stuani hit the bar and Rudy Gestede squandered a late chance but the Hammers sealed a fifth win in seven league matches when substitute Jonathan Calleri scored in the 94th minute.
* Reuters
Stoke City 1 Manchester United 1
Stoke: Mata (19’ og)
Man United: Rooney (90’+4)
• Wayne Rooney became Manchester United’s record goalscorer when he netted his 250th goal for the club in a 1-1 draw away to Stoke City.
Rooney, 31, equalised in the fourth minute of stoppage time to break Bobby Charlton’s United record of 249 goals.
West Bromwich Albion 2 Sunderland 0
West Brom: Fletcher (30’), Brunt (36’)
• Two spectacular first-half goals earned West Bromwich Albion a 2-0 victory to maintain their excellent start to the season and keep Sunderland rooted to the foot of the Premier League.
West Brom scored twice in six minutes to effectively kill off bottom club Sunderland’s hopes.
Darren Fletcher gave the home side the lead after half an hour with a left-foot volley, and Chris Brunt followed up with a superb strike on 36 minutes after Nacer Chadli had hit the bar from close range.
Sunderland, who began the game bottom of the standings after Swansea’s win at Liverpool, rallied in the second half but rarely looked like grabbing the draw that would have taken them above Hull City — their closest rivals in the league’s lower reaches.
* Reuters
Manchester City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Man City: Sané (49’), De Bruyne (54’)
Tottenham: Alli (58’), Son Heung-min (77’)
• Manchester City were denied a morale-boosting victory as Tottenham Hotspur came from two goals down to earn a contentious draw.
Blunders by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris allowed Leroy Sane and Kevin De Bruyne to give City a deserved 2-0 lead after the interval, only for Dele Alli and substitute Son Heung-Min to grab a point for the visitors.
The game’s main talking point occurred shortly before Son’s 77th-minute leveller when Kyle Walker got away with a push on City forward Raheem Sterling inside the Spurs box as he took aim at Lloris.
Guardiola reacted furiously and having seen his team humiliated 4-0 at Everton on their previous outing he will know this was a huge missed opportunity for his misfiring team.
* Agence France-Presse
Still to come:
SUNDAY
Southampton v Leicester City (4pm)
Arsenal v Burnley (6.15pm)
Chelsea v Hull City (8.30pm)
