Manchester City returned to the top of the table with victory over Sunderland
Manchester City were the big winners in the Premier League as the 2014 champions returned to the top of the league after beating Southampton by three goals to one on Saturday afternoon.
Being the first of the top four to play at the weekend, City had the chance to steal a march on their rivals, and it was one they duly took thanks to goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph and Alexander Kolarov.
Meanwhile Southampton are in tenth place ahead of their match with bottom of the table Aston Villa, whose woes continued with defeat at home to Watford.
The Hornets are one point and one place behind the Saints, while the Villains are now seven points from safety and remain without a league win since the opening day of the season when they beat Bournemouth, who were arguable involved in the game of the weekend – a six goal thriller against Everton.
Six-goal thriller
The Toffees looked comfortable at 2-0 up with just ten minutes to play, though goals from Adam Smith and Junior Stanislas pulled the Cherries level.
Ross Barkley then looked to have spare the Toffees blushes in stoppage time Stanislas netted again to salvage what had looked to be unlikely point for Eddie Howe’s men who rise a place but remain in the relegation zone.
The team the south-coast side leapfrogged are Newcastle United, whose woes continued with a 5-1 hammering by Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace.
More misery for McClaren
Newcastle had led through Papiss Cisse, though they went into the break 3-1 down, and the situation only got worse.
While the north-east outfit languish in nineteenth place, the Eagles are flying high and are well in the mix for a European place, as they are currently two points behind fifth place Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs hosted champions Chelsea in Sunday’s early-kick off and headed into the game as favourites but had to settle for a point as no goals were scored in a game of few clear cut opportunities.
While Mauricio Pochettino’s men will arguably feel that they missed a chance to fully throw themselves into the title mix, Jose Mourinho will be feeling a lot happier with his side keeping clean sheets in a week.
Missed opportunities
Arsenal failed to move level on points with leaders Manchester City by extending their winless league run to three games by dropping two points against Norwich City while Leicester City and Manchester United shared the spoils in Saturday’s late kick off and also remain well in the hunt.
Jamie Vardy scored a fantastic opener against Louis van Gaal’s side to take his magnificent goal-scoring run to eleven goals in eleven games – a new Premier League record.
Sunderland moved out of the relegation zone after beating Stoke City and stringing together two straight wins for the first time this season, and the Black Cats can now be backed at 6/5 to stay up while Jurgen Klopp secured his first home league win at Anfield after a James Milner penalty was enough to secure the points for Liverpool against Swansea City.
Can Sam Allardyce save Sunderland?
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