After an uncharacteristically feeble start by Chelsea to its Premier league title defense, the return of Diego Costa’s fiery temperament was just what Jose Mourinho needed to rouse his under-performers against Arsenal.
Job done. Even if Costa will do little to endear Chelsea to the neutrals. There was no goal from last season’s top scorer in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Arsenal but the hot-headed striker’s contribution seemed even more significant. Costa managed to escape being dismissed for lashing out at laurent Koscielny before appearing to incite Gabriel Paulista into being sent off for a retaliatory kick on him right in front of the referee
“He can do what he wants and stays on,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “I think it is unacceptable behavior ... he will do the same next week and the week after and he always gets away with it. It’s always provocation.”
Arsenal was a man down just before half time and Chelsea made a flying start to the second half. Kurt Zouma headed in the opener after dislodging captain John Terrry — a mainstay in Mourinho’s side — from the starting lineup.
A reckless, but not malicious, sliding tackle on Cesc Fabregas by Santi Cazorla earned the Arsenal midfielder a second yellow card in the 79th minute.
“It was very accidental,” Wenger said.
Arsenal had to cope with nine men and Eden Hazard completed Chelsea’s derby triumph in stoppage time with a deflected strike. This was the day everything went Mourinho’s way against Wenger, his arch adversary, following a spluttering start to the league campaign that had seen Chelsea lose three out of the five games before Saturday.
Not only did Hazard claim his first goal of a season, having struggled to match the player-of-the-year exploits of 2014-15 until now, but Fabregas claimed his first assist after setting up more goals than anyone else in the league last year.
More significantly for Mourinho, it maintained his unbeaten record against Wenger in competitive games after last month losing the Community Shield, which serves as the curtain-raiser to the season.
Berahino hands Wba victory Birmingham: Saido Berahino scored his first goal for West Bromwich Albion since threatening to go on strike as his team beat city rival Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park. on Saturday.
Berahino’s outstretched foot turned in a shot by teammate Salomon Rondon in the 39th minute for West Brom’s second win of the season.
Everton draws with swansea
swansea: A wasteful Everton side was held to a 0-0 draw by Swansea at the liberty Stadium on Saturday, with striker Romelu lukaku wasting a number of chances to give his team victory.
lukaku had a shot cleared off the line by Swansea defender Ashley Williams, after the Belgium striker reacted quickest to a deflected shot from Ross Barkley and beat goalkeeper lukas Fabianski to the ball in the 58th minute.
lukaku also blazed over the bar after being played through by Gareth Barry five minutes earlier.
Everton’s Kevin Mirallas was shown a straight red card for an aggressive challenge on Barrow Iin dying minutes of the game.
bournemouth win 2-0
bournemouth: Bournemouth scored twice in the opening nine minutes to earn a 2-0 win over struggling Sunderland.
Callum Wilson netted his fifth league goal of the season with a low shot in the fourth minute and Matt Ritchie doubled the lead with a stunning volley from outside the area five minutes later as the promoted seaside club earned its second victory of the campaign.
Sunderland went down to 10 men when Younes Kaboul earned his second yellow card in the 74th.
west ham stun man city
manchester: Goals from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho helped West Ham United beat Manchester City 2-1 on Saturday.
For Manchester City, their new signing from Wolfsburg Kevin De Bruyne scored his first goal for the club in the45th minute of the game.