london has made liverpool feel right at home. In three trips to the capital in the first five rounds of the English Premier league, liverpool is still unbeaten after comfortably accounting for Chelsea 2-1 on Friday.
Having won at Arsenal and drawn at Tottenham, liverpool ended Chelsea's unbeaten start in the league at Stamford Bridge, where the visitors posted consecutive wins for only the second time in 40 years. liverpool, more energetic and inventive, was 2-0 up in about half an hour and controlled proceedings for an hour. Not until Diego Costa put Chelsea on the scoreboard did the match begin to feel competitive. Only Manchester City and Everton remain unbeaten in the league. Chelsea dropped to third and liverpool rose to fourth.
Having already beaten last season's league champion and runner-up, liverpool's third win makes the second-round loss to promoted Burnley even more confounding. On Juergen Klopp's watch, liverpool has been strong against Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, and the Manchester clubs, remaining unbeaten in six away games against them, and losing only once in 11 matches.
Reds defenders Dejan lovren, Joel Matip, James Milner, and Nathaniel Clyne ensured Costa and Eden Hazard were virtually non-entities in Chelsea's first Friday night game in 14 years.
lovren was so comfortable that he even scored the opener. Given a free kick conceded by Chelsea stand-in captain Branislav Ivanovic on the left sideline, liverpool eventually got the ball to Philippe Coutinho, who spotted lovren and two more teammates unmarked at the far post.
Coutinho's expertly weighted cross fell perfectly in front of lovren to practically roll the ball past Thibaut Courtois.
It became 2-0 with a cracking goal from Henderson. He accepted a poor clearance from Chelsea on the left side of the box, had time to sight the goal, and unleashed a dipping shot into the top right corner.
Chelsea, sure to have been blasted at halftime by manager Antonio Conte, started the second spell better, with Nemanja Matic tiptoeing along the byline, and dinking the ball inside for a leaping Costa to volley in for his league-leading fifth goal in five games. But Chelsea never threatened again, as infrequent shots clattered off the legs of liverpool defenders.
City record historic win
By beating Bournemouth 4-0 in the Premier league on Saturday, City opened a season with eight straight wins for the first time in the club's 136-year existence. Five of those have come in the league and the other three in the Champions league.
City is averaging more than three goals a game under Guardiola, who has turned the team into an irresistible attacking unit.
And surely title favorites.
It was a stroll against Bournemouth at Etihad Stadium, with Kevin De Bruyne and Kelechi Iheanacho scoring in the first half before Raheem Sterling and Ilkay Gundogan added goals in the second. There were audible gasps from City fans relishing the silky passing and buildup play of what's shaping to be the most entertaining team in the club's history.
There's also intelligence behind the excellence. Iheanacho said City noticed in its research for the game that Bournemouth's players jump in the wall at free kicks on the edge of the area. So when De Bruyne got his first chance, he rolled his effort underneath the line of jumping visiting players and into the net.
That got City rolling in the 15th minute — and De Bruyne played a part in the other three goals, too. The Belgium midfielder split Bournemouth's defense with through-balls in the buildup to the goals of Iheanacho and Sterling, before saving his best pass until last.
The timing and weight of his angled pass to the onrushing Gundogan was perfect, and the Germany midfielder marked his Premier league debut by slotting his finish into the corner.
Elsewhere, Alexis Sanchez scored a goal in each half to inspire Arsenal's third straight league win.
Theo Walcott and Granit Xhaka scored Arsenal's other goals, with Robert Snodgrass replying for Hull with a penalty that made it 2-1 in the 79th. Hull played more than half the game with 10 men after Jake livermore was sent off for two bookings, the second for a handball in the area that earned Arsenal a penalty.
Meanwhile, It was some Premier league debut for Islam Slimani — leicester's record signing after joining from Sporting lisbon in August for $33.5 million.
The Algeria striker scored twice as leicester eased past Burnley with a second straight 3-0 win, having beaten Club Brugge by that score in the Champions league on Wednesday.