Manchester City no let their perfect start to di season slip on Sunday, as dem beat Sunderland 5-3 for Etihad. Di win put City three points clear for top of Premier League table, afta Arsenal lose 3-0 to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. Enzo Maresca side open scoring through summer signing Enzo Fernandez, but di first half turn crazy.
Brian Brobbey equalise twice for Sunderland, and di Dutchman 33-minute brace na di earliest a Sunderland player don score twice for Premier League match since Darren Bent in 2010. City still go ahead for di third time before halftime as Sunderland fail to clear their ranks following a Cherki cross. Di ball fall kindly to Antoine Semenyo, who score im first league goal of di season. E mark di first time City don take di lead three times for di first half of a Premier League match.
Semenyo claim im second and City fourth goal 10 minutes after di break, but Brobbey reply again. Dat one make am di first Sunderland player to score Premier League hat-trick since Jermain Defoe in 2016. Na now di sixth time a player don score hat-trick but end up on losing side for Premier League history, and di first since Roque Santa Cruz for Blackburn Rovers against Wigan Athletic in December 2007. Erling Haaland add City fifth in di final knockings, a goal wey mean di Norwegian don score against every Premier League team he don face as City claim 5-3 win.
Sunderland go feel say dem no deserve to lose, because dem generate more Expected Goals with 4.32 than City 2.72 xG, as Maresca side fail to keep third successive clean sheet. Maresca tell Sky Sports after di win say: ‘There were too many goals. I prefer 1-0, it’s much better! I’m happy with today’s performance because we found a way to win, but hopefully next time, we won’t concede three.’
For south coast, Andoni Iraola enjoy winning return to AFC Bournemouth. Di Basque swap Vitality Stadium for Anfield over summer, and oversee im second league win as Liverpool boss on Sunday. Alexander Isak second-half strike enough to secure all di spoils as Reds maintain unbeaten start to domestic campaign with 1-0 win. Na di Swede fourth of di season, and he now second to Haaland for Coca-Cola Golden Boot race.
Liverpool take a while to get going at Bournemouth, and Iraola talk about am after di victory. ‘I’m obviously happy with the result. I know it’s a difficult place to come, very difficult place to get three points,’ he tell Sky Sports. ‘We could see in the game, at the beginning in the first 20 minutes, we weren’t at the level at the game, and it has cost us until afterwards, where we finished the first half better. The second half we played better.’
Cody Gakpo also shine for Liverpool. In every single Liverpool game he don start dis season, Gakpo don produce a golden moment in front of goal. But im intervention for di 1-0 win at Bournemouth na di best of di lot. With Liverpool struggling for attacking influence, Gakpo hard-fought run and cross down di right wing set up Alexander Isak winner. Iraola talk say di difficult part of di goal come from Gakpo, and Gakpo also star defensively at Bournemouth, winning more duels than any other player on di pitch. He shut down one of di Cherries biggest threats, Adrien Truffert. Iraola add say: ‘I know Adrien Truffert very well and he demands a lot from you defensively. Cody has been very important in both ways.’
For Manchester United, Matheus Cunha late deflected strike salvage a point and deny Alvaro Arbeloa first win as Fulham boss. A first half wey yield 26 shots, di most in di first half of a Premier League match dis season, surprisingly end goalless. Fulham open scoring midway through second half. Man Utd goalkeeper Senne Lammens save defender Calvin Bassey initial effort, but di rebound ricocheted off Lisandro Martinez and trickled over di line to hand Arbeloa side di lead.
Di goal spur United on, and Cunha 89th-minute effort deflect off David Affengruber and past Bernd Leno to level di scores. While United avoid defeat, e still mark a disappointing start to 2026/27 for head coach Michael Carrick. Last season, United claim more points (39) than any other Premier League team after he take charge at Old Trafford back in mid-January. However, five points from opening five matches na United joint-lowest tally in a Premier League season, matching di 2014/15 points return. To their credit, United recover to finish fourth dat campaign. Fans go hope for a repeat dis time around.
Carrick tell reporters: ‘I thought we should’ve won the game, we created enough to win the game. We had a lot of good play and the goal we did concede, it is one of those goals. I really liked the reaction and how we finished the game. It would be easy for it to go in another direction. We nearly won it at the end. We came to get the win; of course we did, but the way we finished the game is the positive we take from it. Their goalkeeper, the saves he has made, he was Player of the Match and we hit the post twice. A lot of it [our play] was good.’
Finally, Leeds United extend their unbeaten start to di season with a goalless draw against Crystal Palace. Tyrick Mitchell did have di ball in di back of di Leeds net shortly after di break, but di goal was ruled out due to an offside in di build-up. While Palace go disappoint say dem fail to claim all three points, di Eagles don now pick four points from dia last two away games under head coach Pierre Sage.
Sage tell di official Crystal Palace website: ‘It’s a good point to make a clean sheet. But it would be a better point if we won this game because I think we created some chances too. That’s why we have to analyse this clean sheet, not only in the way to defend, but in the way to attack. We created some chances without scoring, and I think altogether it’s a good point.’
