Manchester City opened up a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League after a thrilling 5-3 victory over Sunderland, while Liverpool edged Bournemouth 1-0 on Andoni Iraola’s return to the south coast.
City capitalised on Arsenal’s shock 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Saturday but were made to work hard for all three points at the Etihad Stadium, despite taking the lead three times.
Enzo Fernandez opened the scoring with his first Premier League goal since joining City in a £125 million ($167 million) move from Chelsea. His free-kick caught Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs out at the near post.
Sunderland, who secured their first European victory in 53 years against AZ Alkmaar in midweek, showed little sign of fatigue as they repeatedly threatened City’s defence.
Brian Brobbey equalised after finishing off Enzo Le Fee’s pass, before Rayan Cherki restored City’s lead with a quick-footed finish.
Brobbey responded again four minutes later, completing a fine Sunderland move to level the scores at 2-2.
Antoine Semenyo put City back in front before half-time and extended the advantage shortly before the hour mark with another composed left-footed finish.
Sunderland refused to surrender, however, and Brobbey completed his hat-trick after Nilson Angulo beat Gianluigi Donnarumma to a ball over the top.
City survived a nervy spell as Sunderland pushed for an equaliser, with Donnarumma making a couple of uncertain interventions and Ruben Dias forced to clear an effort off the line.
Erling Haaland eventually settled the contest by scoring City’s fifth goal, while also maintaining his record of having scored against every team he has faced in the Premier League.
The victory extended what was described as Enzo Maresca’s perfect start to the challenge of succeeding Pep Guardiola as City manager.
Iraola’s winning return
Liverpool secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Bournemouth on Andoni Iraola’s return to the south coast.
Iraola received a warm reception from Bournemouth supporters after previously guiding the Cherries into European competition for the first time in the club’s history.
His success at Bournemouth eventually led to him taking charge of Liverpool, but his start at Anfield has been mixed and he needed a victory before the three-week international break.
Liverpool again produced an unconvincing performance but found the breakthrough when Cody Gakpo’s cross fell to Alexander Isak, who fired home his fourth goal of the season.
The victory lifted Liverpool to sixth place, within a point of third-placed Brighton.
Leeds missed the opportunity to move into third after being held to a goalless draw at home by Crystal Palace.
Tyrick Mitchell appeared to have given Palace the lead in the second half, but the goal was ruled out for offside during the build-up.
Manchester United will look to ease the pressure on manager Michael Carrick when they travel to bottom-of-the-table Fulham later.
United have collected just four points from their opening four league games and were knocked out of the League Cup by Brighton in midweek after surrendering a 2-0 lead at home for the first time in 50 years.
