LONDON (Reuters) – Liverpool returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a 3-0 victory over Bournemouth that sent Arne Slot’s side top of the table for 24 hours on Saturday.
Winger Luis Diaz scored twice and Darwin Nunez netted his first league goal of the season as Liverpool avoided any repeat of last week’s home defeat by Nottingham Forest.
Slot’s side have 12 points, the same as Manchester City who take on Arsenal (10) at The Etihad on Sunday.
Aston Villa completed a superb week when they hit back from a goal down to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-1 and also move to 12 points from their opening five games.
Chelsea showed further signs of improvement as they cruised to a 3-0 win at West Ham United but Newcastle United, who could have gone top, suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 3-1 away to Fulham.
Southampton and Everton both secured their first points of the season with 1-1 draws against Ipswich Town and Leicester City respectively.
Brentford scored inside the opening minute for the second successive week but lost 3-1 at Tottenham Hotspur, for whom Dominic Solanke scored his first goal.
Manchester United drew 0-0 at Crystal Palace in the late game.
Slot’s honeymoon period was brought to an end by Nottingham Forest last week but Liverpool have responded impressively, winning 3-1 away to Milan in the Champions League and then overpowering Bournemouth at Anfield, scoring three goals in 12 minutes
“After the big win against AC Milan I was curious to see how we would react today — and it was a much, much better reaction than we had against Nottingham Forest,” Dutchman Slot said.
“Bournemouth kept on going, kept on going and kept on going. It was tougher than the result might look like.”
Villa returned to Europe’s top table when they beat Young Boys in their opening Champions League match this week and they backed it up with a hard-earned three points against Wolves.
Matheus Cunha gave winless Wolves the lead but Ollie Watkins equalised in the 73rd minute and late goals by Ezri Konsa and Jhon Duran wrapped up the points for Unai Emery’s side.
“It shows the character and the togetherness we have here. We knew we were not good enough in the first half. We came out firing in the second half and punished them,” Konsa said.
Defeat left Wolves bottom of the table.
Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca became the first manager since Pep Guardiola in 2016 to win his first three Premier League away games as his side outclassed a sorry West Ham.
“I think we are on the right path, we are in the right direction. But this is a long journey,” he said.
Nicolas Jackson scored twice to put Chelsea in command with Cole Palmer wrapping up the points straight after halftime.
Newcastle’s unbeaten start ended in disappointing fashion as goals by Raul Jimenez, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson gave Fulham a 3-1 victory at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
Harvey Barnes gave the visitors hope of salvaging something from their trip but Eddie Howe’s side could have few complaints.
“We have to start the game better and be more front-footed and more dominant in our performance,” Howe said.
Fulham are in eighth place with eight points.
Tottenham have endured an underwhelming start to the season and were stunned when Bryan Mbeumo sent an acrobatic volley into the net 23 seconds after kickoff.
But 65-million-pound ($86.59-million) signing Solanke replied in the eighth minute with a tap-in and goals by Brennan Johnson and James Maddison secured Tottenham’s second win of the season.
($1 = 0.7507 pounds)
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)
