Arsenal came back from a goal down to beat Leeds United 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, with Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes coming off the bench to net the winner as the Premier League resumed following a lengthy international break.
The competition returned under a cloud, with Manchester City found guilty by an independent commission of more than 100 breaches of the league’s financial rules over nine years and their failure to co-operate with the investigation.
City have denied wrongdoing and have appealed against the decision.
On the pitch, champions Arsenal climbed to second in the table on 15 points, behind City on goal difference before the Manchester club travel to Liverpool on Monday.
Chelsea struck twice in the opening three minutes en route to a 5-1 thrashing of Bournemouth, with Jordan Henderson and Joao Pedro bagging two goals apiece, and are fifth on 10 points.
Tottenham Hotspur struck in stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw at Manchester United as both sides’ struggles continued.
Brighton & Hove Albion climbed to third, two points off top spot, with a 2-0 win at Sunderland.
Aston Villa and visiting Brentford drew 2-2, while Ipswich Town edged Fulham 2-1 at Portman Road with a last-gasp goal to leave the last-placed London side without a league victory this season.
Arsenal were looking to bounce back, having slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Brighton in the last game before the break but endured a frustrating first half as they struggled to create chances.
Their play improved in the second period, but Leeds took the lead in the 55th minute when James Justin slammed home a clever pull-back from Gabriel Gudmundsson.
Riccardo Calafiori levelled for Arsenal seven minutes later, the Italian jumping to steer home Ben White’s knock-down and, sensing his side could grab all three points, manager Mikel Arteta rang the changes.
He sent on Guimaraes, Jurrien Timber and Viktor Gyokeres, and was rewarded when Guimaraes grabbed the winner with a brilliantly worked goal in the 70th minute, sending a low shot into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box.
“It was such a difficult game, obviously after the international break it’s never easy, especially after a defeat in our last game,” Calafiori said.
“I think we had some tough moments, but I think we deserved the winner. We acted well after the goal we conceded.”
Leeds are sixth on nine points.
At Stamford Bridge, Henderson was Chelsea’s unlikely hero, opening the scoring in the second minute when Cole Palmer, fresh from signing a new contract, drove forward from the halfway line before setting him up to score.
Chelsea struck again a minute later when Henderson found Morgan Rogers, whose curling effort deflected in off defender Antonio Silva.
Chelsea extended their lead 40 seconds after halftime through Joao Pedro before Evanilson pulled one back for the visitors five minutes later. Joao Pedro netted the Blues’ fourth before Henderson capped the win with a superb curling free kick.
Henderson, 36, became the oldest player to be directly involved in three-plus Premier League goals since Cristiano Ronaldo in April 2022.
At Old Trafford, Spurs were the better team but United punished their wastefulness in the 73rd minute when Matheus Cunha picked out Bryan Mbeumo in the box, and Mbeumo slotted home with United’s second shot on target.
Rodrigo Bentancur was shown a red card for headbutting Luke Shaw during a 78th-minute melee.
But 10-man Spurs equalised in the 92nd minute when Dominic Solanke got away from Lisandro Martinez to nod Sandro Tonali’s cross home for a well-deserved leveller that got them off the bottom of the table. They are 18th on three points, while United are 12th with six points.
Brighton’s Maxim de Cuyper and Jaouen Hadjam scored in the second half for their side, whose victory came despite seeing Pascal Struijk red-carded in the 57th minute.
Brentford’s Kristoffer Ajer struck in the 79th to salvage a draw at Villa that left his team fourth on 10 points. Yehor Yarmolyuk had opened the scoring for the visitors before Nicolas Jackson and John McGinn replied for Villa.
Ipswich captain Dara O’Shea scored in the 92nd minute to snatch victory over Fulham, who led through Ryan Sessegnon until the 88th minute when Abdoul Ouattara fired in a fine equaliser. — Reuters