Patient United move clear, City seal last-gasp win

LONDON: Manchester United stayed patient to beat Leicester City 2-0 and move two points clear at the top of the Premier League as Manchester City secured a dramatic late win at Bournemouth on Saturday.

Surprise packages Huddersfield Town were held 0-0 by Southampton but stayed unbeaten and Newcastle United earned their first points of the season with a 3-0 victory over West Ham United that left the London side bottom of the table.

Crystal Palace are also without a point after losing 2-0 at home to Swansea City but Brighton and Hove Albion are off the mark following a 0-0 draw at 10-man Watford.

Manchester United were frustrated by Leicester and Romelu Lukaku had a penalty saved by Kasper Schmeichel before substitutes Marcus Rashford and Marouane Fellani scored in the last 20 minutes to seal their third successive victory.

“I think we played very well,” manager Jose Mourinho said.

“If I have to choose a word to describe my team, I would have to say ’solid’.”

City were stunned on the south coast when Charlie Daniels gave Bournemouth the lead with an unstoppable left-foot drive from an improbable angle.

The visitors, who left Sergio Aguero on the bench and gave a debut to 52 million-pound ($67 million) signing Benjamin Mendy and a first start to Bernardo Silva, equalised before halftime when Gabriel Jesus poked home from David Silva’s fine pass.

It looked like being a frustrating afternoon for City, however, before, in the seventh minute of stoppage time, Sterling’s deflected shot floated past keeper Asmir Begovic to seal a 2-1 win.

Sterling celebrated in front of the ecstatic City fans and was engulfed as several spilled on to the edge of the pitch, forcing stewards and police to intervene and leading to referee Mike Dean showing the England forward a second yellow card.

CHAOTIC SCENES

It was later reported that a steward had made a police statement accusing substitute Aguero of striking him during the chaotic scenes.

“This allegation is false and the TV pictures prove it,” Aguero said on Twitter.

Great win today! On this story about their steward, I did not hit anyone, this allegation is false, and the tv pictures prove it. C´mon City

— Sergio Kun Aguero (@aguerosergiokun) August 26, 2017

Dorset police said two City fans had been arrested for coming on to the pitch and that they were reviewing CCTV footage “as part of an ongoing investigation to establish whether any other offences may have been committed”.

Guardiola was bemused.

“Maybe someone can explain to me because I would like to know,” he told Sky Sports of the Sterling sending-off.

“He ran to celebrate. If you can’t celebrate with the fans maybe we should play without fans.”

Huddersfield remain unbeaten and second in the table after dominating their game against Southampton and David Wagner’s side are yet to concede a league goal this season.

“We will go into this international break with a smile on our face,” he said.

Newcastle finally got their campaign rolling against a poor West Ham side.

Spain striker Joselu scored their first league goal of the campaign before halftime and Ciaran Clark and Aleksandar Mitrovic wrapped up the points in the second half.

West Ham have lost their first three games for the first time since the 2010-2011 season when they were relegated.

Swansea shrugged off the departure of Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton with a 2-0 victory at Frank de Boer’s Palace – teenager Tammy Abraham scored his first Premier League goal.

Watford remain unbeaten after grinding out a 0-0 draw with Brighton despite having Uruguayan defender Miguel Britos sent off midway through the first half for a reckless tackle.

Champions Chelsea play Everton on Sunday when Liverpool host Arsenal, last season’s runners-up Tottenham Hotspur face Burnley and West Bromwich Albion take on Stoke City.