IMAGES from the Premier League matches played on Sunday.
Saka double helps Arsenal beat Liverpool in thriller
IMAGE: Saka slotting in the penalty for his second to give Arsenal the win against Liverpool. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Reuters
Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka scored twice, including a late winning penalty, as the hosts beat Liverpool 3-2, in a pulsating Premier League clash to send the Gunners back to the top of the table at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal opened the scoring after 58 seconds, with Gabriel Martinelli sweeping home a perfect pass from captain Martin Odegaard but Liverpool grew into the game, and Darwin Nunez levelled in the 34th minute.
There was a lengthy break midway through the first half as Trent Alexander-Arnold received treatment for an ankle injury sustained in a tangle with Martinelli and the England defender had to be replaced by Joe Gomez at halftime.
By then, Arsenal were back in front, sweeping forward on the counter-attack as Martinelli turned provider, whipping the ball across the box for Saka to poke home a simple finish, in first-half stoppage time.
Odegaard missed a golden opportunity to increase Arsenal’s lead after the break and two minutes later, Diogo Jota found Firmino with a perfectly weighted through ball for the Brazilian to slot across goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and into the net.
Arsenal came blazing back with a wild series of shots and blocks that ended in a penalty when Liverpool’s Thiago Alcantara was ruled to have fouled Gabriel Jesus and Saka made no mistake from the spot to put his side 3-2 up in the 76th minute.
It was enough to seal a win that takes Arsenal back into first place on 24 points, one ahead of second-placed Manchester City after nine games.
Liverpool’s disappointing start to the season continued, and their second league defeat, leaves them in the 10th spot, with 10 points from eight games.
West Ham come from behind to beat Fulham 3-1
IMAGE: West Ham United’s Michail Antonio celebrates scoring their third goal with Thilo Kehrer. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
West Ham United won back-to-back Premier League games for the first time this season when they came from behind to beat Fulham 3-1 at home in a London derby on Sunday.
Goals from Jarrod Bowen, Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio moved David Moyes’ side, who were in the relegation zone last month, up to 13th in the standings, a point behind ninth-placed Fulham.
“I thought we deserved the win. We started slow, maybe an impact of playing on Thursday (in the Europa Conference League), but we grew into the game as it went on,” Moyes told BBC.
“We’re still trying to improve a lot of things, but we’re doing a lot of good things as well. There were bits I didn’t enjoy, but it’s going in the right direction at the moment.”
Fulham took an early lead when Andreas Pereira took the ball into West Ham’s box and blasted the ball from a tight angle past Lukasz Fabianski into the roof of the net.
Pereira quickly turned from hero to villain, however, when he fouled Craig Dawson in the box at a corner despite repeated warnings from the referee to keep his arms off the defender.
Bowen dispatched the resulting penalty with aplomb as he sent Bernd Leno, who had just made a superb double save, the wrong way.
“We had a chat in the managers’ meeting to say you couldn’t put two arms around the player. It was a stonewall penalty, it was more of an American Football challenge,” Moyes said.
West Ham were slow to up the tempo after the restart but Scamacca gave the home side the lead just after the hour mark when he deftly controlled Lucas Paqueta’s lob, before applying a cool finish with a chip over Leno.
Scamacca did not celebrate, thinking it would be ruled out but VAR found him marginally onside and a lengthy check for a handball could not deny the Italian his goal either, although Fulham boss Marco Silva was booked for his protests.
“You never know if you’re going to be offside or if you’ve handballed, but you saw the celebrations when the goal was given,” Bowen said of Scamacca, who has scored in West Ham’s last three games in all competitions.
“It was a great finish. Scamacca and Lucas have played their part. If you look at his (Scamacca’s) performances, he’s definitely settled in now.”
Antonio then came off the bench and wrapped up the win in stoppage time, when he profited from a defensive mix-up between Leno and defender Tim Ream.
Eze strikes to give Crystal Palace win over Leeds
IMAGE: Eberenchi Eze scoring the winning goal for Crystal Palace in the 76th minute. Photograph: Tony Obrien/Reuters
Eberechi Eze’s late winner earned Crystal Palace a 2-1 comeback victory over Leeds United in the Premier League on Sunday.
The visitors raced into an early lead through Pascal Struijk, reacting first after Brenden Aaronson’s stunning run and shot had come out off the post.
Leeds striker Patrick Bamford, starting his first match since August, missed a glorious opportunity to double the lead, wastefulness that proved costly when Palace levelled through Odsonne Edouard’s header in the 24th minute.
Palace were the much better side in the second half but struggled to break down a resolute Leeds, until Eze picked the ball on the edge of the penalty area, threw a dummy and rifled an 76th-minute winner into the net.
Eze’s first strike of the season, took his tally to four goals against Yorkshire clubs, 67% of his entire Premier League career total.
Leeds kept coming but could not make their pressure pay, and Palace moved out of the relegation zone and up to 15th in the table, level on nine points with Leeds one place above them.
“It’s a good win and we needed it. “It wasn’t pretty but we needed some different ingredients from the last couple of games,” Palace manager Patrick Vieira told Sky Sports.
“We worked hard, rolled up our sleeves and, at the end, we scored that goal which was good for us. In the last couple of games, we didn’t get what we deserved, but today was a good win for us.”
The defeat represented further dropped points in a game when in the lead for Leeds. Since the start of last season, only Leicester City have dropped more points from winning positions than Leeds away from home in the Premier League.
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