Burnley 1 Chelsea 4
Raheem Sterling made a point to Gareth Southgate as he sparked a Chelsea comeback in a 4-1 win at Burnley, who slumped to a fifth consecutive home defeat to start the Premier League season.
Burnley stunned Chelsea 15 minutes in when 18-year-old Wilson Odobert became the Clarets’ youngest Premier League scorer.
But Sterling, again snubbed by the England boss for next week’s internationals, helped turn the game around either side of half-time as Chelsea maintained their long unbeaten record at Turf Moor, where they have only once dropped points in nine visits in the Premier League era.
It was Sterling’s cross that deflected off Ameen Al Dakhil for a 42nd minute equaliser before he won the penalty dispatched by Cole Palmer early in the second half.
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Sterling then capped a fine performance with Chelsea’s third in the 65th minute, hitting a confident strike into the bottom corner before substitute Nicolas Jackson added a fourth, with Sterling again involved in the build-up.
Coming off the back of Monday’s 2-0 win at Fulham, Chelsea have won back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time since March, but these remain baby steps for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, who were arguably second best for much of the first half.
Vincent Kompany showed no sentiment in making four changes to the Burnley side that took their first league win of the season at Luton on Tuesday night, and was rewarded with a surprise early lead.
Lyle Foster cut in from the right but as he saw his own angle to shoot rapidly closing, the South African unselfishly played in Odobert who threaded the ball between Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanchez.
Burnley were suddenly in buoyant mood. Fans might have been disappointed to see Luca Koleosho only on the bench but Odobert and Mike Tresor, both making their first starts, made them forget with some fearless attacking play.
The pair almost combined for a second in the 22nd minute as Odobert sent in a cross from the left and Tresor capitalised on a sleeping Chelsea defence to win the ball, then missed the target.
Chelsea, who had not won in their previous 19 Premier League games when conceding first, initially struggled to muster a response, but Sterling looked like Chelsea’s best way back into the match and so it proved.
He went close in the 37th minute, beating two defenders before trying to put the ball through the legs of James Trafford, who just about kept it out.
But there was nothing Trafford could do five minutes later when Sterling’s cross took a wicked deflection off Al Dakhil to loop into the net.
Two minutes into the second half, a sudden burst of speed from Sterling took him away from Vitinho, who clipped the Chelsea man on the edge of the box.
Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot and a lengthy check from VAR Darren Bond allowed Cole Palmer time to pick the spot for his first Chelsea goal as he sent England under-21 team-mate Trafford the wrong way.
Odobert saw a dipping, curling shot touched over by Sanchez, but it was Chelsea who scored a decisive third 10 minutes later.
Moises Caicedo won back possession with two challenges on the halfway line and Gallagher quickly picked out the run of Sterling, whose confident finish found the bottom right corner of the net.
Burnley fans started to head for the exits in the 74th minute when Sterling crossed to Palmer, who found Jackson, on as a substitute on his return from suspension, and he skipped away from Dara O’Shea in front of goal before applying the finish.
Odobert and substitute Koleosho both threatened for Burnley late on, but they became only the fifth side to start a season with five consecutive home defeats in top-flight history.
Everton 3 Bournemouth 0
Everton scored more than once at home for the first time in almost a year as Goodison Park finally celebrated a victory after a 3-0 win over a woeful Bournemouth.
October 22nd, 2022 was the last time Goodison witnessed a game with multiple goals for the hosts when Crystal Palace were dispatched by the same scoreline.
On-loan Leeds winger Jack Harrison, who departed to a standing ovation late on, marked his full home debut with a brilliant lob over goalkeeper Neto to double the advantage given to them by James Garner’s early strike.
Abdoulaye Doucoure, whose goal against the Cherries in May secured the club’s top-flight survival here on the final day of the season, made the game safe on the hour with an altogether more simple close-range finish.
After four successive home defeats, Everton avoided a record worst start to a season at Goodison but were fortunate to come up against Bournemouth.
The visitors extended their own club-record winless run to 12 matches (nine defeats and three draws) and have now equalled their worst start to a season since 1994 in the third tier. The reasons for that were apparent.
Everton have hosted – and lost to – some poor sides in Wolves, Fulham and Luton already this season but none were as accommodating as the Cherries, who aside from an energetic spell 10 minutes after going behind appeared to still be trying to work out what new coach Andoni Iraola wants them to do.
Sean Dyche’s side did not even have to play that well to establish a two-goal cushion but once they did the confidence started to gradually flow back, encouraged by the lack of threat their opponents posed.
Dyche had dropped midfielder Amadou Onana to move Garner inside so he could go with two wingers in Harrison and Dwight McNeil but the Belgium international received a late reprieve when Idrissa Gana Gueye sustained a problem in the warm-up.
The key factor in the victory was probably the early goal, something they had failed to manage in four previous matches.
Illia Zabarnyi slipped bringing the ball out of defence, Philip Billing was unable to recover possession and Garner advanced forward to guide a low shot past Neto’s left hand for his second goal in three games.
The goal prompted Everton’s worst spell of the game and Bournemouth’s best as Dominic Solanke drilled a shot into the side-netting from an acute angle as the momentum appeared to shift.
But Everton seized it back when Dominic Calvert-Lewin latched on to Ashley Young’s pass down the line and set off on a run along the byline to force Neto to block his cross-shot.
A minute later they had doubled their lead when Neto punched clear Vitalii Mykolenko’s hanging cross only as far as Harrison, who perfectly lofted a 20-yard shot over the backtracking goalkeeper and in off the underside of the crossbar.
Calvert-Lewin hit the same crossbar with a header and Onana fired a shot on the turn as Everton finished the half strongly before another mistake by Zabarnyi soon after the interval should have sealed Bournemouth’s fate.
The centre back’s wayward pass presented the ball to Doucoure but, unlike his blast from the edge of the penalty area in May, he shot weakly at Neto.
He did not make the same mistake from close range when Harrison’s far-post header from McNeil’s cross was parried into his path by the goalkeeper and straight from kick-off he should have volleyed home the fourth from another McNeil cross.
Everton’s former Burnley winger was having a decent game himself and, after hacking Zabarnyi’s header off the line defending a corner, he managed to get on the end of the subsequent counter-attack to shoot at Neto.
The underemployed Jordan Pickford’s late saves from Kieffer Moore and Marcus Tavernier at least kept him tuned up for the forthcoming England internationals.
Fulham 3 Sheffield United 1
Fulham secured a comfortable 3-1 win over Sheffield United at Craven Cottage on Saturday to leave the visitors bottom of the Premier League table, in a game overshadowed by an injury to United’s Chris Basham.
Fulham wrapped up the game in added time when Willian found space in the visitors’ area before getting his shot away which the keeper got a hand to but couldn’t keep out.
Fulham went 2-1 up in the 76th minute when Tom Cairney’s looping effort hit the underside of the bar before going in off the back of keeper Wes Foderingham.
It came eight minutes after the visitors had levelled through an own-goal by Antonee Robinson.
After a scoreless first half, Fulham broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute when Andreas Pereira played a perfect ball into the path of Bobby Decordova-Reid who bided his time before firing past Foderingham.
The first half saw United’s Basham go off after going over on his ankle when attempting a cross.
Crystal Palace 0 Nottingham Forest 0
Nottingham Forest’s winless run stretched to four Premier League games after they were held to a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Forest had much the better of the play in the first half, with a superb first-time volley from Morgan Gibbs-White coming out off the post and a solo run and strike from Murillo kept out by Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.
Jean-Philippe Mateta slipped and missed Palace’s best chance in the second half but the hosts otherwise offered very little in attack, surviving late pressure from the visitors to see out the draw.
