Pedro earns Chelsea win, City reclaim summit
© Getty Images
Debutant Pedro Rodriguez inspired ten-man Chelsea to a 3-2 victory at West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, while Manchester City recaptured the English Premier League summit by winning 2-0 at Everton.
A £21.2m signing from Barcelona earlier this week, Pedro scored Chelsea's opener and created a goal for Diego Costa as Jose Mourinho's side went 2-0 up at The Hawthorns. Having earlier missed a penalty,James Morrison scored twice in response, but despite captain John Terry's red card for a last-man foul, Cesar Azpilicueta's first league goal proved enough to give Chelsea a first victory of the Premier League season.
It was Chelsea's first win at West Brom in five attempts and saw the defending champions belatedly find their gear after a 2-2 draw with Swansea City and the chastening defeat at the Etihad Stadium. They finished the weekend in ninth place, five points below Manchester City, who replaced Leicester City at the top after second-half goals by Aleksandar Kolarov and Samir Nasri put paid to Everton.
At Goodison Park, both sides hit the woodwork either side of half-time, with Romelu Lukaku skimming the crossbar from an Everton free-kick and David Silva rattling the post for City. Lukaku had earlier seen a goal ruled out for offside, but it was City who took the lead on the hour.
Raheem Sterling glided into the Everton box from the left and slipped a pass to the overlapping Kolarov, who deceived Tim Howard with a near-post finish from an almost impossible angle. After Vincent Kompany had cleared a header from Gareth Barry off the line, Nasri sealed victory in the 88th minute by playing a one-two with Yaya Toure and neatly lobbing Howard.
Victory saw Manuel Pellegrini's side complete a sequence of nine league wins for the first time since September 1912 and left them as the only side in the top flight with three wins to their name. In Sunday's other game, Watford and Southampton were both left waiting for a first win after a 0-0 draw at Vicarage Road.