Review: Ward secures historic win for Palace at Chelsea
Crystal Palace defender heads in late winner as Jose Mourinho suffers rare home defeat
Joel Ward scored a dramatic late winner as Crystal Palace claimed a memorable 2-1 victory at champions Chelsea, who suffered their second defeat of the season.
After Bakary Sako had fired Palace into the lead, Radamel Falcao looked to have earned the hosts a share of the spoils when he came off the bench to head home his maiden goal for Jose Mourinho's men 11 minutes from time. However, Palace raced to the other end and Ward's diving header subjected Chelsea to their first home defeat in the Barclays Premier League since April 2014.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was unable to celebrate his 200th league match in charge at the club, and his 100th at home, succumbing to only his second defeat at Stamford Bridge. Aside from a Gary Cahill header, cleared off the line by Sako shortly before his opener, Chelsea struggled to break down the Palace defence, although Alex McCarthy, in the Palace goal, had to be at his best to keep out Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas in the latter stages of the first half.
Raheem Sterling scored the first Barclays Premier League goal of his Manchester Citycareer in a 2-0 victory over Watford as Manuel Pellegrini's men achieved a club record 10th consecutive win.
The winger's close-range strike from Bacary Sagna’s cross just after half-time broke a resolute Watford defence. Less than 10 minutes later, the lead was doubled when a Yaya Toure free-kick hit the wall, but the rebound fell to David Silva, who teed up Fernandinho with a brilliant pass into the area and the Brazilian smashed it into the far corner from an acute angle.
Quique Sanchez Flores's side deserved credit for a first-half defensive display in which they stifled the league's most potent attack, but there was a sense of inevitability about the result once the deadlock was broken at the Etihad Stadium. City are one victory away from equalling Chelsea and Liverpool's winning streaks of 11 matches, but on this kind of form the Barclays Premier League record of 14 consecutive wins, set by Arsenal in 2002, also appears in danger.
West Ham United ended their 52-year wait for success at Anfield with a 3-0 victory overLiverpool, in which both sides were reduced to 10 men.
West Ham capitalised on slack play at the back to register a clinical victory in an action-packed affair that produced red cards for both Philippe Coutinho and Mark Noble.
On his Barclays Premier League debut, Manuel Lanzini set the visitors on their way to a first win at Anfield in 42 attempts, opening the scoring from inside the six-yard box. It was the first time Rodgers' defence had been breached this term but Liverpool fell further behind after Dejan Lovren relinquished possession on his own byline and allowed Lanzini to play in Noble, who beat Simon Mignolet from 18 yards.
Coutinho's two bookings either side of half-time added to Liverpool's frustrations and, even when Noble saw red for a foul on substitute Danny Ings, West Ham remained in control. Diafra Sakho coolly finished late on to add further gloss to the scoreline.
Sunderland are still chasing their first Barclays Premier League win of the season, but first club goals for Yann M'Vila and Jeremain Lens earned Dick Advocaat's men a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Aston Villa.
After two consecutive defeats at the start of the campaign Sunderland followed up a draw against Swansea City with another resolute display, securing a point despite Scott Sinclair netting twice for Villa.
M'Vila produced a glimpse of his technical prowess after just eight minutes, bending in a fine free-kick to open his Barclays Premier League account. But Sinclair, starting in place of Gabriel Agbonlahor, gave Villa an almost-immediate response from the penalty spot after being man-handled by Lee Cattermole.
Sinclair struck again, his fifth goal in two matches after a League Cup hat-trick against Notts County on Tuesday, but Sunderland began the second period with renewed purpose and Lens equalised in the 52nd minute.
Villa enjoyed the lion's share of possession and could have gone ahead again through Micah Richards, but Sunderland's character shone through, holding on to deny the hosts a first win since the opening day.
Jamie Vardy's penalty rescued a late point for Leicester City as they maintained their unbeaten start to the Barclays Premier League season with a 1-1 draw at AFC Bournemouth.
The visitors struggled for the most part at Vitality Stadium, but Vardy's mazy run drew a foul challenge from Steve Cook and the striker converted from the penalty spot.
Claudio Ranieri's men had been staring at defeat after a stunning first-half overhead kick from Callum Wilson, who scored a hat-trick in last weekend's 4-3 win at West Ham United. As Leicester's defence struggled to clear a Charlie Daniels cross, Wilson pounced and rifled a superb acrobatic effort into the top-left corner.
Injuries to Daniels, Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel hampered the Cherries in the second half and their woes deepened four minutes from time as Vardy's spot-kick denied them a maiden top-flight home win.
Stoke City had two players sent off in the first half against West Bromwich Albion as Salomon Rondon's first Barclays Premier League goal gave Tony Pulis a 1-0 win on his first return to the Britannia Stadium.
Pulis could hardly have asked for more assistance from the side he managed for nearly a decade across two spells, with two moments of ill-discipline allowing West Brom to dominate the match.
The hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 25th minute when Ibrahim Afellay was shown a straight red card for slapping Craig Gardner. Charlie Adam, who had been brought into the side in place of Marko Arnautovic by Mark Hughes, was also sent off six minutes later following a clash with Craig Dawson.
This allowed West Brom to dominate and Rondon, their club-record signing, scored following superb work by Rickie Lambert, a substitute. Despite failing to score a second, West Brom had no difficulty in holding on for their first league victory of the season.
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