Tottenham Hotspur ended their 23-year wait for a win at Old Trafford, while Premier League leaders Chelsea continued their impressive start to the season by beating Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates.
Spurs had not won at Old Trafford since December 1989, but Andre Villas-Boas said that they would attack Manchester United today and that is what they did.
Jan Vertonghen gave Spurs a dream start with a goal inside two minutes and half an hour later, Gareth Bale ran away from Rio Ferdinand to double Spurs lead after a great run.
Spurs were good value for their lead, but the match sprung into life in the second half as United brought on Wayne Rooney in place of Ryan Giggs. In an amazing 139 seconds sequel of action, Nani and Shinji Kagawa scored for United either side of Clint Dempsey’s first Tottenham goal. United pushed for an equalizer and Rooney curled a free-kick against a post and Michael Carrick hit the bar, but Spurs held on for a famous and deserved victory.
In the early game, unbeaten Chelsea picked up their fifth win of the season at the Arsenal Stadium. Fernando Torres put Chelsea one-up before Gervinho tied it up right before half-time. But Juan Mata sealed all three points for the Chelsea as his free-kick went in off Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny. In the last week, Arsenal have played both Manchester City and Chelsea and have yet to concede a goal from open play. Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, the Gunners have only picked up one point out of six due to the fact that they have conceded three goals from set pieces in these two games.
Across London, champions Manchester City left it very late to beat Fulham 2-1. Edin Džeko’s winner coming with three minutes left in the game.
Brendan Rodgers got his first league victory as Liverpool manager as Liverpool emphatically beat Norwich 5-2 at Carrow Road. Not sure what it is about Carrow Road, but Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick there today for the second consecutive season. The win and three points lifted Liverpool out of the bottom three.
Everton continued their great start to the season as they beat Southampton 3-1 at Goodison Park despite Gaston Ramirez giving the Saints early lead. But Everton bounced back and Leon Osman latched onto a loose ball in the penalty area to smash home the equaliser before Nikica Jelavic’s brace gave the Toffees a comfortable win.
Reading and Newcastle battled to a 2-2 draw as Demba Ba maintained his impressive start to the season with two more goals.
As the Stadium of Light, Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher continued his fine scoring run since his move from Wolverhampton Wanderers with the winner as the Black Cats toppled ten-man Wigan Athletic 1-0.
Finally, Stoke City’s Peter Crouch brace helped his team beat Swansea City 2-0. The 6ft 7in frontman headed home the opener after 12 minutes and then tapped in a second nine minutes before the break.
