BY REUTERS
Manchester City did just enough to beat lowly Southampton 1-0 thanks to an early Erling Haaland goal on Saturday as they provisionally climbed atop the Premier League to tee up Sunday’s clash between fellow title contenders Liverpool and Arsenal.
High-flying Aston Villa had to settle for a 1-1 draw with visiting Bournemouth after conceding at the death as late goals were a feature of the afternoon’s entertainment.
Brentford clawed back a two-goal deficit to beat 10-man Ipswich Town 4-3 and Wolverhampton Wanderers escaped Brighton & Hove Albion with a 2-2 draw thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored an early goal to give the champions a two-point cushion over Liverpool, who are second and visit fourth-placed Arsenal on Sunday.
“I will watch (Sunday’s game),” said City manager Pep Guardiola. “I prefer to be on top than not be on top, but it’s not the point. Just look what happened today, Villa dropped points and Brighton dropped points because it’s so difficult.”
While Haaland scored a stunner in Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League thrashing of Sparta Prague, he had gone three Premier League games without a goal before ending that mini-drought in the fifth minute on Saturday.
Wrestling with defender Jan Bednarek, the 24-year-old Norwegian, a master of scoring from tight angles, stabbed the ball into the roof of the net with a toe while falling.
Unai Emery’s Villa climbed to third spot, five points off the pace, and stretched their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions, although a late Evanilson header for Bournemouth cancelled out Ross Barkley’s opener for the dominant hosts.
Villa peppered Bournemouth’s goal from the start, squandering several chances before second-half substitute Barkley hooked the ball home from close range in the 76th minute from a Leon Bailey knock-down.
Bournemouth went searching for a leveller in stoppage time and struck in the 96th minute when Brazilian forward Evanilson lost his marker and glanced Marcus Tavernier’s superb free-kick past goalkeeper Emi Martinez.
“We deserved to win, we dominated,” Emery said. “They scored in the last moment and we have to accept it. But we were fantastic again, really I’m very happy.”
LATE EQUALISER
Wolves’ Matheus Cunha netted a superb stoppage-time equaliser at Brighton as they came from two goals down to grab a point that lifts them off the bottom of the table.
The Seagulls dominated the first half but it took until the 45th minute for the home side to break the deadlock with a slick finish from Danny Welbeck.
The game looked over when Brighton substitute Evan Ferguson turned and shot into the bottom-left corner in the 86th.
But Wanderers’ Rayan Ait-Nouri lashed home a loose ball after a corner two minutes later to set up a grandstand finish, with Cunha rattling the ball into the net in the third minute of stoppage time for a most unlikely draw.
The point – only the second of the season for Wolves – takes them up a place to 19th, one ahead of Southampton.
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said: “I’m delighted for the players and the fans really because … the players have given so much, and I know it cannot always look that way because results can cloud things, but they’ve given an awful lot, and if you keep doing that, it can’t continue to go against you.”
Bryan Mbeumo’s double helped Brentford to their 4-3 comeback win over Ipswich Town that kept up their red-hot home form.
Promoted Ipswich looked headed for their first win of the season after going 2-0 up through Sam Szmodics and George Hirst.
But Yoane Wissa’s strike and a Harry Clarke own goal brought the scores level by halftime and the Bees then led through Mbeumo’s second-half penalty conceded by defender Clarke.
Ipswich were reduced to 10 men when Clarke was sent off in the 69th but they managed to equalise thanks to substitute Liam Delap’s 86th minute goal, only for Mbeumo to win the game for the home side in added time with a long-range effort.
Everton were hosting Fulham in Saturday’s late game, while there are four games scheduled for Sunday.
