Substitute Divock Origi and James Milner struck to send Liverpool top of the Premier League in Saturday’s action.
Sergio Aguero scored two scruffy goals as Manchester City won 2-1 at Burnley and Liverpool followed suit by downing Sunderland 2-0 after losing Brazilian playmaker Philippe Coutinho to a worrying injury.
Swansea City claimed an extraordinary 5-4 win over struggling Crystal Palace, while champion Leicester City narrowly avoided a seventh defeat of the campaign in a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough.
Having seen C ity prevail at Turf Moor in the early game, Liverpool was under pressure to produce the goods against a Sunderland team which had won its two previous matches.
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was watching on at Anfield, two days after announcing his retirement from football.
But he could only look on with concern as the influential Coutinho was stretchered off with his right ankle in a brace after hurting himself in a challenge by Didier Ndong.
Origi took the Brazil international’s place and he gave Liverpool reward for its dominance in the 75th minute with his first league goal of the season.
Milner completed victory from the penalty spot in the first minute of injury time.
Burnley took a shock 14th-minute lead against City when Dean Marney met Nicolas Otamendi’s headed clearance with a thumping 25-yard volley that nestled in the bottom-left corner.
But Aguero equalised in the 37th minute, stabbing home after Burnley failed to clear a corner, and the hosts’ luck continued to desert them as both Marney and Johann Berg Gudmundsson went off injured.
A defensive mix-up allowed City to net the decisive goal in the hour, with Fernandinho’s cross striking Aguero and going in after Ben Mee and Stephen Ward had got in each other’s way.
“We are so satisfied for the points and the performance, especially two days after the Champions League,” said City manager Pep Guardiola, whose side hosts Chelsea next weekend.
Swansea upped the pressure on Palace manager Alan Pardew by condemning the south London club to a sixth straight defeat in a madcap game that gave Bob Bradley his first win since becoming manager.
Palace led 1-0, fe ll 3-1 down, fought back to go 4-3 up, but eventually succumbed courtesy of a remarkable brace of injury-time goals from Spanish striker Fernando Llorente.
The results: Burnley 1 (Marney 14) lost to Manchester City 2 (Aguero 37, 60); Hull 1 (Dawson 72) drew with West Brom 1 (McAuley 34); Leicester 2 (Mahrez 34-pen, Slimani 90+4-pen) drew with Middlesbrough 2 (Negredo 13, 71).
Liverpool 2 (Origi 75, Milner 90+1-pen) bt Sunderland 0.
Swansea 5 (Sigurdsson 36, Fer 66, 68, Llorente 90+1, 90+3) bt Crystal Palace 4 (Zaha 19, Tomkins 75, Cork 82-og, Benteke 84). — AFP
