Champion Manchester City came from behind with goals from Sergio Aguero and a late winner from substitute Edin Dzeko to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 and maintain its unbeaten start in the Premier League on Sunday.
Tottenham, which had won its previous three away league matches, went ahead when Steven Caulker headed home a Tom Huddlestone free-kick after 21 minutes to threaten City’s unbeaten record.
City though, took control after halftime with Aguero scoring a deserved equaliser after 65 minutes when he planted the ball wide of the diving Brad Friedel.
Dzeko, who replaced Carlos Tevez with 17 minutes to play, then struck in the 88th minute when he controlled a chipped pass from David Silva and lashed the ball past Friedel for the winner.
The victory lifted City to 25 points, two behind leader Manchester United.
Hernandez to the rescue
On Saturday, half-time substitute Javier Hernandez scored twice and made another as Manchester United came from two goals down to win 3-2 at Aston Villa and pull four points clear. A brace of goals from Andreas Weimann looked set to condemn United to its third loss of the season, but Hernandez pulled one back and then set up an own goal by Ron Vlaar before heading home a sensational 87th-minute winner.
The result gives United a four-point lead over second-placed Chelsea, with champion Manchester City a point further back ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s visit.
Defeat left Villa fourth from bottom, three points above the relegation places, but it more than held its own in the opening 45 minutes at Villa Park and took the lead in first-half injury time.
Christian Benteke resisted Chris Smalling’s attentions wide on the Villa left before cutting the ball back to Weimann, who placed a first-time shot into the roof of the net from just inside the penalty box.
Hernandez replaced Ashley Young at the interval, but Weimann struck again five minutes into the second half, slamming in from close range after Gabriel Agbonlahor got free down the left.
United hit back quickly though, with Hernandez to the fore.
The Mexican finished between Brad Guzan’s legs in the 58th minute to claim his sixth goal in six appearances, before seeing a volley turned home by Villa defender Vlaar to give the away side a 63rd-minute equaliser.
David de Gea denied Weimann a hat-trick with a smart save from the Austrian forward’s header, while Robin van Persie hit the bar twice, before Hernandez capped another trademark United comeback by converting van Persie’s free-kick.
Also on Saturday, Mikel Arteta’s failure to convert an added-time penalty summed up Arsenal’s frustrations as Arsene Wenger’s side squandered a two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw with Fulham at the Emirates Stadium.
Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski had put the home side 2-0 up inside 23 minutes, but Fulham recovered with two goals from Dimitar Berbatov, either side of an Alex Kacaniklic header, and it took a second Giroud effort to rescue a point for Wenger’s team.
The results :
Manchester City 2 (Aguero 65, Dzeko 88) bt Tottenham 1 (Caulker 21).
On Saturday: Aston Villa 2 (Weimann 45, 50) lost to Manchester United 3 (Hernandez 58, 87, Vlaar 63-og); Arsenal 3 (Giroud 11, 69, Podolski 23) drew with Fulham 3 (Berbatov 29, 67-pen, Kacaniklic 40); Everton 2 (Fellaini 76, Jelavic 79) bt Sunderland 1 (Johnson 45); Reading 0 drew with Norwich 0; Southampton 1 (Schneiderlin 64) drew with Swansea 1 (Dyer 73); Stoke 1 (Adam 52) bt QPR 0; Wigan 1 (Kone 44) lost to West Brom 2 (Morrison 31, Caldwell 43-og).
