By Abiola Olawale
In a thrilling English Premier League (EPL) weekend that kept fans on the edge of their seats, Manchester City surged to the top with Erling Haaland’s clinical finishing, while Manchester United and Chelsea both tasted defeat dramatically.
The first match of the weekend began with Manchester United playing Brentford.
Brentford delivered an impressive performance, defeating Manchester United 3-1 at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The scoring opened early in the match when Brentford’s Thiago netted the first goal just 20 minutes in, leaving United’s defense scrambling. The Brazilian playmaker doubled the lead six minutes later, finding the back of the net again in the 26th minute to put Brentford ahead 2-0.
Manchester United managed to pull one back before halftime, with Benjamin Šeško scoring in the 55th minute and giving the visitors a glimmer of hope. However, Brentford’s resilience shone through as their defense held firm, preventing any further United advances.
Brentford responded decisively in the dying moments of the game, M. Jensen sealed the victory in stoppage time, extending the lead to 3-1 with a well-placed shot, much to the delight of the home fans.
Also, Erling Haaland scored twice late on Saturday and Maxime Esteve scored two own goals to help Manchester City to a thumping Premier League victory over Burnley.
Pep Guardiola’s side were questioned after losing back-to-back games in August, but have responded by winning three and drawing one to return to form and climb up to fourth in the table.
Meanwhile, Trevoh Chalobah’s second-half red card saw Chelsea turn a one-goal lead into a 3–1 defeat at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
After a disastrous start to their last Premier League game away at Manchester United, Chelsea came out for this one with far more composure and looked destined to seal a simple victory.
Enzo Fernández was first to test Bart Verbruggen, stinging the Brighton stopper’s gloves with a sweetly struck free kick inside the first three minutes.
The tone changes drastically at the start of the second half. Chalobah saw red for denying a goalscoring opportunity just five minutes after the restart.
Following the red card, Brighton increased the tempo. Their efforts paid off as Welbeck made no mistake a few moments later, steering home a header with 13 minutes to go to set up a nervy conclusion to the game.
Brighton saw a last-minute penalty claim waved away by VAR and a scuffle involving several players from both sides summed up the tension with which this game ended.
But Chelsea could not hold on as Maxim De Cuyper headed beyond Robert Sánchez in the 92nd minute to complete a comeback which was capped off by another Welbeck strike deeper into stoppage time.
