Liverpool defeated Leicester City 2-1
Liverpool survived an embarrassing mistake from Brazil goalkeeper Alisson to beat Leicester 2-1 on Saturday for a fourth straight win to open the Premier League season.
Attempting a Cruyff turn in his own area to get round Leicester striker Kelechi Iheanacho, Alisson got the ball caught in his feet and lost possession. Iheanacho squared the ball for Rachid Ghezzal to make it 2-1 in the 63rd minute.
Liverpool held on for the win despite being far from its best at King Power Stadium, with first-half goals by Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino doing the damage.
Mane scored for the fourth time this season when he ran onto an inside pass from Andrew Robertson, got a kind ricochet off Leicester defender Harry Maguire, and toe-poked home from 10 meters (yards) in the 10th minute.
Firmino doubled Liverpool's lead in the 45th by stooping to head home a corner from James Milner. It was the Brazilian's second goal of the season.
It was Liverpool's most sluggish display of a season in which the team has already beaten West Ham, Crystal Palace and Brighton.
Mohamed Salah, in particular, had an off day. He missed a chance from point-blank range in the opening minutes and was substituted in the 71st.
Hazard, Pedro leave it late for Chelsea
Chelsea defeated Bournemouth 2-0
Pedro Rodriguez and Eden Hazard scored late goals as Chelsea beat Bournemouth 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday to clinch a fourth straight victory to open the season.
Maurizio Sarri's team was being frustrated by Bournemouth's defensive set-up when Pedro exchanged passes with Olivier Giroud — both of them second-half substitutes — and shot into the bottom corner from just inside the area in the 72nd minute.
Hazard then ran onto a pass from Marcos Alonso and fired a finish underneath Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to seal victory in the 85th.
Chelsea joined Liverpool on a maximum of 12 points, marking a superb start to Sarri's tenure at Stamford Bridge after he replaced Antonio Conte in the offseason.
Wolves edge Hammers
Wolves beat West Ham 1-0
Big-spending West Ham slumped to its fourth straight defeat to open the English Premier League after conceding an injury-time goal to lose at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 on Saturday.
Adama Traore, Wolves' record signing this offseason, finished off a counterattack in the third minute of stoppage time to earn the promoted team a first top-flight win since 2012 and plunge West Ham into more trouble.
Preseason optimism at West Ham, generated by hiring Premier League-winning manager Manuel Pellegrini and spending more than $100 million on new players, has evaporated with the team making the joint-worst start to a season in its history.
West Ham also opened the 2010-11 season with four straight losses, and went on to be relegated.
(With AP Inputs)
