Chelsea, Liverpool Suffer Home Defeat

City Beat Watford, Arsenal Humble 10-Man Newcastle 

CHELSEA’s unimpressive run continue as the team endured an embarrassing defeat to the Alan Pardew-led Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

The Blues slumped to their second Premier League loss of the season thanks to Joel Ward’s winner after Radamel Falcao had equalised Bakary Sako’s opener.

The result leaves Chelsea eight points behind Manchester City after just four games and Mourinho says he must take his share of the blame for the result.

At Anfield, Liverpool suffered a desperate afternoon as they had key man Philippe Coutinho sent off and lost 3-0 to West Ham – the Londoners’ first win since 1963.

Manuel Lanzini put the Hammers ahead inside three minutes and Mark Noble doubled the advantage after Dejan Lovren’s 29th-minute mistake.

Earlier, Arsenal beat 10-man Newcastle 1-0 at St James’ Park but needed a helping hand to take all three points in the early kick-off. Fabricio Coloccini deflected Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s 52nd-minute effort in off the post to end Newcastle’s resistance after controversial Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic had been dismissed.

Raheem Sterling scored his first Manchester City goal as Chelsea lost further ground on their Barclays Premier League title rivals with a shock home defeat to Crystal Palace.

Sterling opened his City account following his £49million summer move from Liverpool with a close-range 47th minute strike against Watford. Fernandinho was also on target in a routine 2-0 win as City claimed a fourth successive victory and opened up an eight-point advantage over stuttering Chelsea.

Stoke had two men sent off in a 1-0 home defeat to West Brom as referee Michael Oliver handed out first-half red cards to Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam.

Affelay was banished for slapping Craig Gardner and Adam went for following through on Craig Dawson, and Salomon Rondon made nine-man Stoke pay on the stroke of half-time with his first goal since his £12million move from Zenit St Petersburg.

Aston Villa and Sunderland shared the points in a 2-2 draw after summer signing Yann M’Vila had given the Black Cats an early lead. Scott Sinclair added to his Capital One Cup hat-trick in midweek with a double, one a penalty, to give Villa a half-time lead, but Jeremain Lens equalised for Sunderland seven minutes after the break to give Dick Advocaat’s side only their second point of the season.