LONDON: Chelsea finally seem to have found the solution to their striking struggles. Diego Costa continued his stunning start to life in the Premier League with a hat-trick in a 4-2 comeback victory over Swansea City on Saturday while Loic Remy also scored on his debut.

Costa, who now has seven goals from his first four games, helped Chelsea come out on top against the only other team with a 100 percent record, after Swansea had taken the lead with an early own goal from John Terry.

New signing Loic Remy grabbed his first Chelsea goal before Jonjo Shelvey netted a consolation late on, leaving Chelsea three points clear at the top of the table and five ahead of title rivals Manchester City.

Costa, who joined from Atletico Madrid for more than $50 million in July, is the first Chelsea player in 86 years to score in his first four games.

But there was no debut goal for Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck in a 2-2 draw with champions City.

City’s Martin Demichelis scored with a late looping header for the champions after moments of sublime skill from Jack Wilshere and Alexis Sanchez had briefly turned the match in Arsenal’s favour, following Sergio Aguero’s opener.

Southampton claimed the biggest victory of the day, a 4-0 rout of Newcastle that makes manager Alan Pardew’s future look increasingly precarious.

Tottenham Hotspur were held to a 2-2 draw at Sunderland and Everton beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0. Leicester City grabbed their first win since sealing promotion, beating Stoke City 1-0, while Burnley and Crystal Palace played out a goalless draw.

Terry’s own goal from Neil Taylor’s left-wing cross gave previously unbeaten Swansea an 11th-minute lead at Stamford Bridge, but Costa equalised on the stroke of half-time with a header from a right-wing corner.

The former Atletico striker made it 2-0 in the 56th minute, lifting a shot into the roof of the net after Cesc Fabregas had exchanged passes with Eden Hazard and cut the ball back from the byline.

Costa completed his treble in the 67th minute by sweeping home a mishit shot by Ramires, before Oscar teed up substitute Remy to claim a debut goal. Jonjo Shelvey scored a late consolation goal for Swansea.

Earlier, Demichelis scored an 83rd-minute equaliser as champions City held Arsenal to a draw in an entertaining encounter at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal looked set for victory when Sanchez slammed home a sumptuous volley in the 74th minute, after Jack Wilshere’s neatly constructed goal had cancelled out Aguero’s first-half opener for City.

But Argentina centre-back Demichelis headed in an Aleksandar Kolarov corner to prevent Manuel Pellegrini’s side from slumping to a second consecutive defeat after their shock 1-0 loss at home to Stoke City.

“I think it was a great game: two very good teams, who try to play. Both teams are very creative,” City manager Pellegrini told BT Sport.

“But both goals by Arsenal were very clear fouls: the first one, two or three continuous fouls, and the second one, Welbeck on Vincent [Kompany].”

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger drew encouragement from the way his side came from behind to lead, but he was also given serious cause for concern by an ankle injury to right-back Mathieu Debuchy.

“It was a game of top quality and we did remarkably well to come back, but then we gave a cheap goal away,” said Wenger. “Debuchy has a bad ankle sprain. I don’t know how long he will be out for, but it doesn’t look too good.”

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014