LONDON: Andy Carroll displayed the attributes that made him one of the world’s most expensive players to guide West Ham United to a 3-1 win over Swansea City that lifted the London club to third in the Premier League on Sunday.

The giant England striker returned to goal-scoring form with two thumping headers as West Ham, one of this season’s surprise packages, came from behind at Upton Park for a third win in eight days.

Carroll, without a goal since March, headed his side level just before half-time after Wilfried Bony had put Swansea ahead against the run of play. He struck again early in the second half before top scorer Diafra Sakho lashed home a third.

Carroll is returning to full fitness after a long injury layoff, with towering performances like this showing why Liverpool spent 35 million pounds (then $56 million) on him in 2011.

“It is massive for Andy Carroll,” West Ham manager Sam Allardyce told BBC Sport, having seen his side continue their best start to a season since 1999.

“Movement in the box is what it is all about. The heading in the box only comes after the movement is right and that happened with his two goals. He is unstoppable when he gets that space. Hopefully he continues to learn that way.”

Swansea had goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski sent off shortly after they fell behind for impeding Sakho.

West Ham have 27 points, one ahead of fourth-placed Southampton and two clear of fifth-placed Manchester United who face each other on Monday.

Aston Villa also came back from a goal down to condemn bottom club Leicester City to eighth defeat in 10 matches — Alan Hutton scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory.

Ciaran Clark equalised for the hosts after Leonardo Ulloa gave Leicester the lead with his first goal since September. Villa moved six points clear of the relegation zone and are now unbeaten in five games.

On Saturday, Chelsea saw their lead at the top trimmed to three points by Manchester City in a twist to the title race.

Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the season ended with a dramatic 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United when Papiss Cisse struck twice to stun the Premier League leaders at St James’ Park.

City took full advantage of Chelsea’s surprise reverse to cut the gap at the top to three points as Yaya Toure’s penalty earned a 1-0 home victory over Everton, with a left knee injury sustained by star striker Sergio Aguero early in the game marring an otherwise great day for the champions.

Chelsea now have 36 points from 15 matches, with Manchester City on 33.

Aguero, the league’s top scorer with 14 goals, limped off in tears after getting hurt in a seemingly innocuous challenge in the second minute at Etihad Stadium.

If the Argentina striker had been on the field, he would have taken the penalty converted by Toure in the 24th minute for the winning goal.

“We dominated the game and I think that we deserved to win,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini told Sky Sports.

“Sergio has a problem with his knee ligament. We’ll see tomorrow (Sunday) how serious it is, but it’s not good news. I don’t think that he will be able to play [in the crucial Champions League clash against AS Roma on Wednesday.”

Arsenal missed a chance to climb provisionally into the top four by losing 3-2 at Stoke City, conceding to Peter Crouch after 19 seconds — making it the quickest goal of the season — and two more times in the first half to Bojan and Jon Walters.

Santi Cazorla’s penalty and a goal from Aaron Ramsey gave Arsenal hope after the break but the damage was already done for the visitors who had Calum Chambers sent off with 12 minutes to go.

“Once we were 3-0 down we had a mountain to climb. We did climb and we were a bit unlucky,” manager Arsene Wenger said.

Liverpool saw a three-game winning run come to an end with a disappointing 0-0 draw at home to Sunderland, one of three goalless stalemates on Saturday.

Skipper Steven Gerrard was left on the bench by manager Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool laboured at Anfield against Sunderland. He joined the fray after 67 minutes but could not stir the attack into life as Liverpool remained in mid-table.

Tottenham Hotspur also failed to make up ground in the race for the Champions League places, drawing 0-0 to likely relegation candidates Crystal Palace at White Hart Lane.

Queens Park Rangers climbed out of the relegation zone by winning 2-0 at home to Burnley, with Charlie Austin scoring one goal and making another against his former club before being sent off for two bookings.

Hull City, who drew 0-0 at home to fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion, dropped into the bottom three.

Published in Dawn December 8th , 2014