LONDON: Chelsea’s poor start to the Premier League season continued with a 3-0 thumping by Manchester City on Sunday to leave Jose Mourinho’s misfiring champions with one point from their opening two games.

Sergio Aguero’s superb finish gave City a deserved 31st- minute lead and Vincent Kompany’s second goal in two games sealed the points for Manuel Pellegrini’s side before Fernandinho completed the rout.

Cheers rang around the Etihad Stadium as City put down an ominous marker, moving top of the table on goal difference with a maximum six-point haul and six unanswered goals.

City, the 2014 champions, are five points above Chelsea having trailed the London club for the whole of last season before finishing runners-up.

Arsenal, the side most fancied to battle Chelsea and City for the title, earlier kick-started their season with a 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace — the points decided by Palace defender Damien Delaney’s own goal.

Olivier Giroud had given the Gunners, beaten at home by West Ham United on the opening weekend, the lead, only for Joel Ward to equalise against the run of play.

After a flurry of near-misses, Aguero broke the deadlock by exchanging passes with Yaya Toure, darting into the box and placing a low shot beyond the reach of Asmir Begovic, deputising for the suspended Thibaut Courtois.

Hazard forced Joe Hart into a save in the second half, but City looked more likely to add to their lead and so it proved as Kompany headed home from David Silva’s 79th-minute corner before Fernandinho drilled home from the edge of the box.

The well-earned victory continued City’s impressive start to the season following their 3-0 win at West Bromwich Albion and gave Manuel Pellegrini a first win over his nemesis Jose Mourinho since the Portuguese returned to Chelsea in 2013.

Defeat completed a miserable week for Mourinho, widely criticised for demoting his medics Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn after last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City, and means Chelsea have failed to win one of their first two league games for the first time since 1998.

LONDON: Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny (L) vies for the ball with Crystal Palace’s Connor Wickham during their English Premier League match at Selhurst Park on Sunday.—AFP

It was also a day to forget for visiting captain John Terry, who watched the second half from the bench after being substituted at half-time — the first time Mourinho had taken him off in 177 league games.

Earlier, Arsene Wenger breathed a sigh of relief as Arsenal got their title challenge up and running with a hard-fought win at Palace.

After slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat against West Ham, Wenger’s side had no margin for error at Selhurst Park if they wanted to avoid being cast adrift in the title race.

They rose to the challenge, securing a first league win of the season thanks to Giroud’s superb 16th-minute volley and a Delaney own goal in the 55th minute after Ward had blasted Palace level.

It was a much-needed confidence boost for the Gunners and Wenger conceded it would have been hard to recover if they had left Selhurst Park empty-handed.

“I’m very pleased with the three points. If we had gone two games and zero points it would be absolutely difficult and we knew this would be a tricky one,” Wenger said.

“Last week we had a bit of a stroll and thought we would win the game. Today we played real Premier League football from the first minute to the last. With the ambitions we have made, you have to have full commitment and we had that today.”

Palace manager Alan Pardew was furious with referee Lee Mason’s refusal to send off Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin, who avoided a red card despite several aggressive challenges when he had already been booked.

“I said to Lee Mason: ‘Listen, that tackle before half-time is not a sending-off at that point, but that’s his last chance, you know that,’” Pardew said.

“He then makes the foul and he’s [should be] off at that point. Arsene Wenger knew that and took him off. It’s a decision Lee Mason needs to be braver on.”

But Wenger claimed Mason had got it right.

“I felt it wasn’t fortunate [that Coquelin avoided a red card],” said the Frenchman. “I would like to see that again, but in the end the pressure created by the crowd meant I took him off.”

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play