LONDON: Substitute Edinson Cavani produced a second-half masterclass, scoring twice and creating another goal as Manchester United hit back from a two-goal deficit to beat Southampton 3-2 in a Premier League cracker on Sunday.

Southampton had looked in control after Jan Bednarek headed in James Ward-Prowse’s corner in the 23rd minute before Ward-Prowse beat De Gea 10 min­utes later with a curling free kick.

De Gea clattered into the post trying to keep out Ward-Prowse’s lethal effort and was replaced by Dean Henderson at halftime, and Cavani came on for Mason Greenwood.

United were much sharper and Cavani showed his quality to pick out Bruno Fernandes in space to score on the hour.

Cavani then put a header narrowly wide but as Southampton fell back deeper and deeper, the Uruguayan showed great reflexes to divert a Fernandes shot home for the equaliser.

United dominated the latter stages, and the 33-year-old Cavani struck again in stoppage time, stooping to head past Saints keeper Alex McCarthy.

The victory was United’s eighth successive away league win and lifted them to seventh place with 16 points, one point behind Southampton.

Meanwhile, Riyad Mahrez scored a hat-trick in Manchester City’s 5-0 crushing of Burnley late on Saturday.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton suffered their fourth defeat in five games after a Raphinha goal gave Leeds United a 1-0 win at Goodison Park.

West Bromwich Albion celebrated their first win of the season as they beat bottom team Sheffield United 1-0 to move out of the bottom three after Conor Gallagher scored his maiden Premier League goal.

Liverpool moved top of the table, for a day at least, opening up a one-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur who were at Chelsea later on Sunday.

Manchester City had a goal ruled out by VAR but will have barely cared given they had already taken a 5-0 lead by the time Gabriel Jesus’s effort was overturned.

It was the fourth straight 5-0 win for City against Burnley at the Etihad and Sean Dyche’s side were fortunate to leave with that scoreline.

Slack defending from the Clarets allowed Mahrez to score twice early in the game.

Benjamin Mendy headed in the third goal before the break and Ferran Torres added the fourth before Mahrez completed his hat-trick with a rare header.

Brazilian winger Raphinha scored his first goal for Leeds United in another game which saw goals disallowed.

Everton’s James Rodriguez and Richarlison had the ball in the net but both efforts were ruled out for offside, and Leeds striker Patrick Bamford suffered a similar fate.

Raphinha appeared to be looking for a pass but he checked back, driving the ball between the legs of defender Ben Godfrey and in at the foot of the far post in the 79th minute.

In the late game, Gallagher netted an opportunist 13th-minute winner for West Brom as Sheffield United missed a string of chances in an action-packed match.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2020