Fernandez strikes late as Man Utd win at Fulham as Man City run riot

Manchester United stopped the rot as captain Bruno Fernandez struck in the 90th minute for a 1-0 victory at Fulham in the early Premier League game at Fulham yesterday.

The game was petering out into a lacklustre stalemate when Fernandes latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the area and drilled a pinpoint low shot inside the post.

Successive 3-0 home defeats in United’s worst start to a season since 1962 had piled pressure on manager Erik ten Hag and victory at Craven Cottage will release that somewhat.

A third successive narrow away win in the league lifted United to sixth with 18 points from 11 games ahead of the rest of the weekend programme.

Fulham, who had 18 goals attempts but only two on target, are down in 14th with 12 points.

In the same vein, Manchester City winger Jeremy Doku scored and created two more goals in seven blistering first-half minutes before adding two more assists in the second period as the champions hammered Bournemouth 6-1 to go top of the Premier League on 27 points, one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, who host Chelsea on Monday.

In other games, Brentford claimed their third straight Premier League victory when they came from behind to beat West Ham United 3-2 on Saturday in a thrilling London derby in which their club-record signing Nathan Collins scored the winner.

Victory moved Brentford up to ninth place with 16 points from 11 games as they slowly get their campaign back on track following a six-match winless run, while West Ham dropped to 11th, two points behind their London rivals.

Also, Jeffrey Schlupp and Tyrick Mitchell scored as Crystal Palace gave Burnley their sixth consecutive home defeat this season with a 2-0 victory on Saturday, the Eagles’ first win in four Premier League games.

Roy Hodgson’s side climbed provisionally into 10th in the table on 15 points after 11 games, while Vincent Kompany’s beleaguered Clarets, who have yet to win at Turf Moor this campaign, remained firmly in the drop zone with four points just as Sheffield United secured their first Premier League win of the season with a penalty goal from Oliver Norwood 10 minutes into stoppage time, earning them a 2-1 victory at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers.