London, Sep 13 (IANS) David Raya and Bruno Guimaraes were Arsenal’s heroes as the Gunners maintained their 100 per cent start to their Premier League title defence with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Sunderland and went top of the table.
After a robust, but goalless first half, the game exploded into life ten minutes after the restart.
First Raya superbly saved an Enzo Le Fee penalty low down to his left, and two minutes later we broke the deadlock in stunning fashion.
Guimaraes fired home his first Gunners goal into the postage stamp of the top corner from well outside the area to silence the home crowd.
The game remained fiercely competitive, with both sides operating at full throttle, and was only settled when Saka won, and then scored, a penalty deep into injury time.
He was released by a fine pass from Bruno, and burst into the area, where he was felled by Reinildo Mandava, the Sunderland man received a second yellow card and his marching orders, just before Saka stroked home his third goal of the season, to seal the Gunners sixth consecutive win to start the season.
Earlier, Alvaro Arbeloa picked up his first point in charge of Fulham, leading them to a draw against Liverpool – where he made 66 Premier League appearances as a player – which leaves the Reds still looking for their first home league win of the Andoni Iraola era.
Victor Munoz went closest to scoring for the Reds, the forward hitting the crossbar with a header in the first half, but the game ended goalless.
Iraola therefore remained unbeaten as head coach, though Liverpool have now drawn three of their four top-flight matches so far this season.
Meanwhile, Hull City remains unbeaten on its return to the Premier League after a 2-2 draw away to Chelsea.
–IANS
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