Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, R’Madrid beaten

*Only City left standing

Yesterday was a bad day in the office for most of the top clubs on duty in both the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga.

Manchester United opened the bad weekend for the big clubs as Ruben Amorim’s side slipped to a 3-1  defeat at Brentford.

United were trying to fight their way back after Igor Thiago capitalised on some shambolic United defending inside the first 20 minutes to give the home side a two-goal cushion. Benjamin Sesko pulled one back with his first goal since making a £74m summer move from RB Leipzig.

The optimism generated by the victory over Chelsea seven days earlier was lost in a 3-1 defeat at Brentford that keeps United firmly in the bottom half of the Premier League.

At Selhurst Park, Eddie Nketiah struck with virtually the last kick of an enthralling encounter  to give Crystal Palace a deserved 2-1 victory and end Premier League leaders Liverpool’s five-match winning start to the season.

Italian Federico Chiesa’s 87th-minute equaliser looked like to have salvaged a point the champions’ dismal display barely merited.

Ismaila Sarr had given Palace an early lead but just as it looked like they would pay the price for wasting a host of chances, Nketiah pounced at the far post in the seventh minute of added time to lift them up to second in the table.

At Stamford Bridge, Brighton came from behind to beat an ill-disciplined Chelsea side who had a player sent off for the second Saturday running.

Substitutes Danny Welbeck and Maxim de Cuyper scored during 11 minutes of added time as the visitors profited from Trevoh Chalobah’s 53rd-minute red card to pick maximum points with 3-1 victory.

The story was not different at City Ground as Nottingham Forest lost 0-1 to visiting Sunderland. Ange Postecoglou’s difficult start to life as Nottingham Forest head coach continued as Omar Alderete’s first-half goal gave Sunderland the victory.

Elsewhere,  Atletico Madrid scored five goals against city rivals Real Madrid  for the first time in nearly 75 years when they fought back from behind in a pulsating derby. It was only the fourth time Atletico had scored at least five in a Madrid derby, the last occasion being a 6-3 victory in November 1950.

Real lost for the first time this season, having won all six of their six La Liga matches as well as their Champions League opener, a 2-1 victory over Marseille.

The last time that Real had conceded as many in La Liga was in a 5-1 defeat by Barcelona in October 2018.

Only Manchester City escaped, humiliating Burnley 5-1 at Etihad.

Erling Haaland scored twice late on and Maxime Esteve inadvertently scored two own goals to help Manchester City to a thumping 5-1 Premier League victory.