Erling Haaland ticked the Gtech Stadium off his to-do list by firing Manchester City to a 1-0 win at Brentford.
The Bees’ ground was one of only two Premier League venues Haaland had not previously scored at, but he put that to rights with a trademark strike.
Just eight minutes had elapsed when the Norwegian striker raced on to a ball over the top from Josko Gvardiol.
Haaland bulldozed his way between Bees defenders Sepp van den Berg and Nathan Collins before lashing his shot past Irish goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
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It was Haaland’s 18th goal in 11 matches for club and country this season and leaves Anfield as the only ground he has yet to score at in the Premier League.
His ninth league goal of the campaign also took City boss Pep Guardiola to 250 wins in the competition, a landmark reached in just 349 matches – the previous quickest manager to reach that milestone was Arsene Wenger in a comparatively pedestrian 423 games.
City’s afternoon in the west London sunshine was soured when midfielder Rodri suffered more injury misery.
Nick Woltemade scored for the fourth time in five starts as Newcastle ground out a 2-0 Premier League victory over Nottingham Forest to leave Ange Postecoglou still awaiting his first win.
The Germany international, who had earlier hit the bar, converted an 84th-minute penalty to add to Bruno Guimaraes’ opener as Postecoglou’s seventh game at the Forest helm ended in defeat despite a battling performance on Tyneside.
Eddie Howe’s men never hit the heights they did during Wednesday night’s 4-0 Champions League win at Union St-Gilloise, but were value for the points on a day when they at times looked fatigued, yet still found a way to win.
Jack Grealish’s first goal for Everton snatched a 2-1 victory in added time to end Crystal Palace’s 19-game unbeaten run.
The on-loan Manchester City winger knew little about it as Eagles’ goalscorer Daniel Munoz’s clearance rebounded off him into the net but he happily claimed it, after manager David Moyes had called on him to produce more of a threat in front of goal.
That threat had been absent from the whole team for the majority of the game until Maxence Lacroix needlessly gave away a penalty which allowed Iliman Ndiaye to equalise 14 minutes from time.
And when goalkeeper Dean Henderson could only block Beto’s header in the third minute of stoppage time, Grealish was in the right place at the right time to get his body in the way to maximum effect.
It was an afternoon when the visitors’ efficient effectiveness deserted them as they squandered the chance to reach the heady heights of second place after a relatively comfortable first half in which they led through Munoz’s 37th-minute strike.
That they did not came down to the efforts of Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, making his 300th Premier League appearance for the club, and Eagles forward Jean-Philippe Mateta missing an open goal with the score at 1-0.
Palace had only previously lost once under Oliver Glasner when leading at half-time in the Premier League – also at Everton, in September last year.
Jan Paul van Hecke scored a late header to rescue Brighton a 1-1 draw and deny Wolves a first Premier League victory of the season.
Wolves were denied all three points in the last minute against Tottenham last week and Vitor Pereira’s bottom-placed side were again unable to cling on to victory as the clock ticked down.
Pereira was given a red card in the first half after showing his fury on the touchline but his side hit the front shortly after when Marshall Munetsi’s volley bounced off the bar on to goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and in.
Sam Johnstone denied the Seagulls five times throughout the encounter as it looked like Wolves would win for the first time in 11 Premier League matches.
However, Van Hecke notched four minutes from time to earn Brighton’s seventh point this season from a losing position as both sides’ wait for a first clean sheet of the campaign went on.
