Manchester City's Vincent Kompany scores against Chelsea during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Chelsea at Etihad stadium, Manchester, England, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2015. — AP Photo
MANCHESTER — Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho scored as Manchester City crushed Chelsea 3-0 Sunday to establish a five-point advantage over the champions in the fledgling Premier League table.
After going close several times, Aguero celebrated his return to the starting XI by wriggling through Chelsea's defense to score a 31st-minute opener before Kompany and Fernandinho made the game safe late on.
The well-earned victory continued City's impressive start to the season following its 3-0 win at West Bromwich Albion and gave Manuel Pellegrini a first win over his nemesis Jose Mourinho since the Portuguese returned to Chelsea in 2013.
Defeat completed a miserable week for Mourinho, widely criticized for demoting his medics Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn after last weekend's 2-2 draw with Swansea City, and means Chelsea has failed to win one of its first two league games for the first time since 1998.
It was also a day to forget for visiting captain John Terry, who watched the second half from the bench after being substituted at half-time — the first time Mourinho had taken him off in 177 league games.
After a flurry of near-misses, Aguero broke the deadlock by exchanging passes with Yaya Toure, darting into the box and placing a low shot beyond the reach of Asmir Begovic, deputizing for the suspended Thibaut Courtois.
Hazard forced Joe Hart into a save in the second half, but City looked more likely to add to its lead and so it proved as Kompany headed home from David Silva's 79th-minute corner before Fernandinho drilled home from the edge of the box.
Earlier, Arsene Wenger breathed a sigh of relief as Arsenal got its title challenge up and running with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.?After slumping to a dismal 2-0 defeat against West Ham United in their opening game, Wenger's side had no margin for error at Selhurst Park if it wanted to avoid being cast adrift in the title race.
It rose to the challenge, securing a first league win of the season thanks to Olivier Giroud's superb 16th-minute volley and a Damien Delaney own goal in the 55th minute after Joel Ward had blasted Palace level.
It was a much-needed confidence boost for the Gunners and Wenger conceded it would have been hard to recover if they had left Selhurst Park empty-handed.? Wolfsburg prevails
VfL Wolfsburg, last season's runner-up, was made to work hard in their Bundesliga opener for a 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt Sunday despite establishing an early two-goal lead.
The German Cup winner, which also beat Bayern Munich for the German Super Cup two weeks ago, looked to be cruising to an easy win after Ivan Perisic wrong-footed the Eintracht keeper with a clever header at the far post in the 13th minute and Bas Dost volleyed in from a deep throw-in four minutes later.
Eintracht, however, quickly pulled one back, when Stefan Reinartz, its new signing from Bayer Leverkusen, was left unmarked inside the box and had no trouble drilling in a header two minutes later.
Cologne scored twice in two minutes against the run of play to beat host VfB Stuttgart 3-1. — Agencies
