Inter loses its head against Lazio; Milan goes top with fightback win
Ben Chilwell sent Chelsea back to the top of the Premier League as his blistering strike and a superb display from Edouard Mendy sealed a hard-fought 1-0 win at Brentford on Saturday.
Thomas Tuchel’s side had been knocked out of pole position by Liverpool’s 5-0 rout of Watford a few hours earlier.
But Chelsea had the perfect response with a gritty victory in its first league meeting with its west London neighbour for 74 years.
Chilwell’s fiercely-struck goal in first half stoppage-time was enough to give Chelsea its sixth win in eight league games.
But Chelsea had to rely on a series of fine saves from Mendy in the closing stages before it could move one point clear of second placed Liverpool.
Reigning champion Inter Milan suffered its first Serie A defeat of the season as it lost a bad-tempered game 3-1 to Lazio on Saturday, while AC Milan fought back from two goals down against Verona to go top of the table.
Inter was incensed after Felipe Anderson tapped home a rebound in the 81st minute to put the hosts 2-1 ahead at the Stadio Olimpico, with the visiting players angry that Lazio had not stopped play due to Federico Dimarco being down injured.
But Lazio was under no obligation to stop and Dimarco had hit the floor before Inter continued attacking itself.
Five yellow cards were dished out in the aftermath as the away side’s protests stopped play for several minutes, with visiting full-back Denzel Dumfries perhaps lucky to only be booked.
AC Milan took first place overnight, though, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his return from injury as a substitute in a dramatic 3-2 victory over Verona.
Stefano Pioli’s men were staring at a first league defeat of the campaign when trailing at half-time to early goals for Gianluca Caprari and Antonin Barak.
But Olivier Giroud’s header just before the hour mark gave Milan hope, and Franck Kessie drew Milan level in the 76th minute with a hotly-debated penalty.
Ibrahimovic was introduced after that goal for his first appearance in over a month and a cross aimed towards the veteran striker was comically turned into his own net, through his goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo’s legs, by Koray Gunter just seconds later.
The results: Premier League: Everton 0 lost to West Ham 1 (Ogbonna 74).
Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Schick 55) lost to Bayern Munich 5 (Lewandowski 4, 30, Mueller 34, Gnabry 35, 37).
Serie A: Empoli 1 (Di Francesco 30) lost to Atalanta 4 (Ilicic 10, 26, Viti 49-o.g., Zapata 89); Cagliari 3 (Joao Pedro 4, 90+4, Caceres 74) bt Sampdoria 1 (Thorsby 82); Udinese 1 (Beto 82) drew with Bologna 1 (Barrow 67); Genoa 2 (Destro 27, Vazquez 90) drew with Sassuolo 2 (Scamacca 18, 21).
La Liga: Rayo Vallecano 2 (Hernandez 26, Nteka 66) bt Elche 1 (Boye 14); Celta Vigo 0 lost to Sevilla 1 (Mir 54).
Saturday: Premier League: Brentford 0 lost to Chelsea 1 (Chilwell 45+1).
Serie A: Lazio 3 (Immobile 64-pen, Anderson 81, Milinkovic-Savic 90+1) bt Inter Milan 1 (Perisic 12-pen); AC Milan 3 (Giroud 59, Kessie 76-pen, Gunter-78-og) bt Hellas Verona 2 (Caprari 7, Barak 24-pen).
La Liga: Levante 0 drew with Getafe 0; Real Sociedad 1 (Lobete 90) bt Real Mallorca 0.
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