LONDON, Oct 6 — Liverpool will head into the international break top of the Premier League thanks to a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace before champions Manchester City and Arsenal both recovered from going behind to claim home wins on Saturday.

Diogo Jota’s early goal was enough for Liverpool to maintain their impressive start under new manager Arne Slot who has six wins from his opening seven Premier League games in charge.

Liverpool have 18 points with City and Arsenal on 17.

City trailed at home to Fulham but Mateo Kovacic’s double ensured a 3-2 win. Arsenal were also in trouble against winless Southampton but Kai Havertz scored his sixth goal of the season before Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka sealed a 3-1 victory.

Newcastle United missed the chance to move into the top four as they drew 0-0 at Everton — former Everton player Anthony Gordon having a penalty saved by Jordan Pickford.

Leicester City posted their first Premier League win since gaining promotion, beating Bournemouth 1-0 with a goal by Argentine Facundo Buonanotte.

Brentford maintained their incredible habit of scoring early goals as they beat bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-3 to pile more pressure on Wolves manager Gary O’Neil.

Unlike their previous three Premier League games when they scored inside the first minute, this time it took Brentford 76 seconds of an incredible six-goal first half in west London to go ahead with a Nathan Collins header.

West Ham United got their first home league win of the season as they beat promoted Ipswich Town 4-1.

While the focus has been on another expected title battle between Pep Guardiola’s City and Arteta’s Arsenal, Liverpool have shown that they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Jota’s close-range goal in his 100th appearance for Liverpool was enough for Dutchman Slot to enjoy his ninth win from his first 10 matches in charge since taking over from Juergen Klopp — the best start by a Liverpool manager.

“It definitely is (very satisfying). And it’s actually also quite special if you know how many great managers Liverpool had,” Slot told reporters after his side’s fifth league clean sheet of the season.

The win did come at a price though with injuries to goalkeeper Alisson and Alexis Mac Allister.

Shock leads

After successive league draws, Manchester City needed to get back to winning ways but were stunned at the Etihad when Andreas Pereira stabbed home in the 26th minute for Fulham.

Kovacic restored parity six minutes later, firing in a deflected shot after Fulham struggled to clear a corner and he struck again just after the break after an assist by Jack Grealish. Jeremy Doku appeared to have secured the win but Fulham finished strongly and threatened an equaliser after Rodrigo Muniz pulled a goal back.

Southampton took a shock lead in north London in the 55th minute when Cameron Archer finished a counter-attack.

But the in-form Havertz was teed up by Saka to level four minutes later, the German scoring for the seventh successive home game in all competitions.

Saka picked out substitute Martinelli to give Arsenal the lead before claiming his own reward for a superb display.

For entertainment the place to be was at Brentford’s Community Stadium.

Collins lit the fuse with an almost predictable Brentford early goal but Matheus Cunha levelled soon after.

“We’ve been practising winning the coin toss all week, and we lost it. That’s why it took us so long (to score),” joked Brentford boss Thomas Frank whose side have 10 points.

Bryan Mbeumo’s penalty, his sixth goal of the season, restored Brentford’s lead only for Jorgen Larsen to make it 2-2.

Christian Norgaard fired the hosts back in front and Ethan Pinnock’s header made it 4-2 at halftime. Fabio Carvalho scored his first Brentford goal to kill off the visitors who grabbed a late consolation from Rayan Ait Nouri.

Everton had a goal ruled out against Newcastle at Goodison Park and conceded a penalty shortly afterwards, but Gordon’s spot-kick was kept out by Pickford to the delight of the home faithful. Newcastle stayed in sixth spot with Everton 16th.

Sunday’s three games include Aston Villa at home to struggling Manchester United. — Reuters