Chelsea hit back to draw at West Brom, Man Utd snatch 100th-minute win at Brighton

 London

Free-spending Chelsea came from 3-0 down to salvage a 3-3 draw at newly-promoted West Brom, while Manchester United was rescued by Bruno Fernandes’s 100th-minute penalty, awarded after the full-time whistle, to beat Brighton 3-2 yesterday. But it is Everton who is setting the early pace in the Premier League as they secured a third straight win in controversial circumstances, 2-1 at Crystal Palace.

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard handed the captain’s armband to Thiago Silva on his Premier League debut, but the Brazilian had a nightmare first 45 minutes as the Blues’ defensive deficiencies were easily exposed. Callum Robison pounced on errors from Marcos Alonso and Silva to fire twice beyond Willy Caballero, who replaced Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Chelsea goal.

Kyle Bartley then made it 3-0 to the Baggies, who had lost their opening two games back in the top flight. Chelsea has spent a reported £220 million ($280 million) to try and close the gap to Liverpool and Manchester City in the title race and even a spirited second-half fightback could not hide the embarrassment of his side’s defending for Lampard, who have taken just four points from their first three games.

Mason Mount got the comeback started to a swerving long-range effort. Substitute Callum Hudson-Odoi then swept home 20 minutes from time after a neat one-two with Kai Havertz. And Tammy Abraham secured a point in stoppage time when he rolled in the rebound after Sam Johnstone had parried Mount’s initial effort.

United bounced back from their 3-1 home defeat to Palace last weekend but had a lot of fortune on their side after being outplayed by Brighton. The Seagulls hit the woodwork five times and thought they had earned a point themselves five minutes into stoppage time when Solly March headed home at the back post.

However, there just enough time for United to mount another attack and Neal Maupay raised his arm to block Harry Maguire’s header. Referee Chris Kavanagh initially blew for fulltime, but then awarded a penalty after consulting the pitchside monitor and Fernandes confidently converted. “We got away with one. Maybe one point we deserved, we didn’t deserve more,” admitted United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer