Battling Sunderland finally claim first win of the season

Bournemouth 1 Sunderland 2

Victor Anichebe inspired rock-bottom Sunderland to their first win of the season and lifted some of the pressure on David Moyes.

Anichebe, whose only notable contribution this term had been a Twitter gaffe after the recent defeat at West Ham, was handed a first Premier League start at Bournemouth by under-fire manager Moyes.

And the former Everton striker responded with his first goal in 18 months, to cancel out Dan Gosling’s opener, before winning the penalty which Jermain Defoe dispatched to seal a 2-1 victory.

The win was all the more remarkable given Sunderland had Steven Pienaar sent off with half an hour to go for a crude challenge on Junior Stanislas.

The Black Cats remain at the foot of the table but Moyes can at least breathe again amid reports claiming he could be sacked if they had lost at Dean Court.

A victory certainly did not look on the cards after 11 minutes when Bournemouth took the lead.

Harry Arter forced Jordan Pickford into a fine save with a fierce drive but Sunderland switched off from the corner, which Bournemouth took short.

Adam Smith had all the time in the world to swing the ball across the six-yard box and Gosling bundled in his third goal of the season.

Bournemouth smashed six past Hull last month and sensed the chance to fill their boots again.

Josh King played in Stanislas, who hit the side-netting, before Stanislas returned the compliment and King was only denied by the alert Pickford.

Yet totally against the run of play Sunderland grabbed a 33rd-minute lifeline through Anichebe’s first goal since he scored for West Brom at Newcastle in May 2015.

The former Everton forward collected Defoe’s pass in the box and held off Simon Francis before turning and crashing his shot into the roof of the net.

The Wearsiders had the ball in the net again moments before half-time, but Duncan Watmore was flagged offside as he converted a Billy Jones cross.

Pienaar’s red mist came on the hour mark, the midfielder catching Stanislas’ shin right under the nose of referee Mike Dean to put Sunderland on the back foot and leave Moyes, in the stands due to a touchline ban, looking on in disbelief.

Bournemouth piled forward again and Gosling slipped in Stanislas, who fired across Pickford only to see his effort clip the far post.

But remarkably it was the 10 men of Sunderland who took the lead after Smith tripped Anichebe in the 74th minute and Defoe tucked in the spot-kick.

Stunned Bournemouth tried desperately for an equaliser, but for once Sunderland managed to hold out with Pickford’s superb stop to deny King finally securing that elusive win.

Burnley 3 Crystal Palace 2

Substitute Ashley Barnes pounced four minutes into injury time to grab another last-ditch three points for Burnley in a five-goal thriller against Crystal Palace at Turf Moor.

The visitors had hauled themselves back from an early two-goal deficit through Christian Benteke’s 82nd-minute penalty, only for Barnes — an 85th-minute replacement for Jeff Hendrick — to smash the winner from a Johann Gudmundsson cross.

It completed the second straight Turf Moor late show from Sean Dyche’s side after Scott Arfield struck a last-minute winner against Everton a fortnight ago.

Palace’s fourth straight defeat had looked increasingly likely after Sam Vokes and Gudmundsson fired the Clarets into a 2-0 lead inside the first quarter of an hour.

But Connor Wickham reduced the deficit with his first touch after replacing Jason Puncheon on the hour mark, then Benteke looked to have sealed the Eagles’ revival before Barnes intervened in spectacular fashion.

Burnley grabbed the lead with less than two minutes on the clock when Matthew Lowton broke directly from a Palace corner and crossed for Gudmundsson, whose ball back into the box was eventually tapped home from close range by Vokes.

Palace responded by forcing a second corner from which Joel Ward came close, before Benteke set up Jason Puncheon for a rasping effort which was well saved by Heaton at the second attempt.

Heaton, star of the Clarets’ goalless draw at Old Trafford last week, saved his side again two minutes later when he produced a great low save to deny Wilfried Zaha.

But all the Eagles’ pressing came at a price as they left themselves alarmingly open to the counter-attack, and it was a weakness Burnley exposed again in the 14th minute.

Gudmundsson burst clear of the Palace defence and drove a shot from 25 yards which squirmed beneath hapless keeper Steve Mandanda and bounced twice before ending up in the net.

If the visitors were shell-shocked to find themselves 2-0 down they hardly showed it, with Townsend next to blaze a clear chance over the bar from a Ward corner.

But they remained distinctly vulnerable at the other end, with Mandanda going some way to redeeming himself when he saved well from Hendrick after fine work from Arfield in the box.

Benteke missed two golden chances to reduce the deficit in the dying minutes of the first half and Pardew’s half-time team talk did not seem to have counted for much when the Clarets made the brighter start to the second half.

Vokes was at the centre of most of their forays forward, his effort from a tight angle saved twice by Mandanda as Hendrick rushed in to assist, then blazing another effort high and wide from eight yards.

Pardew had no choice but to act and he did so with a double substitution which paid off spectacularly just before the hour mark, as Wickham slammed his first goal of the season into the roof of the net from a Yohan Cabaye cross.

After surviving a spell of Burnley pressure, Palace grabbed their equaliser in the 82nd minute when Lowton handled a Townsend ball into the box and Benteke stepped up to hit the leveller past Heaton — only for Barnes to dash their hopes at the death.

There was still time for Townsend to be denied by a post, but Burnley held on to the three points in a frantic finish.

West Ham 1 Stoke City 1

Stoke denied West Ham a third straight victory at the London Stadium after substitute Bojan Krkic’s strike secured a 1-1 draw.

The hosts looked to be heading for a much-needed victory after Glenn Whelan’s second-half own goal.

But erratic goalkeeping from Adrian then led to Stoke’s equaliser, taking the visitors up to 10th in the Premier League and leaving 15th-placed West Ham just four points off the bottom three.

An underwhelming opening half belied the fact that, after each of these teams experienced difficult starts to the season, their results had recently improved.

Defeat in their most recent fixture, at Everton, had ended the hosts’ run of three consecutive wins, while Stoke had won their past three and not lost in five.

Any sense of momentum, however, was largely absent. Only a 27th-minute header from West Ham’s Angelo Ogbonna — well saved by Lee Grant — and Dimitri Payet’s narrowly-off-target free-kick on the stroke of half-time left any impression.

The second half started at a similarly pedestrian pace, with both sides appearing short of confidence and unwilling to take the sort of risks which might have brought the game to life.

Phil Bardsley, with a powerful-but-optimistic 40-yard strike that went over the crossbar, had provided the only further attacking threat when Slaven Bilic was rewarded for making a double substitution.

The manager removed the largely-anonymous Manuel Lanzini and Andre Ayew, replacing them with Ashley Fletcher and Edimilson Fernandes, and a goal almost instantly followed.

Taking advantage of space on the left wing, Payet sent a 65th-minute cross towards Antonio, who with his back to goal headed against Whelan, taking the ball beyond the diving Grant into the far-left post in one of few positive contributions the day before Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad is announced.

Perhaps inspired by his opposite number, Mark Hughes then removed Wilfried Bony and Whelan for Peter Crouch and Bojan, and Stoke similarly responded by drawing level four minutes later.

A pass from Charlie Adam had put Jon Walters into space, and oddly prompted West Ham’s Adrian to rush out of goal.

The forward took advantage by chipping the ball over the goalkeeper, and from there the turning Bojan was first to reach it and send a classy finish into the near-open goal.

In one last attempt at goal and when Adrian again appeared uncertain, Adam tested the goalkeeper with a late free-kick, but he unconvincingly turned it around the post to ensure a point.