ENGLAND—The ninth round of the English Premier League season got underway with Friday night’s match between West Ham and Brighton at the London Stadium, Brighton coming away with a convincing 3-nil victory, with a brace from Glenn Murray, a header and a penalty, sandwiching another from Izquierdo. The result moves Brighton up the table and temporarily eases the pressure on manager Chris Hughton, whilst adding further pressure on the position of West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, loudly booed by their fans at the end of the game, who has been under pressure from the start of the season after losing the opening 3 matches. Results at their London Stadium home have continued to disappoint despite being into their second season at the venue.
In Saturday’s early game, Chelsea hosted Watford in the early game at Stamford Bridge, where they took an early lead through Pedro’s strike, before Watford replied through Abdoulaye Doucoure and led through another goal from Roberto Ferreira, and then Chelsea fought back to win 4-2 with a brace, including the fourth goal, from Michy Batshuayi, and another from Cesar Aspilicueta.
