ERLING Haaland continued his prolific form as Manchester City battled to a narrow victory over Brentford and gave boss Pep Guardiola his 250th Premier League win.
Guardiola is the 16th manager to reach the milestone with a single club, but has done so in just 349 games – 74 games quicker than anyone else.
Haaland outmuscled Sepp van den Berg to gather Josko Gvardiol’s looping cross, then wriggled away from the defender before precisely slotting past Caoimhin Kelleher.
It is the Norwegian striker’s third goal this week and his 18th in 11 games for club and country this season.
City had to hold on to their slim lead at the Gtech Community Stadium for more than 80 minutes but limited Brentford to few opportunities, despite the game opening up somewhat in a scrappy second half.
Newcastle beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 to extend Ange Postecoglou’s wait for a win, while Crystal Palace’s 19-game unbeaten run was ended by Jack Grealish’s late winner for Everton on Sunday.
Postecoglou faced calls from the Forest fans for him to be sacked after just six games in the closing stages of Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League defeat to Midtjylland.
The Australian is the first Forest boss in over 100 years to fail to win in his first seven games and now faces an anxious wait to see if club owner Evangelos Marinakis decides to make another managerial change over the international break.
Newcastle had only won one of their opening six Premier League games.
But Bruno Guimaraes led the Magpies to victory with a brilliant strike from outside the box to break the deadlock on 58 minutes.
Guimaraes then won a penalty after robbing former team-mate Elliot Anderson inside the Forest box.
Nick Woltemade smashed the resulting spot-kick into the top corner for his fourth Newcastle goal since joining from Stuttgart last month.
Forest slip to 17th, the same league position that saw Postecoglou sacked by Tottenham at the end of last season despite winning the Europa League.
Palace missed the chance to go second after suffering a European hangover at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The Eagles were dominant in the first 45 minutes but were left to rue not adding to Daniel Munoz’s finish from Ismaila Sarr’s pass.
However, their Conference League exertions in winning away to Dynamo Kyiv on Thursday took their toll in the second half.
Iliman Ndiaye equalised from the penalty spot after Maxence Lacroix clumsily upended Beto as Everton fought back to avoid a first defeat at their new home.
Grealish then got fortunate for his first Everton goal as Munoz’s attempted clearance rebounded off the Manchester City loanee into the roof of the net.
After a slow start to the season, Aston Villa beat Burnley 2-1 to secure a fourth win in the last 11 days.
Donyell Malen was the Villa match-winner with his first goals since April.
The Dutch forward opened the scoring after racing onto Boubacar Kamara’s brilliant through ball to slot into the far corner.
Morgan Rogers was the creator for the second that Malen controlled before drilling confidently into the far corner.
Lesley Ugochukwu pulled a goal back but Burnley remain in the relegation zone.
Wolves are still rooted to the foot of the table after conceding a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Brighton.
The Seagulls’ only two league wins this season have come against Manchester City and Chelsea and they again failed to deliver in a seemingly more winnable game.