LONDON: Normal service is being restored at the top of the Premier League. Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea are all winning again, their new stars are justifying their transfer fees and the old heroes are proving they still possess their hunger for success.

The oldest in the latest matchday was Roberto Firmino. The Brazilian will be 31 at the start of October. Doubts about his value had been raised by a procession of minor injuries with the consequent loss of form. He was back to his best in the Premier League record-equalling 9:0 demolition of Bournemouth.

When Firmino plays well, Liverpool play well. He provides a fluid link between midfield and attack, dropping back into spaces into which opposing defenders fear to chase. The more obvious danger threatened by Mo Salah and, now, Luiz Diaz in place of Sadio Mane, allows Firmino to find opportunities for goals of his own.

Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester United last Monday prompted a longer-than-usual team meeting on Wednesday. Both that defeat and the dressing-room inquest removed any sense of complacency from the squad. Firmino benefited most from the renewed vigour and intensity of the team performance. Also it help that promoted Bournemouth looked out of their depth.

Firmino scored two goals to take his all-time total for Liverpool to 100 and provided three of the assists towards the other six goals from Diaz (two), Harvey Elliott, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Portuguese teenager Fabio Carvalho plus an own goal by Chris Mepham.

Liverpool were 4:0 up after 31 minutes on the way to their first win of the campaign. The Kop chanted: “We want 10”. It would have been more than 10 but for Salah missing two open goals. Still, Klopp was happy with nine which equalled Liverpool’s record league win, against Crystal Palace in 1989.

He said: “It was the perfect football afternoon for us with a lot of different goalscorers, wonderful goals and fantastic situations. We all know we needed something like that. We had to prove a point for ourselves.”

Haaland meanwhile was demonstrating how his £51m arrival has brought a new dimension to Manchester City’s attack. His hat-trick inspired a recovery to a 4:2 win over Crystal Palace after City had been two-down in 21 minutes to an own goal from John Stones and header from Joachim Andersen.

The only problem for manager Pep Guardiola now is his defence. This was the fourth time in City’s last six league games that they have gifted the opposition a two-goal start.

Haaland was ably assisted by the other marksman Bernardo Silva in leading the recovery. He is only the fourth player to score six or more goals in his first four Premier appearances and the first to do so since Diego Costa netted seven in 2014. It was also the Norwegian’s 13th hat-trick in senior football and fourth in Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues after his quartet for Borussia Dortmund.

Guardiola said: “Erling has been doing this since he was born. He’s doing what he has always done his whole life, everywhere he has been — scoring goals.”

Haaland, son of former City midfielder Alf-Inge Haaland, said: “These games are why I’m here: to turn things around when there are difficult times. My dad will probably say he had more goals in the Premier League than me so I will chase that.” Haaland senior’s lead will not last long. At this rate his son will overtake Alf’s 18 goals over seven seasons before the World Cup break.

Sterling’s first two goals for Chelsea eased the frustration for manager Thomas Tuchel in watching his team’s 2:1 win over struggling Leicester from up in the stands through suspension.

The England striker began repaying his £47m transfer fee by scoring in 47 and 63 minutes to pull Chelsea out of danger after the first-half expulsion of Conor Gallagher. The 22-year-old collected two first-half yellow cards in quick succession for needless fouls in midfield. He thus followed the red card trails of both his manager after the Tottenham game and central defender Kalidou Koulibaly against Leeds.

Tuchel has bought Sterling from Manchester City to provide Chelsea, at last, with a consistent source of goals. He said: “The goals were absolutely crucial because they gave us belief when we had only 10 men.” Now that Chelsea have put the Leicester game behind them they can go ahead and complete the purchase of Foxes’ defender Wesley Fofana.

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