Relentless Arsenal, unflappable Bees - and mixed bag in EFL: Weekend roundup
Arsenal made it four wins out of four in the Premier League thanks to a David Raya penalty save and a wonderful first goal from Bruno Guimaraes at Sunderland.
Bukayo Saka's injury-time minute penalty secured a 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light, where the Gunners dropped two points last season in a 2-2 draw.
Mikel Arteta should have been beaming after a victory which comes at the end of a week where Chelsea were overcome at the Emirates and Napoli in Italy in the team's opening Champions League fixture.
But the Arsenal boss was seething about the 55th minute penalty award which came after Dan Ballard managed to 'judo roll' Ezri Konsa to the ground, making it look like the Gunners defender was culpable.
"We had to overcome a situation that, in my opinion, is absolutely unacceptable at this level," he said. "So, I'm very worried, very sad because this can never be a penalty, ever.
"It's a judo roll from the opponent to Ezri. Ezri does nothing [wrong], just watching. That's why we have a lot of cameras and VAR, we have to take responsibility to protect the game and today the game was unprotected and it could have cost us the game and the momentum, which is a really, really serious thing."
Brentford remain unbeaten after recovering from 2-1 down at Bournemouth to claim a fine 2-2 draw. Kevin Schade opened the scoring with an excellent header and the German made it a double by capitalising on a gifted pass from the Cherries keeper Djordje Petrovic.
Bournemouth had most of the play, scoring twice through Marcus Tavernier and Justin Kluivert but have still not beaten the Bees in the Premier League, who remain undefeated against the Cherries in 12 games since 2014.
"Our games are rarely boring," said both Keith Andrews. "I though we could have done better. We didn't hit the levels that we've set for ourselves. We didn't make life easy for ourselves by certain things we were doing, so I think overall it was a point gained.
"We weren't as efficient on the ball, didn't take care of the ball as well as we could and should have with the ability that we have in the team and I think when our subs came on, they didn't impact the game in the way we would have wanted - so we're slightly disappointed. We didn't attack with real conviction.
"But we're in early stages of the season, obviously, and we're unbeaten, we've come away and got a point so there's a lot to be content with."
Alvaro Arbelo had a happy return to Merseyside as he collected his first point as Fulham boss. The unexpected 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Anfield lifted much of the gloom surrounding the opening three games, which all ended in defeat.
"I'm happy for the point but also for the performance of my players," said the Spaniard. "I think we did a massive performance. Great effort with a lot of personality and character in this stadium against a very big team."
In the Championship, Millwall's up and down season continues as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers. A Lyndon Dykes penalty cancelled out a first-half goal from Dapo Afolayan at the start of the second half, but the Rovers striker quickly restored the home side's lead at Ewood Park. Andri Gudjohnsen sealed the win in injury time.
That makes it three wins and three defeats for the Lions in the opening six games - who have not won in 11 visits to Blackburn.
"It's a wasted opportunity because we could have won the game today," said boss Alex Neil.
"I said to the lads at half-time that the pace of the game, the tempo, was flat and to conceded made it even worse, because I didn't really think there as anything in the match.
"We started the second half really well , got the penalty, got the goal, and looked like the team that was going to go on and win the game."
There were draws for both QPR and Charlton - with Rangers returning from high-riding West Brom with a fine 1-1 draw while the Addicks had their second 0-0 draw at the Valley this week - a stalemate against Portsmouth following on from the draw with QPR in midweek.
A Chris Mepham own goal handed QPR the lead on 38 minutes at the Hawthorns against the run of play but Callum Styles equalised for the Baggies three minutes later.
"I give a lot of credit to the players to earn a point like this," said boss Julien Stephan, whose team are fifth in the table with only one defeat recorded. "We knew before that we faced today the leaders, a team with very great confidence and I think we managed the situation quite well.
"Tactically it was good. We locked the main spaces today with intelligence. The only regret that I can have is to concede the goal just after we scored."
Charlton, who have also suffered only one loss so far, missed a big chance to bag all three points against Pompey, with Millenic All ballooing over from close range with the goal at his mercy. He had a loan spell with Portsmouth last season and received a lot of stick from visiting fans.
"I thought the performance was really good," said Nathan Jones, the Addicks' boss after a game of few clear-cut chances. "In the first half especially, I thought we were really fluid. We looked a threat and we controlled the game.
"We're probably just a little bit frustrated we haven't won it because I think if we'd have scored the first goal, then we're very diffuicult to beat here."
Watford fell to a first home league defeat of the season at the hands of a dominant Stoke City, who won 2-1 at Vicarage Road. Jack McGlynn gave the Potters a lead at the break and Eric Bocat doubled the lead soon after the restart.
An injury time strike from sub Amin Nabizada came too late to shape the outcome. The Hornets drop to 17th in the table, having won two and lost three of their opening seven games.
Head coach Alessio Dionisi said: "My players were tired from the start. It's normal when you play every three days for nine matches, two in the Carabao Cup and seven in the Championship, it's difficult.
"Today on the bench, there weren't midfielders and defenders."
The Hornets have signed Michail Antonio - the former West Ham striker - but Dionisi said he did not know how many weeks the player would need to get fit enough to play.
In League One, while Leyton Orient were slipping to another home defeat, AFC Wimbledon were making it back-to-back wins to rise to seventh in the table. A 1-0 win over Doncaster - following on from a 2-0 win at Bromley on Monday - was secured thanks to a superb 43rd minte free-kick from Myles Hippolyte.
"It was a differnt type of win," said boss Johnnie Jackson. Monday night was a dominant performance and we played some really good stuff. Today, completely different. On the back foot for the majority of the game, to be fair. They are a really good side who caused us some problems.
"We put our bodies on the line, we made blocks when we needed to and our keeper's made saves and we've generally unbelievably hard to keep the ball out of the net."
Bromley are in the bottom four but will take great encouragement from a 2-2 draw at Blackpool to halt a three-game losing streak. Andy Woodman's side came from behind twice, with Victor Adeboyejo and a Jordan Brown own goal cancelling out goals for the Tangerines from Albie Morgan and Tom Bloxham.
"I'm really chuffed because I felt we stepped up and were good value for a point, if not all three at the end. It's a little building block of where we want to be. We looked very disciplined in our shape and set up and we looked a bit more like a Bromley team in my eyes - a there was a little bit more bite about us, a bit more fight about us."
Last, but far from least are Barnet, who have shot back to the top of League Two and remain unbeaten after getting the better of Accrington at The Hive.
They trailed before the break to a Charlie Caton lob but a double from Charlie Lakin turned the game on its head and when Devon Matthews was red carded in the 74th minute two minutes after Lakin's second, the points were as good as in the bag.
Dean Brennan, the manager of the month said: "I thought we were dominant. First half we got into some great areas and had 19 touches in their box to their three. We were 1-0 down playing against the wind and should never have been but our end product wasn't good enough.
"We made a change second half going full width with two wingers and I thought it made a huge difference to the game. I'm really proud of the victory today. This is the strongest group of players I've ever had and I want to keep the standards."
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