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Premier League: Sky Sports picks out some of the key highlights of this weekend's action

Diego Costa celebrates his hat-trick
Image: Diego Costa: In scintillating form for Chelsea against Swansea

Sky Sports casts an eye over this weekend's Premier League action and picks out some of the key highlights.

Game of the weekend

Arsenal 2 Manchester City2

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Manuel Pellegrini felt referee Mark Clattenburg cost Manchester City victory against Arsenal, after they drew 2-2 at the Emirates.

Saturday’s lunchtime clash between two of the top teams served up a thriller as Arsenal and Manchester City shared four goals at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners started brightly but it was champions City who opened the scoring when Sergio Aguero tucked the ball home following a devastating counter-attack. Jack Wilshere equalised with a classy finish and it looked like Arsenal would come away with the win when Alexis Sanchez steered a superb volley into the top corner. However, Martin Demichelis drew City level with a powerful header and neither side could find a winner in a pulsating finale. As well as the entertaining football and fabulous goals, there was a dash of controversy as Manuel Pellegrini accused Mark Clattenburg of costing his side victory with a number of poor decisions, although on the balance of play a draw was probably a fair result.

Player of the weekend

Diego Costa

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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says his team are difficult to stop when they get going after they beat Swansea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s centre-forwards may have struggled for goals last season but there are no such worries about Diego Costa’s finishing ability and Jose Mourinho described the Spaniard as ‘fantastic’ after he took his tally to seven in his first four Premier League matches with a hat-trick against Swansea City. The Blues were in need of some inspiration after falling behind and Costa provided it with a fine header to make it 1-1 in the 45th minute, before rounding off a flowing move early in the second half to fire home Cesc Fabregas’ pass. He was not finished there, though, and completed his treble when he reacted quickest to Ramires’ weak shot to stab the ball past Lukasz Fabianski, showing the kind of opportunism to prompt Sky Bet to open betting on him breaking the Premier League goalscoring record for a single season.

Home debut of the weekend

Angel di Maria

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Angel di Maria played a starring role for Manchester United as Louis van Gaal claimed his first win as United's manager by beating QPR 4-0 at Old Trafford.

Manchester United fans had something to smile about again on Sunday as they destroyed Queens Park Rangers 4-0 at Old Trafford to get the Louis van Gaal era up and running. A summer of eye-catching purchases in the transfer window had kept optimism high despite the slow start to the season and there were a host of new recruits in the line-up. Di Maria proved to be the star of the show with a dazzling display on his home debut, as he terrorised the QPR defence with his pace and creativity. The Argentine broke the deadlock with a free-kick from deep which eluded everyone in the centre and crept in at the back post, while a rampaging run and clever reverse pass helped to set up Ander Herrera for the second. Di Maria also provided the assist for Juan Mata’s goal in the second half before getting a great reception as he was substituted late on.  

Goal of the weekend

Morgan Schneiderlin

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Ronald Koeman was very happy with his side's display in the 4-0 win over Newcastle but reserved special praise for two-goal striker Graziano Pelle.

There were lots of great goals this weekend, with Arsenal’s Sanchez and Adam Johnson of Sunderland delivering two of the best, but Schneiderlin gets the nod following a superb strike for Southampton. The French midfielder is not usually noted for his shooting ability but he has now netted three times in his past two games and his latest goal was an exquisite curling effort into the top corner from the edge of the box. It came after a period of sustained possession, before Saints injected some pace into the final stages of a 33-pass move to give Schneiderlin the chance and secure a 4-0 victory over Newcastle United which piled more pressure on Alan Pardew.

Save of the weekend 

Julian Speroni

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Julian Speroni saved a late Scott Arfield penalty to earn Crystal Palace a point against Burnley.

Burnley looked set to snatch victory at Selhurst Park when they earned a late penalty following Mile Jedinak’s foul on Lukas Jutkiewicz, but Julian Speroni came to Crystal Palace’s rescue with an incredible save. Scott Arfield hammered his spot-kick high and hard but did not quite get it close enough to the corner and Speroni, leaping to his right, stretched out a hand to beat it away. The goalkeeper had already repelled an Arfield shot with another decent save and his heroics ensured Palace picked up a valuable point.

Gaffe of the weekend

Ben Foster

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West Brom boss says that errors are costing his side after they lost 0-2 at home to Everton.

One goalkeeper who will not have enjoyed his weekend quite as much as Speroni is West Bromwich Albion’s Ben Foster. He had shrugged off a thumb problem which forced him out of England duty to start against Everton, but was picking the ball out of his own net after just two minutes following a sumptuous Romelu Lukaku strike. Foster was not to blame there, but he made a mistake for the second goal as he somehow allowed a tame Kevin Mirallas shot from distance to slip through his grasp when he appeared to have it covered. West Brom had fought hard to stay in the game but at 2-0 down their hopes of salvaging something were over.

Shock of the weekend

Aston Villa

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Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert said the hard work his players but in paid off against Liverpool after they left Anfield with a 1-0 win.

Aston Villa may have already been third in the standings and had success at Anfield in the past two seasons, but Liverpool were still firm favourites to pick up three points on home soil in Saturday Night Football. Villa produced a determined display to cause a shock result as Gabriel Agbonlahor celebrated his recent new deal with the only goal. Villa struck in just the ninth minute as Philippe Senderos got in front of Dejan Lovren to meet Ashley Westwood’s corner, with Agbonlahor pouncing in the six-yard box to poke the ball home. Paul Lambert’s men are now up to second, just two points behind leaders Chelsea, and they have only conceded one goal in four matches.

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