Chelsea slay Saints to go atop!

Chelsea’s Timo Werner celebrates scoring against Southampton during their EPL match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

Timo Werner fired Chelsea to the top of the English Premier League as the German's late goal inspired a controversy-filled 3-1 win against 10-man Southampton on Saturday.

Thomas Tuchel's side ended a frustrating week on a high note thanks to Werner's contribution to a dramatic finale at Stamford Bridge.

After successive 1-0 defeats against Manchester City and Juventus, the Blues were in danger of another disappointing result against the Saints with just minutes remaining.

Chalobah on target

Trevoh Chalobah's early opener for Chelsea had been cancelled out by a James Ward-Prowse penalty in the second half. But Ward-Prowse was sent off for an ugly lunge on Jorginho and Chelsea took full advantage as Werner restored their lead with six minutes left before Ben Chilwell wrapped up the points.

Chelsea sit two points clear of second-placed Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp's side able to regain pole position if they beat champions Manchester City on Sunday.

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Failure to defeat the Southampton side still seeking their first league win this season would have raised serious questions about the European champions. So it was a huge relief for Tuchel to get back on track heading into the international break as Chelsea put one of their rare blips of the German's reign behind them.

Man Utd held by Everton

Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he did not regret resting Cristiano Ronaldo after Manchester United let two more EPL points slip away at Old Trafford as Everton emerged with a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

United missed the chance to move top of the EPL and needed a late VAR call in their favour to avoid a second consecutive home league defeat.

Yerry Mina's late winner for the Toffees was ruled out by a review for offside after Andros Townsend's excellent equaliser had cancelled out Anthony Martial's opener for United. Solskjaer's decision to start Ronaldo on the bench will be questioned as the Red Devils have now won just two of their last six games in all competitions.

But the manager defended that call and his side's start to the season as they moved level on points with Liverpool and one ahead of champions Manchester City before those two teams clash at Anfield on Sunday. "You make decisions throughout the season, you've got to manage the players' workload," said Solskjaer. "The decision was, for me, the correct one today. We have started better than last season, but it is still not what we wanted."

Benitez unhappy

"We can be happy with one point but it could have been better," said Rafa Benitez, who has made a fine start to life as Everton boss. "Davies saw the position of Yerry and he thought it was a better position. You cannot blame him [for not taking on a shot], he was in the right position it was unlucky for some centimetres it was offside."

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