Martial scores stunning effort as United down Liverpool

Anthony Martial introduced himself to Manchester United fans with a superb goal to complete a 3-1 win over bitter rivals Liverpool and cap a much-improved performance from Louis van Gaal's side on Saturday.

Martial, a £36 million ($55.54 million) signing from Monaco, danced past three defenders in the 86th minute and sidefooted the ball home on his debut to put the finishing touches to a well-deserved victory.

After a dire first half that would have dampened the enthusiasm of even the most die-hard fan, a fired-up United emerged after the break to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Daley Blind curled them ahead from the edge of the area four minutes after the restart before Ander Herrera slammed a penalty into the roof of the net after Liverpool's 18-year-old full back Joe Gomez clumsily felled the Spaniard.

Liverpool hit back with six minutes remaining when Christian Benteke pulled off an acrobatic overhead kick but he was spectacularly upstaged when Martial, a second-half substitute, had the United fans drooling in anticipation of his potential.

The result gave second-placed United 10 points from five Premier League matches, five adrift of leaders Manchester City.

Liverpool are three points further back after a match that exposed some familiar defensive flaws as well as a lack of attacking spark.

Earlier, Manchester City opened up an 11-point gap over champions Chelsea when they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 with a stoppage-time goal on Saturday after Chelsea crashed to a 3-1 defeat at Everton.

City looked set to drop their first points of the season until 18-year-old Nigerian teenage substitute Kelechi Iheanacho, whose only other appearance for the club was for a minute against Watford two weeks ago, struck late at Selhurst Park.

Manuel Pellegrini's team moved to 15 points from five matches having scored 11 goals without conceding any and they top the table from Arsenal, who beat Stoke City 2-0 at the Emirates.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game with the first team in the table playing the second," Pellegrini told Sky Sports.

"They are a very good team, in a good moment, so it was a very important three points.

"But we dominated the second half and had the better chances."

While Iheanacho came off the bench to secure the points for City, Everton's Scotland striker Steven Naismith did exactly the same in the early match against Chelsea at Goodison Park.

He replaced the injured Mo Besic and within 12 minutes had scored with a header and a left-foot shot to put Everton 2-0 up.

Nemanja Matic pulled Chelsea back into the game with a well-taken 30-metre drive nine minutes before the break, but Chelsea rarely threatened again and look a pale shadow of the team that won the title last season.

Naismith completed his hat-trick with a right-foot shot seven minutes from time.

Chelsea have already lost three times -- as many as they did in the whole of last season -- but manager Jose Mourinho remained defiant.

"I don't blame the players and I don't blame myself. They are the worst results ever in my career but I am comfortable with the situation," Mourinho said.

"I do not think there is a better manager than me to come to Chelsea and to do my job. I am the man for the job. I have done so many good things for Chelsea, but now I am the man with the bad results, but give me the responsibility and I will sort this out."

Arsenal, who grabbed their first home win and goals of the season with a 2-0 victory over Stoke thanks to goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, moved up to 10 points.

Norwich City beat Bournemouth 3-1 and Watford ended their four-match run without a goal when they beat Swansea City 1-0 thanks to Odio Ighalo's second-half strike which secured their first win of the season.

Their victory was tarnished, however, when Valon Behrami was sent after appearing to stamp on Andre Ayew.

West Bromwich Albion and Southampton drew 0-0.