PSV maintained their perfect start to the Eredivisie season with a routine win against Fortuna Sittard as nearest challengers AZ and Feyenoord also both won.

Guus Til put the league leaders ahead in Eindhoven when he tucked away Johan Bakayoko’s cutback after 18 minutes.

André Ramalho headed in a Joey Veerman corner for the second shortly after half-time, before Bakayoko completed the scoring with a solo effort on 78 minutes. Kaj Sierhuis’s last-minute penalty for Fortuna was no more than a consolation.

Vangelis Pavlidis became the first player in Eredivisie history to score in the first nine games of the season and went on to bag a hat-trick as AZ comprehensively beat Heerenveen to stay within two points of PSV.

Pavlidis shares the lead in the goalscoring charts with Feyenoord’s Santiago Gímenez, who had to hobble off with an ankle injury after scoring the second goal in his side’s 4-0 defeat of Vitesse.

Calvin Stengs put the champions ahead in the seventh minute, while captain Lutsharel Geertruida and 18-year-old debutant Antoni Milambo added second-half goals.

Coach Arie Slot said the early indications were that Gímenez’s injury was not serious. “He’s taken a blow, which can be painful, but we’re more hopeful that he can make it for Wednesday [against Lazio in the Champions League] than if he’d sprained something.”

Ajax pain

Utrecht inflicted fresh pain on Ajax by winning 4-3 in a bottom-of-the-table clash that left the Amsterdam club in 17th place.

The hosts went ahead just before half-time with a shot by Ryan Flamingo from the edge of the area and doubled their lead through a Mike van der Hoorn header just after the interval.

Ajax looked to have rescued the match when two quick goals by Icelandic teenager Kristian Hlynsson were capped by a Steven Bergwijn penalty. But Ajax’s defensive frailties cost them dear as first Jens Toornstra and then Oscar Fraulo were left unmarked in the penalty area to engineer the win.

Almere City moved up to 13th place and extended their unbeaten run to three matches with a 1-1 draw in Nijmegen, while PEC Zwolle won 4-2 at Excelsior to break a five-game winless streak and rise to ninth.

Heracles came back from 2-0 down at half-time to snatch a draw in the derby against Twente with goals by Mario Engels and late substitute Sven Sonnenberg.

Go Ahead Eagles stay fifth despite dropping their first home points of the season in a goalless draw with Sparta.

Bottom side Volendam appeared to have salvaged a precious point at RKC when Benaissa Benamar headed in an 88th-minute equaliser, but Yassin Oukili had the last word with a low shot two minutes into injury time.

Results

Saturday

AZ Alkmaar 3-0 Heerenveen

Feyenoord 4-0 Vitesse

NEC Nijmegen 1-1 Almere City

PSV Eindhoven 3-1 Fortuna Sittard

RKC Waalwijk 2-1 Volendam

Sunday

Excelsior 2-4 PEC Zwolle

Go Ahead Eagles 0-0 Sparta Rotterdam

Heracles 2-2 Twente Enschede

Utrecht 4-3 Ajax