Leicester - Brentford 2-2
Attempting to avoid a case of second-season syndrome after punching above their weight in their first ever PL season, Brentford started with enough belief to land themselves a top-half finish this time around. However, their advances did not bother the hosts, who came close twice within the first 20 minutes, first via Youri Tielemans’ long range effort denied masterfully by David Raya, before James Maddison missed a header from inside the box.
Making up for his earlier miss, Maddison turned provider with an inch-perfect corner kick minutes later as he curled a beauty right into the path of Timothy Castagne, who headed home the opener. Despite a positive reaction from the Bees, Brendan Rodgers’ side looked rather unsatisfied with their one-goal lead as they charged on for a second. Pushing the visitors on their heels, Tielemans struck a low thunderbolt that came off the bottom post to keep things as it was going into the break.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall made sure things were not going to stay the same for Thomas Frank’s men going forward. The midfielder unleashed a left-footed piledriver into the bottom right corner just seconds after restart, doubling the hosts’ lead. Undeterred, the visitors responded just after the hour mark to halve Leicester’s lead, following a brilliant team move which was capped off by Ivan Toney’s hold-up play and finish. The hosts almost retaliated with a goal of their own six minutes later when Wesley Fofana rose high to meet a free-kick delivery, only to direct it at the right post.
Brentford goalscorer Toney then came agonisingly close to equalising with his head, as he sent his effort from a cross narrowly wide of the left post. However, they didn’t have to wait long after that miss, with Josh Dasilva executing a brilliant piece of solo play to curl in the equaliser minutes before FT. The Bees stung the Foxes as the final minutes ticked by, mustering hopes of an improvement on a 13th place finish last season. Meanwhile, Leicester have work to do if they are to better a sobering eighth position.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ivan Toney (Brentford)
Manchester United - Brighton 1-2
The new man in charge wasted no time geeing up the Old Trafford crowd ahead of kick off as a new era dawned on the club, though that being said, once the match got underway it became clear that the defensive frailties of old were there to stay, as sloppy errors from Diogo Dalot and Fred in the opening 15 minutes went unpunished by Leandro Trossard and Danny Welbeck.
Once the Seagulls clicked into gear, then came the goals, as a quickfire Pascal Gross double stunned the home support into silence. Beating the offside trap, Welbeck rushed in behind against his former club and cut back to the German, who had the easy task of tapping in his first unmarked at the back post. Then for the second, the United defence were bystanders as Graham Potter’s men worked their magic, scything through the hosts with a move that started with them pinned into their own corner flag, and ended with Gross stabbing in his second on the rebound from an initial David de Gea save.
Watching on throughout all of this was Cristiano Ronaldo - benched for the season opener with his Red Devils future still in doubt. However, with Manchester United winning only two of 11 PL matches in which he didn’t start last campaign, it took only eight minutes after the restart for ten Hag to turn to his talisman. This galvanised the hosts in their attacking push, and with 20 minutes remaining the deficit was halved when Alexis Mac Allister got an unfortunate last touch, turning into his own net at a corner.
The hunt for an equaliser went down to the wire, but come the final whistle, Brighton’s display of defensive rigidity earned them an emphatic three points, made much more impressive by the fact it was their first ever Old Trafford victory. As for Manchester United, opening day defeats don’t come around all too often having won 10 of their last 13, which paints a picture of the size of the task ten Hag has on his hands.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Pascal Gross (Brighton & Hove Albion)
West Ham - Manchester City 0-2
West Ham have proved to be a tough nut to crack for City in recent years, after holding Pep Guardiola’s side to draws in each of their previous three meetings at the London Stadium. The Hammers nearly made the ideal start when Michail Antonio headed over from a Pablo Fornals cross inside the opening three minutes, but City soon found their rhythm and began to dictate the play in East London. João Cancelo picked out Kevin De Bruyne in space, but the Belgian fired wide, while Haaland saw his header go wide of the target from Phil Foden’s enticing cross. There was also an early casualty for the hosts when Lukasz Fabianski withdrew through injury, forcing Alphonse Areola to take his place between the sticks.
The tide of attacks from the visitors continued as De Bruyne had an effort ruled out for offside after sliding the ball home from İlkay Gündoğan’s delivery. Guardiola’s men didn’t have to wait long for the inevitable breakthrough, as Haaland confidently dispatched a spot-kick into the bottom left-hand corner for his first Premier League goal after being brought down by Areola in the box. It was a well-deserved lead in what had been like a training exercise for the champions up until this point, claiming 79 percent of possession in a comfortable first half.
The Hammers began the second half with renewed vigour, and skipper Declan Rice cut a frustrated figure after his long-range effort cleared the bar. City were able to quickly ramp up the tempo though, and Gündoğan was disappointed to flash his effort wide following some superb link-up play between Foden and De Bruyne. The second goal did eventually come from Haaland when the Norwegian opened up his body to produce a deadly left-footed finish from De Bruyne’s sumptuous through ball.
City saw out the remainder of the second half with relative ease ahead of their first home match of the season against AFC Bournemouth next Saturday. Meanwhile, West Ham turn their attention to a match away at Nottingham Forest a week today.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
