Defending champions Liverpool needed late drama to beat Bournemouth 4-2 on an emotional night at Anfield on Friday (Aug 15) where tributes were held for former player Diogo Jota, who tragically lost his life in a car accident last month.
Hugo Ekitike scored and provided an assist for Cody Gakpo on his Premier League debut for the Reds before Antoine Semenyo’s double levelled the score. Late strikes from Mohamed Salah and Federico Chiesa ensured the defending champions got off to a winning start although there were too many worrying moments for manager Arne Slot to be overly content.
More reinforcements at both ends of the pitch look set to follow as Liverpool pursue Newcastle striker Alexander Isak and Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi.
However, Slot must find the formula to prevent his side being wide open on the counter-attack as a worrying trend from pre-season and the Community Shield continued into competitive action.
Elsewhere, Arsenal’s quest for Premier League glory also started positively as Riccardo Calafiori’s goal beat Manchester United 1-0 yesterday.
The Gunners were far from impressive at Old Trafford but earned a huge three points thanks to a glaring error from United’s stand-in goalkeeper Altay Bayindir who flapped at Declan Rice’s corner on 13 minutes, presenting Calafiori with the simple task of heading into an empty net.
“Big result,” said Arteta. “First game of the season at Old Trafford when you feel they are building something.”
United gave debuts to all of their new £200 million (B8.7 billion) attacking trident of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko but could not find a way past the Premier League’s best defence for the past two seasons.
Chelsea suffered a Club World Cup hangover as they were kept at bay by FA Cup winners Palace who were denied an early opener when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick was ruled out by a VAR review for Marc Guehi obstructing the Chelsea wall.
Stunning debut
Manchester City’s failure to defend the title after winning it for the previous four seasons has prompted a major overhaul from manager Pep Guardiola and his new look team strolled to a 4-0 win against Wolves at Molineux.
Erling Haaland scored twice but it was new £45mn signing from AC Milan Tijjani Reijnders who stole the show with a stunning debut as he scored and had a hand in City’s other three goals. Another City new boy Rayan Cherki rounded off the scoring.
“We knew he is a top signing for the coming years for City,” said Guardiola about Dutch international Reijnders. “Lovely guy and has made an impact from day one.”
Chris Wood struck twice either side of Dan Ndyoe’s debut goal for Nottingham Forest as they beat Brentford 3-1, while Aston Villa and Newcastle played out a 0-0 draw.
Tottenham manager Thomas Frank enjoyed a “dream” home debut with a 3-0 win over Burnley, with Richarlison scoring twice and Brennan Johnson the third.
“Perfect start or dream start. A good performance against a difficult opponent. I will just enjoy it and I hope the players, the club and the fans enjoy it because that is important,” Frank said afterwards.
For the past two seasons, all three promoted teams have gone down. However, Sunderland made the perfect start to attempting to buck that trend with a 3-0 victory over hapless West Ham.
Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz struck in the 96th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw at Brighton after Matt O’Riley’s penalty put the Seagulls in front.
Leeds United host Everton in the weekend’s final game this evening.