Arne Slot made the perfect start to his Liverpool reign with a 2-0 win at Ipswich, while Arsenal dispatched Wolves 2-0 to begin their Premier League title challenge in style on Saturday.
Newcastle defied an early red card for Fabian Schar to edge past Southampton 1-0, while Brighton ran riot under new manager Fabian Hurzeler in a 3-0 victory at Everton. Aston Villa spoiled Julen Lopetegui’s first game in charge of West Ham with a 2-1 win at the London Stadium.
Slot has huge shoes to fill at Anfield after the departure of Jurgen Klopp, who restored the Reds to the top of the English game. The Dutchman was left less than impressed by his side’s first 45 minutes at Portman Road as Ipswich flew out of the traps on their return to the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.
However, Liverpool were a different side after the break as goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah barely reflected their dominance to get Slot off to the perfect start. “We as a team made a big change at half-time because we came out totally different to how we had come out in the first half,” said the former Feyenoord boss. “Second half, we won more duels, we won more second balls and we played more balls in behind because if the other team takes the risk of playing one-v-one and you have the likes of Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota then use them, play the balls in behind.”
Arsenal have finished second to Manchester City in each of the past two seasons and are highly-fancied to be the champions’ closest challengers again. Kai Havertz opened the scoring at the Emirates from Bukayo Saka’s cross to reward the Gunners’ early dominance. However, Mikel Arteta’s men needed a vital save from David Raya to deny Jorgen Strand Larsen and Matheus Cunha missed a huge chance to level before Arsenal made the points safe.
The roles from the first goal were reversed as this time Havertz teed up Saka to lash home. “We generated a lot. We probably we should have scored two or three in the first half. Second half we became a bit sloppy, then the game was a bit more open. But Bukayo had an unbelievable action to score the second,” Arteta said.
Newcastle’s hopes of a winning start to the season looked to have been undone when Schar was sent off after just 28 minutes for what the referee deemed a headbutt on Ben Brereton Diaz despite limited contact between the pair. Southampton had dominated even the early exchanges against the Magpies’ full compliment but failed to convert from 19 shots and nearly 80 percent possession. By contrast, Newcastle were clinical as Alexander Isak teed up Joelinton for the only goal just before half-time.
Everton’s final season at Goodison Park got off to a nightmare start as 31-year-old Hurzeler enjoyed a dream start to life in the Premier League.
Kaoru Mitoma fired Brighton in front on his return from injury that saw the Japanese international miss much of last season. Danny Welbeck added a second after the break and Everton were reduced to 10 men when Ashley Young saw red before Simon Adingra made it 3-0 late on.
Antoine Semenyo stepped into the void left at Bournemouth by the departure of Dominic Solanke with a late equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest. In east London, former Wolves boss Lopetegui suffered a disappointing return to the Premier League.
Villa, who finished fourth last season, took the lead through Amadou Onana’s fourth minute goal. Although Lucas Paqueta equalised with a 37th minute penalty, Jhon Duran stole the points with a clinical finish in the 79th minute.
City begin their defence of the title in the standout fixture of the weekend at Chelsea on Sunday. Manchester United got their campaign off to a winning start on Friday when debutant Joshua Zirkzee came off the bench to grab a late winner in a 1-0 victory over Fulham.
Results
Arsenal 2 (Havertz 25, Saka 74) Wolves 0; Everton 0 Brighton 3 (Mitoma 25, Welbeck 56, Adingra 86); Ipswich 0 Liverpool 2 (Jota 60, Salah 65); Newcastle 1 (Joelinton 45) Southampton 0; Nottingham Forest 1 (Wood 23) Bournemouth 1 (Semenyo 86); West Ham 1 (Paqueta 37-pen) Aston Villa 2 (Onana 4, Duran 79)
Playing on Sunday (all times GMT): Brentford v Crystal Palace (1300), Chelsea v Manchester City (1530)
Playing on Monday: Leicester v Tottenham (1900)
Played Friday: Manchester United 1 (Zirkzee 87) Fulham 0
