Erling Haaland’s stunning impact in the Premier League continued on Saturday as he provided a goal assist with his first touch of the ball.
The Norwegian striker – who bagged twice on his league debut in last week’s opening day victory at West Ham – did not touch the ball for the first 18 minutes of Manchester City ’s clash with Bournemouth, before then providing the vital touch. Haaland provided the assist for Ilkay Gundogan to open the scoring for City after an opening period of dominance.
City are heavy favourites to continue their 100 percent winning start to the season with the clash against the newly-promoted Cherries, who would have been hoping to hold out for as long as possible and catch Pep Guardiola’s cold on the counter attack. But just after the half hour mark, Kevin de Bruyne doubled the scoring from Phil Foden’s assist before Foden added a third with De Bruyne turning provider. Jefferson Lerma's late own goal wrapped up a four-goal win for City.
It was a busy afternoon of Premier League action after Aston Villa opened the matchday with a 2-1 victory at home to Everton. Frank Lampard’s side have now lost each of their opening games despite Lucas Digne’s late consolation at Villa Park, after Danny Ings and Emi Buendia had netted for the hosts – who are off the mark for the campaign.
Gabriel Jesus scored his first competitive goal for Arsenal as he provided a stunning finish to open the scoring against Leicester midway through the opening half. The Gunners had enjoyed a flowing team move before the Brazilian forward provided a stunning finish from the angle after an assist from Granit Xhaka. Jesus then doubled his and Arsenal's tally with a header ten minutes from half-time.
William Saliba inadvertently gave Leicester hope eight minutes after the break as he turned the ball past Aaron Ramsdale to halve the deficit, but the hosts immediately hit back after a mistake from Foxes goalkeeper Danny Ward with Granit Xhaka finding the net. Later in the half, James Maddison once again reduced the deficit before Arsenal struck back straight away through Gabriel Martinelli.
Three other Premier League games took place; Brighton and Newcastle were looking to build on their opening day wins as they went head-to-head on the South Coast but produced a goalless draw. Fulham erelooking to carry on from last weekend’s positive opening day draw against Liverpool as they travelled to Wolves, who will look to bounce back from their disappointing defeat against Leeds United last week - but it was another goalless encounter.
Leeds travelled to Southampton – who were hopeful of doing better than their 4-1 loss at Tottenham a week ago in North London. Rodrigo opened the scoring for the visitors just after the break and doubled his tally less than 20 minutes later. Joe Aribo halved the deficit with just over 20 minutes remaining to give the Saints hope, before Kyle Walker-Peters levelled the score.
