Arsenal won 1-0 in the Premier League’s opening round on Sunday after holding back Manchester United’s costlyly built forward line and scoring twice from a set piece.
After United backup goalkeeper Altay Bay, who started ahead of Andre Onana, fumbled at the ball from a corner whipped in by Declan Rice, Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori nodded in from close range in the thirteenth minute.
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After English soccer’s fallen titan finished in a dismal 15th position last season, United suffered a defeat that is all too familiar under Ruben Amorim, while Arsenal defeated Manchester City and Liverpool, the anticipated title challengers, in the opening weekend.
In the offseason, United invested almost 200 million pounds ($270 million) to remodel their offense. Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha started the game, while Benjamin Sesko came off the bench in the second half.
At Old Trafford, the side played with a fair level of intensity, but Arsenal’s formidable defense held firm.
On the other hand, Viktor Gyokeres had a challenging first competitive start for Arsenal, and his goal came from a set-piece position that Mikel Arteta’s club has been so dominant at in previous years.
In its first competitive match as the club world champion, Chelsea was held 0-0 by Crystal Palace and failed to score in their maiden league game.
After a brief preseason due to its efforts in the United States, Chelsea labored at Stamford Bridge a month after defeating Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup final.
Goodbye, Eze?
The England midfielder may have been making his final Palace appearance because Eberechi Eze has been strongly linked to a move to Tottenham.
He nearly put a goal on it.
Eze scored a direct free kick from the edge of the box past Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in the 13th minute, but the goal was disallowed after a video review revealed that Palace captain Marc Guehi had committed an infraction when he tried to shove Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo aside in the defensive wall.
Guehi was less than a meter (yard) from the wall when the shot was taken, which is prohibited, according to the Premier League.
Chelsea’s Club World Cup players, Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer, were silent. Because they had barely resumed training a few weeks prior, the hosts lacked intensity, whereas Palace had a lengthy preseason and had just defeated Liverpool on penalties in the Community Shield last weekend.
For Forest, wood gets hot.
Chris Wood, the team’s leading scorer from the previous campaign with 20 goals, scored twice in the first half of Nottingham Forest’s 3-1 victory over Brentford, followed by a goal from Dan Ndoye’s debut.
In the best goal-scoring season of his career, Wood got off to a fast start last season. This time, he needed just five minutes to open his account, taking advantage of a weak clearance at a corner to poke home a finish.
In the 42nd minute, Ndoye headed in a second goal, and in stoppage time of the first half, Wood rounded the goalie to score a third.
Igor Thiago’s late penalty kick gave Brentford a glimmer of hope as they may struggle this season after losing their first-choice striker, Yono Wissa, to Manchester United and losing star forward Bryan Mbeumo. Wissa’s transfer to Newcastle has been suggested.
Jota’s homage
To honor Diogo Jota and Andre Silva, the brothers killed in a vehicle accident in Spain last month, there was a moment of silence before the start of every game on Sunday. At the time, Jota played for Liverpool.
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The Twitter handle of Steve Douglas is https://twitter.com/sdouglas80.
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https://apnews.com/hub/soccer AP soccer
