After blowing the lead in a 1-1 draw at Fulham on Sunday, Manchester United is still looking for its first Premier League victory of the year.
However, Everton got off to a great start, defeating Brighton 2-0 in their first game at their new waterfront stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, due to a strong performance by Jack Grealish.
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Bruno Fernandes squandered an opportunity to give United the lead against Fulham in the first half after falling into the referee. United was hoping to build on a largely positive performance in their loss to Arsenal in the first round last weekend.
In the 58th minute, United took the lead thanks to an own goal from Rodrigo Muniz of Fulham, who deflected in a header at a corner from Leny Yoro of United.
The equalizer came in the 73rd minute when Emile Smith Rowe, a replacement, punched in a cross from Alex Iwobi, but Ruben Amorim’s team was unable to hold on.
The fact that no United player has scored a goal this season comes after the team spent almost $200 million ($270 million) in the offseason to restructure its offense by adding Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko. For the second consecutive game, Sesko was substituted in the second half.
A new era at Everton
Grealish gave glimpses of the guy who was once the face of English soccer during his debut start for Everton.
After the team’s tearful exit from Goodison Park, its longtime home, the England forward, who is on loan from Manchester City in an attempt to revive his career, dribbled into the box and crossed for fellow winger Iliman Ndiaye to volley home the first goal of a new era for Everton. Ndiaye also scored the final goal at Goodison in May, by coincidence.
Grealish recorded a second assist of the game, as many as he had accomplished in the previous two Premier League seasons at City, as he set up James Garner to score Everton’s second goal from outside the box.
To the pleasure of the 51,759 home fans in their new stadium, which was constructed in the hopes of elevating an underperforming team in previous years, Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford save a penalty from Danny Welbeck. Because he keeps the names of possible opposing penalty-takers on the drinking vessel and where they might strike their attempt, Pickford has been observed inspecting his water bottle prior to a penalty kick on multiple occasions.
After losing to Leeds 1-0 in the first round, it was Everton’s first victory of the season.
No affection was lost.
During the 1-1 draw between Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest at Selhurst Park, supporters of the Crystal Palace team weren’t hesitant to express their opinions.
The FA Cup champion Palace was demoted from the Europa League to the Conference League last month for violating UEFA’s club ownership regulations. The club believes this was a result of Forest and its owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who profited from Palace’s promotion to the Europa League.
Along with several derogatory chants directed at UEFA from Palace’s infamously rowdy supporters, Marinakis was the focus of a heated pre-match banner.
Ismaila Sarr gave Palace the lead in the 37th minute, and Forest’s manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who was in the dugout for the game despite worries about his job due to escalating tensions with Marinakis throughout the summer, equalized in the 57th minute through Callum Hudson-Odoi.
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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
