🦁 Haaland shines on PL debut as Man Utd stunned by Brighton at home | OneFootball

There were three Premier League fixtures to enjoy throughout the day on Sunday of opening weekend.

This is what went down.

Haaland steals the show as Man City beat West Ham

Scorers: Haaland 38′, 65′

Manchester City simply had too much for West Ham as Erling Haaland scored a brace on his Premier League debut.

West Ham had the best of the chances in the early exchanges, but City slowly found their feet and after some excellent work from João Cancelo, Kevin De Bruyne pulled his shot just wide.

A lovely passing move saw De Bruyne have the ball in the back of the net, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside, while West Ham ‘keeper Łukasz Fabiański limped off to be replaced by new signing Alphonse Areola.

Haaland was brought down in the box by Areola – a stonewall penalty which the referee had no hesitation in awarding – and the Norwegian duly converted the spot-kick to get off the mark in the Premier League.

After half-time, İlkay Gündoğan gave the ball away in a dangerous area, only for Declan Rice to blaze over the bar with the resultant chance.

Haaland then single-handedly carved out a chance and looked for a one-two with Gündoğan – which would’ve allowed for a relatively easy finish – but the Germany international gave the ball away for the second time.

West Ham waited until the hour mark to register a shot on target, but it was Haaland who fired in his second after a beautifully weighted through-ball from De Bruyne, finishing low beyond the reach of Areola.

Barcelona-linked Bernardo Silva and Premier League debutant Julian Álvarez replaced Gündoğan and Haaland with ten minutes to go, but West Ham couldn’t muster any kind of comeback.

Groß double stuns Man Utd in opener

Scorers: Mac Allister OG 68′; Groß 30′, 39′

The Erik ten Hag era got off to the worst possible start as Manchester United slumped to an opening day day defeat at home to Brighton.

With Christian Eriksen starting in an unfamiliar false nine role, United fell behind on the half hour mark from a neat Brighton move down their left which ended with Danny Welbeck picking out Pascal Groß at the far post to calmly tuck home.

Nine minutes later, the German was at it again as he capitalised on a rebound from David de Gea’s initial save to thrash into the back of the net.

Cristiano Ronaldo was introduced from the bench after the break but even then, Brighton had a big penalty shout waved away when Lisandro Martínez shoved Welbeck over in the area but no VAR check was made.

On the hour, Marcus Rashford missed a glorious chance when Ronaldo picked him out unmarked in the centre of the area but he could only fire straight at Robert Sánchez and although the offside flag went up, replays showed that the goal would have counted had the England international finished.

Where he failed, Brighton inadvertently assisted as United did halve the deficit when a Bruno Fernandes corner wasn’t dealt with by Sánchez and in the ensuing six-yard box melee, Diogo Dalot and Harry Maguire combined to force Alexis Mac Allister to prod the ball over his own line.

Despite some late pressure and Ten Hag emptying his bench, United couldn’t muster a leveller as they start with their second opening day defeat in the last three seasons.

Late Bees rally continues Leicester frustration

Scorers: Castagne 33′, Dewsbury-Hall 46′; Toney 62′, Dasilva 86′

Leicester surrendered a two-goal lead in the closing stages against Brentford as their frustrating summer continued.

The hosts took a deserved lead after 33 minutes when a corner was met by a fantastic front post header from Timothy Castagne in the King Power sunshine.

They almost added a second before half-time, only for Youri Tielemans to see his effort strike the upright.

But just seconds after the restart, they did grab a second through a thunderous strike from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as he blasted in via the post from 25 yards.

Somewhat against the run of play, the Bees did pull one back when James Maddison was caught being too relaxed in possession, allowing Rico Henry to swing a cross into the area where Ivan Toney steadied himself before finishing beyond Danny Ward.

Wesley Fofana was the next of the Foxes to be frustrated by the woodwork when he steered a header against the post from a free-kick and they were almost ruthlessly punished, only for Toney to divert his header the wrong side of the post.

With four minutes remaining, those Leicester misses did come back to haunt them when Josh Dasilva curled a glorious strike into the far corner to rescue a point for the visitors.

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