Arsenal’s quest for Premier League glory received off to a successful begin as Riccardo Calafiori’s aim beat Manchester United 1-0 on Sunday, whereas world champions Chelsea have been fortunate to flee with a 0-0 draw in opposition to Crystal Palace.
After ending second for the previous three seasons, the stress is on Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to ship the membership’s first league title since 2003/04.
The Gunners have been removed from spectacular at Previous Trafford however earned an enormous three factors due to a obvious error from United’s stand-in goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.
The Turkish worldwide flapped at Declan Rice’s nook on 13 minutes, presenting Calafiori with the easy job of heading into an empty internet.
United gave debuts to all of their new £200 million ($271 million) attacking trident of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko however couldn’t discover a well beyond the Premier League’s finest defence for the previous two seasons.
Patrick Dorgu got here closest to an equaliser when the Dane smashed in opposition to the put up from lengthy vary.
It was a story of the 2 goalkeepers as Arsenal stopper David Raya additionally produced high quality saves to disclaim Cunha and Mbeumo an ideal begin to their United careers.
Chelsea’s hangover
Chelsea suffered a Membership World Cup hangover as they have been stored at bay by FA Cup winners Palace.
The Eagles have been denied an early opener when Eberechi Eze’s free-kick was dominated out by a VAR assessment for Marc Guehi obstructing the Chelsea wall.
New Chelsea signing Estevao got here closest to snatching a winner for the house facet, however the newly-crowned world champions have been blunt in assault in opposition to a well-organised Palace defence.
Palace’s key duo of Guehi and Eze began regardless of mounting hypothesis the England internationals are set to affix Liverpool and Tottenham, respectively.
“So long as they’re one hundred pc dedicated, they may play as they’re so good,” stated Palace boss Oliver Glasner.
“They did not simply present they’re nice footballers, however they’re nice individuals and that is what I anticipated.”
Chelsea’s demolition of European champions Paris Saint-Germain within the Membership World Cup closing final month had raised the Blues’ hopes they will problem for a primary Premier League title since 2017.
However Enzo Maresca bemoaned his facet’s lack of preparation time since beating PSG in New York simply 35 days in the past.
“They performed about eight (pre-season) video games, we performed simply two so we tried our greatest,” stated the Italian.
“We anticipated a troublesome sport. Other than the primary half free-kick, we did not concede any probabilities.”
‘Lovely targets’
Nottingham Forest made mild of supervisor Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-season fears over an absence of signings with a dominant 3-1 win over a much-changed Brentford.
Chris Wooden struck twice both facet of Dan Ndyoe’s debut aim for Forest on a nightmare afternoon for brand spanking new Brentford boss Keith Andrews.
“It was an excellent first half. The mixtures have been actually good, lovely targets,” stated Nuno.
“Because of this we’re insisting on an excellent balanced squad that provides us choices and options.”
The Bees have misplaced their supervisor, captain and high scorer within the low season.
Thomas Frank left to take cost of Tottenham, Mbeumo received his dream transfer to Manchester United and Arsenal secured Christian Norgaard.
Yoane Wissa was additionally lacking from the Brentford squad forward of an anticipated transfer to Newcastle.
Igor Thiago’s first aim for the membership from the penalty spot late on was the one comfort for the guests.
“I do have real perception however we have now to take duty for a primary half that wasn’t adequate,” stated Andrews.
