Sterling effort in City romp
RAHEEM Sterling scored a hat-trick as Manchester City began its Premier League title defence with a crushing 5-0 win at West Ham yesterday.
Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring, Sterling scored twice and Sergio Aguero netted a penalty before Sterling rounded things off with the fifth as City picked up where it left off last season.
“Overall for the first game it is an incredible result,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
West Ham had a couple of half-chances before Jesus scored the opener on 25 minutes and Sterling made it 2-0 just after half-time.
Sterling then had a goal ruled out by VAR — video assisted referee — for offside but made amends with his second goal on 75 minutes.
VAR was then used again when Aguero saw his penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski but the kick had to be retaken because Declan Rice had encroached in the penalty area.
However, Aguero made no mistake second time round and Sterling rounded off things with the fifth as City scored three late on.
Tottenham came from behind to beat Aston Villa to start its title charge in convincing fashion. Spurs trailed Aston Villa to a John McGinn firsthalf goal but record signing Tanguy Ndombele equalised on 73 minutes, before Harry Kane netted in the 86th and 90th minutes to seal the win.
Billy Sharp scored an 88thminute equaliser to give Sheffield United a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth as it returned to the Premier League for the first time since 2007. Chris Mepham had put Bournemouth in front just after an hour before Sharp pounced late to score the equaliser.
Ashley Barnes scored twice and Johann Gudmundsson got the other as Burnley beat Southampton 3-0 in conditions home manager Sean Dyche described simply as “awful”.
Brighton won 3-0 at Watford thanks to an own goal from Abdoulaye Doucoure and strikes from Florin Andone and Neal Maupay. Socceroos star Aaron Mooy was an unused substitute on the Brighton bench.
Morgan Schneiderlin was sent off 12 minutes from time but Everton held on with 10 men for a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace.
Liverpool beat Norwich 4-1 in the season-opener on Saturday.