Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-0; United held
LONDON: Romelu Lukaku marked his second Chelsea debut with his first Premier League goal for the Blues as the European champions outclassed Arsenal 2-0 on Sunday to compound the Gunners’ miserable start to the season.
Lukaku received the ball on 15 minutes, shrugged off Pablo Mari as the ball was worked to Reece James on the right and then stayed onside to tap home his 114th Premier League goal for four different clubs. For the second, Mount picked out James 10 minutes before half-time and he thrashed a brilliant finish high past Bernd Leno.
Meanwhile, Manchester United were given a reality check after last week’s storming start to the season when they could only draw 1-1 at Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday after forward Mason Greenwood cancelled out an own goal by teammate Fred.
Results: Southampton 1 (Fred 30-og) drew with Manchester
1 (Greenwood 55),
0 lost to
(Alli 9-pen), 0 lost to
2 (Lukaku 15, James 35)
1
Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has admitted opposition sides are being bolder against his side now that they can no longer count on Lionel Messi, after the Catalans were held 1-1 away to Athletic Bilbao in Laliga on Saturday.
A thumping late strike from Memphis Depay cancelled out Inigo Martinez’s header to earn Barca a point but Koeman admitted his team were still feeling the absence of Messi.
“Opponents are always more scared when Messi is around,” Koeman said.
“It’s also the same for us, if you give a pass to Messi, he normally doesn’t lose the ball. You can feel that he is not here anymore. We all know it but we can’t change it.”
Results: Alaves 0 lost to Mallorca 1 (Fer Nino 80), Espanyol 0 drew with 0, Granada 1 (Luis Suarez 16) drew with Valencia 1 (Carlos Soler 88-pen), Athletic Bilbao 1 (Martinez 50) drew with
1 (Depay 75)
Cristiano Ronaldo will remain at Juventus despite starting on the bench for their opening fixture of the Serie A at Udinese, club director Pavel Nedved insisted on Sunday.
Nedved said that the decision to not start Ronaldo was a “shared decision” between Ronaldo and returning coach Massimiliano Allegri.
“You shouldn’t try to create sensationalised stories where there aren’t any,” Nedved told broadcaster DAZN.
“He isn’t at peak fitness, and the coach tried to pick the best possible line-up for now. He is absolutely staying at Juventus.”
Sky Sport Italia claimed that Ronaldo asked not to be picked in the starting line-up as he still hopes to leave before the transfer window closes.