Brentford hands Man U drubbing

LONDON: Two games into the new Premier League season, champion Manchester City raised the bar even higher when it crushed promoted Bournemouth 40 on Saturday to maintain its fast start.

Hours later, however, neighbour Manchester United plumbed new depths when it suffered a 40 thrashing at Brentford to plunge to the bottom of the table for the first time since 1992.

United conceded four times in the opening 35 minutes, leaving new manager Erik ten Hag to apologise afterwards to fans.

Arsenal joined City on six points as Gabriel Jesus struck twice in a 42 win over Leicester City.

Leeds United looked on course for a second successive win but squandered a twogoal lead to draw 22 with Southampton.

City cruised to an opening win at West Ham United and was equally dominant against Bournemouth.

It wasted no time getting into its stride as Norway striker Erling Haaland marked his home debut with an assist for Ilkay Gundogan’s opener after 19 minutes.

City scored a sumptuous second goal 12 minutes later when Kevin De Bruyne curled a fine strike into the net.

Phil Foden added another before halftime from De Bruyne’s assist and it was just a matter of how many more the hosts would help themselves to. In the end they managed only one more courtesy of Jefferson Lerma’s own goal, but they spent most of the second half on cruise control.

United was shambolic in the day’s late kickoff in west London — going behind after 10 minutes when David De Gea allowed a weak shot by Josh Dasilva to slip past him.

Things got worse for United eight minutes later when De Gea played the ball out to former Brentford player Christian Eriksen who was caught in possession, and Mathias Jensen slotted home.

United’s defence then failed to deal with a corner and Ben Mee glanced in a closerange header before Bryan Mbeumo scored number four after a superb counterattack.

Ten Hag made three substitutions at halftime, with Raphael Varane, Tyrell Malacia and Scott

McTominay coming on, but despite a slight improvement United offered little fight.

‘‘It was a really poor performance,’’ a stunned ten Hag told media afterwards.

‘‘For Man United it’s not possible to concede four goals in 35 minutes. I feel very sorry for the fans. We have to demand higher standards.’’

The arrival of Jesus has created quite a buzz at Arsenal and the Brazilian marked his home debut with a virtuoso display with two goals and two assists against Leicester.

A delightful chip gave his side the lead in the 23rd minute and he made it 20 with a header at the far post.

Leicester twice clawed itself

back to within a goal of the hosts.

But Arsenal was always a step ahead, with Jesus setting up both Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli to score immediately after Leicester’s replies.

Leeds looked set for an away win at Southampton, with Rodrigo’s brace putting it in control by the hour mark.

But goals by Kyle WalkerPeters and Joe Aribo earned Southampton its first point of the campaign.

Everton suffered a second successive defeat as it went down 21 at Aston Villa, for whom Danny Ings and substitute Emiliano Buendia were both on target.

Fulham missed the chance to earn its first win when Aleksander Mitrovic had a secondhalf penalty saved in a 00 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Brighton & Hove Albion against Newcastle United also ended scoreless. — Reuters