Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool display title credentials with dream starts
Manchester United enjoyed a dream start to the Premier League season as Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 thrashing of Leeds in front of 73 000 at Old Trafford, while Chelsea swept aside Crystal Palace 3-0 yesterday
After seeing United display their title credentials, European champions Chelsea dispatched Palace in Patrick Vieira’s first match in charge of the Eagles with ease to make their own case.
Marcos Alonso’s free-kick and Christian Pulisic’s scuffed finish gave Thomas Tuchel’s men a commanding 2-0 lead before halftime.
Centre-back Trevoh Chalobah then marked his Premier League debut with a long-range strike to round off the scoring.
In the same vein, Mohamed Salah scored one and provided two assists as Liverpool got their Premier League title bid off to a winning start with a 3-0 comfortable victory at newly promoted Norwich City.
Salah got his side’s third to become the first player to score on the opening weekend in five consecutive Premier League campaigns and cap a fine display after earlier setting up Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino
Elsewhere, Rafael Benitez went
a long way to quieting his doubters at Everton as the Toffees came from behind to beat Southampton 3-1 while Leicester also secured all three points as Jamie Vardy’s deft flick proved the difference in a 1-0
win over Wolves.
Life for Aston Villa without Jack Grealish got off to a terrible start as Watford celebrated their return to the top flight with a 3-2 win at Vicarage Road.
Brighton bounced back from conceding inside two minutes at Burnley to win 2-1 at Turf Moor thanks to second-half goals from Neal Maupay and Alexis
MacAllister.