Man City and Liverpool put down markers
LONDON (Reuters) – Manchester City, the Premier League champion, and Liverpool, which is strongly fancied to challenge this season, put down markers with impressive wins in their opening games of the new campaign on Sunday.
City won 2-0 away to Arsenal, which was sixth last season, and the country’s highest spender Liverpool demolished West Ham United 4-0 at Anfield.
The champion, attempting to become the first team since Manchester United in 2009 to retain the title, was too good for an Arsenal side playing under new Spanish manager Unai Emery.
England’s Raheem Sterling went past two weak challenges to put City ahead in the first quarter of an hour with his 50th league goal.
Defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos and teenage French midfielder Matteo Guendouzi made their Arsenal debuts, but like so many teams last season the London side found City hard to cope with.
Another new signing, Stephan Lichtsteiner from Juventus, had to replace full back Ainsley Maitland-Niles before the interval and in the second half Uruguayan Lucas Torreira, who is expected to become an important defensive midfielder, also came on.
Soon after debutant Riyad Mahrez was substituted in the second half, having earlier forced Petr Cech into a good save, Bernardo Silva added the second goal in the 65th minute from an assist by Benjamin Mendy.
City has now lost only one away game in the league – at Liverpool – of its last 21, and manager Pep Guardiola was delighted with them.
“We made a good performance in general and day by day we will get better and better. Every season is a major season and this game was complicated but we played at a high level,” he said
“I think we were better than them today,” Silva told Sky Sports. “We wanted to be professional and we did it. We defended very well and were a very compact team.”
Emery, meanwhile, will know he has much to do, even before a difficult local derby with Chelsea next weekend.
“In the first half we needed less “It’s a little frustrating to lose but we are a new team,” he said. “In the first half we needed less respect for City and then more aggressive pressing. Second half we got better.”
Earlier, Liverpool strolled to its usual victory over West Ham, which it has now beaten 4-0, 4-1, 4-1 and 4-0 in the last four meetings.
Last season’s Premier League top scorer Mohamed Salah was on target again, giving Juergen Klopp’s side the lead after 19 minutes with a tap-in.
Poor defending cost the London side a second goal just before the interval, to Sadio Mane, who added a third after 53 minutes from an offside position.
Substitute Daniel Sturridge made it four just seconds after coming on near the end.
West Ham’s new manager Manuel Pellegrini gave debuts to five of its 10 close-season signings, but his revamped team rarely threatened Liverpool’s expensive new Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson.
In contrast, midfielder Naby Keita, who cost Liverpool 50 million pounds ($63.84m) from RB Leipzig, was excellent throughout.
“We played as good as possible today and we extended a really good pre-season into the Premier League,” Klopp told the BBC.
“It was better than I could have expected. The performance of all the boys and the midfield of James and Georginio Wijnaldum was outstanding.
“It’s only the middle of August and then in September the games will come. The future of football will be rotation. We need to be ready and have that quality.”
Pellegrini conceded that West Ham need to do better.
“We knew before the game that our start was very difficult,” he said. “In our first few games we need to play some of the big teams.
“We need to improve in attack and continue working.”The result continued West Ham’s dreadful record at Anfield, which now extends to one win in 46 league games. Liverpool has not conceded a goal in its last six home games in the league – since West Ham scored against it in February.
In Sunday’s other game, Southampton was held to a goalless draw at home to Burnley with Joe Hart making some key saves on his league debut for the Clarets and Saints ’keeper Alex McCarthy in inspired form.
Burnley dominated the first half and thought it had gone ahead in the eighth minute when former Southampton midfielder Jack Cork side-footed home, but the effort was ruled to have been offside.
McCarthy then did well to keep out a close-range shot from Aaron Lennon and a header from Jeff Hendrik as Burnley pushed for the opening goal.
Despite having played in Istanbul in the Europa League on Thursday, Burnley looked confident and moved the ball around midfield well but lacked a cutting edge in attack.
Danish defender Jannik Vestergaard, signed by Southampton during the close-season, made a strong debut and the Saints defense looked solid.
Mark Hughes’s side looked the more likely to score after the break but England international Hart, who joined Burnley last week from Manchester City, produced some fine saves.