PREMIER LEAGUE (HIGHLIGHTS)
Chelsea looked ominous as they rolled an unambitious Arsenal 2-0 with Lukaku netting his first on his return to the club. They are joined at the top by their opponents next week Liverpool, who won by the same margin against Burnley, and West Ham, who dismantled 10-man Leicester 4-1 with Antonio becoming the club’s record Premier League scorer. Brighton look as though they may be able to convert great stats into points this year as they beat the Hornets to make it six points from six, as did Spurs, who were far from convincing at Molineux, but held on for a 1-0 victory. Few would have backed Southampton to hold out against Manchester United after they equalised, but they did. City, meanwhile, dusted off the cobwebs to smash Norwich for 5 with Grealish off the mark, albeit in fortuitous fashion. Elsewhere, Villa added to Newcastle’s woes with a commanding 2-0 win, Everton and Leeds played out an entertaining 2-2 draw, and Brentford earned a creditable point at Palace.
LA LIGA (HIGHLIGHTS)
Coco Lamela made it 3 goals from 2 substitute appearances at the Coliseum to put Sevilla top. Champions Atletico are the only other side with maximum points after a workmanlike 1-0 home victory over Elche. Real and Barca, however, both stumbled to draws this week. Real had to muster a late equaliser in a topsy-turvy 3-3 at Levante with Vinicius Jr adding a brace after Bale’s opener for Los Blancos. It was Memphis Depay who made it 1-1 for Barca at San Mames. Goals were sparse in the remaining fixtures as Betis drew with Cadiz and Granada drew with Valencia 1-1. Mallorca and Sociedad sneaked 1-0 wins over Alaves and Rayo, and both Osasuna Celta and Espanyol Villarreal finished without troubling the scorers.
SERIE A (HIGHLIGHTS)
Red cards were flying around in Serie A’s first week back, in which 7 of last season’s top 8 emerged victorious. Inter are no longer Conteing on Lukakwho? as they shrugged off the loss of their supercoach and striker to hit Genoa for four, Edin Dzeko scoring on debut. Their city rivals scored a more conservative 1-0 win at Samp, while Atalanta left it late to overcome Il Toro in an unconvincing 2-1 win. Szczesny made an uncharacteristic two poor errors to allow the Little Zebras to share the spoils with their fellow Bianconeri at the Dacia. Former Blues’ bosses Mourinho and Sarri kicked off with 3-1 wins for the capital clubs over Fiorentina and Empoli, while Spalletti steered Napoli to a 2-0 win over new boys Venezia despite the loss of Osimhen to a red. Eusebio di Francesco may be questioning the wisdom of his move to Hellas, as his old side Sassuolo defeated the Gialloblu 3-2. Bologna sneaked past Salernitana 3-2 in a red card fest, and Cagliari Spezia finished 2-2 in Sardinia.
BUNDESLIGA (HIGHLIGHTS)
Wolfsburg are the surprise early leaders of the Bundesliga as a comeback 2-1 win at Hertha ensured they remain the only side with a 100% record still intact after the second round of matches. Bayern made hard work of a 3-2 win over Koln, while Leipzig bounced back from a disappointing loss to hit Stuttgart for four with new boys Szoboszlai and Andre Silva both on target. Leverkusen did the same to the Foals, for whom everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Dortmund slipped up in the Black Forest going down 2-1 to Freiburg, and Bochum showed some early season promise with a 2-0 win over Mainz. The remaining matches ended up draws as Union twice came from behind to finish 2-2 at Hoffenheim, Furth got their first point against Armenia and Augsburg miraculously kept out Eintracht for 90 minutes.
LIGUE 1 (HIGHLIGHTS)
The ref gave PSG a helping hand last week, but this week it was Brest’s goalkeeper, who made two dreadful errors in the Brittany side’s 4-2 loss. Angers and Clermont failed to keep pace as they had to settle for draws, although Clermont will be happier with their stunning 2-goal comeback to 3-3 in the last 10 minutes against Lyon than SCO will be with their failure to put away Bordeaux. Monaco’s awful start continued in a 2-0 home defeat to last season’s surprise package Lens. Lucien Favre got his first win at Rennes in a 1-0 victory in the Breton derby over Nantes, whilst fellow Bretons Lorient self-destructed against Montpellier, picking up 2 red cards in a 3-1 defeat. Champions Lille dropped yet more points thanks to a late Saint-Etienne equaliser at the Geoffroy Guichard. Metz Reims also finished 1-1 with both managers sent off, while Troyes picked up their first point at Strasbourg. (Not very) Nice Ultras took the shine off any extra attention afforded to Ligue 1 by Messi’s arrival by striking Marseille’s Dmitri Payet with a bottle, which he threw back to kick off a mass brawl, pitch invasion and the eventual abandonment of the fixture.
