Man.city maintain perfect start; Gerrard wins duel with Lampard

Manchester City stormed ominously to the top of the Premier League by cruising to a 4-0 win over Bournemouth, while Gabriel Jesus opened his Arsenal account in a 4-2 win over Leicester on Saturday.

Manchester United suffered an embarrassing 4-0 thrashing by Brenford to sink to the botom of the league.

Brenford produced a stunning first-half performance as they scored four goals in the first 35 minutes to condemn United to a humiliating defeat at Gtech Community Stadium.

As soaring temperatures across England forced the need for water breaks at all this weekend’s Premier League games, it was City who were on fire at the Etihad as promoted Bournemouth were blown away.

Erling Haaland failed to score on his home debut, but the Norwegian showed there is more to his game than goals as he used his strength before sliding in Ilkay Gundogan to open the scoring.

Kevin De Bruyne then took centre stage with a scintillating finish with the outside of his right foot to find the far corner before the Belgian turned provider for Phil Foden to make it 3-0 before half-time. City eased off the gas ater the break but added to their lead 11 minutes from time when Jefferson Lerma turned Joao Cancelo’s cross into his own net.

Haaland’s arrival at City was one of the factors behind Jesus’ departure and the Brazilian is already looking like a bargain for the Gunners as he marked his home debut with two goals and two assists to maintain Arsenal’s perfect start.

Jesus was oten deployed in wider areas in recent seasons by City boss Pep Guardiola, but was brought to Arsenal to be a number nine as he aims to secure a place at the World Cup later this year with regular games as a centre-forward.

The 25-year-old showed his eye for goal with a sumptuous chip over Danny Ward to break Leicester’s resistance and doubled his tally by heading home a corner at the back post.

William Saliba’s own goal gave Leicester a foothold against the run of play.

But the Foxes quickly threw that hope away when Ward dropped a simple cross into the box and Jesus teed up Granit Xhaka to slot home.

Another goalkeeping error at the other end gited Leicester another goal as James Maddison’s strike squirmed under Aaron Ramsdale.

Arsenal, though, again responded instantly to avoid a nervy finale as Gabriel Martinelli fired into the far corner before Jesus hit the post with the chance to seal his hat-trick. Steven Gerrard won his first managerial clash with former England teammate Frank Lampard as Aston Villa beat Everton 2-1 to get off the mark in the Premier League.

Goals from Danny Ings and Emi Buendia eased the pressure on Gerrard ater a run of two wins in their previous 12 games dating back to last season.

However, Villa had to survive a nervy finish as Lucas Digne’s own goal gave Everton hope before Emi Martinez denied Anthony Gordon an equaliser in stoppage time. Gerrard was in the firing line ater a 2-0 defeat to newly-promoted Bournemouth on the opening weekend of the season.

The former Liverpool captain had also controversially dropped Tyrone Mings last weekend ater stripping the England centre-back of the club captaincy. Mings was restored at the heart of the Villa defence, but their problems defending set-pieces persisted.

Lampard’s men are badly missing the presence of the injured Dominic Calvert-lewin up front, but were a constant threat from dead balls.

The Toffees did had the ball in the net midway through the first-half when Gordon pressured Maty Cash into slicing the ball into his own goal ater Villa failed to clear a corner. However, Gordon was flagged offside.

Moments later, Villa came up with one of the few moments of quality in a scrappy game.

Watkins was the creator again for Villa’s second as a one-two with Buendia gave the Argentine a tap-in to seemingly secure the points five minutes from time. But two minutes later, debutant Amadou Onana’s powerful run and cross forced Digne into scoring an own goal against his old club.

English Premier League results on Saturday: Arsenal 4 (Jesus 23, 35, Xhaka 55, Martinelli 75) Leicester 2 (Saliba 53-og, Maddison 74) Aston Villa 2 (Ings 31, Buendia 85) Everton 1 (Digne 87-og) Brighton 0 Newcastle 0 Manchester City 4 (Gundogan 19, De Bruyne 31, Foden 37, Lerma 79-og) Bournemouth 0

Brenford produced a stunning first-half performance as they scored four goals in the first 35 minutes to condemn United to a humiliating defeat at Gtech Community Stadium