Section:GDN 1N PaGe:45 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 20:25 cYanmaGentaYellowb

Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •

45

Number of the weekend

MATTHEW CHILDS/REUTERS

Manchester United 4
Rashford 18pen 67, Martial 65, James 81

Chelsea 0

The sight of Chelsea youth products
Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount
playing together for their parent club
in an actual Premier League match
felt novel. Transfer bans need not
be too punitive when a club is one
of Europe’s prime talent factories.
Where predecessors fearing the
Roman Abramovich axe felt unable
to risk youngsters, necessity
presents Frank Lampard with
free rein to do so. Of the two
Chelsea’s new manager trusted
at Old Traff ord, Abraham has the
greater experience but looked
far more raw, even though he
rattled a post early on. Mount
buzzed around impressively
and outperformed Ross
Barkley for one. Other, more
experienced teammates were
far guiltier of errors in a higher
level of schooling than being
loaned to Vitesse Arnhem or the
Championship. John Brewin

Man of the match
Harry Maguire Manchester United

Newcastle 0

Arsenal 1

Aubameyang 58

Around 300 Newcastle fans marched

through the rain from the Sports

Direct store in Northumberland

Street and congregated by the burger

van at the bottom of Strawberry

Place. They made their presence

felt and registered their protest

against Mike Ashley’s ownership

of the club. But still the club were

able to announce an attendance

of 47,635, just under 5,000 off

capacity. That includes season-ticket

holders who may not have turned

up but, still, despite the weather

there did not appear to be more

than 6,000-7,000 empty seats at

St James’. This is a major problem for

those who wish to organise protests:

it will take far more than that not to

turn up before any boycott begins

to have an impact and there seems

little appetite for that – or, at least,

there are enough casual fans willing

to pick up tickets to counter the

recusant hard core. Jonathan Wilson

Man of the match

Ainsley Maitland-Niles Arsenal

Tottenham 3

Ndombele 73, Kane 86 90

Aston Villa 1

McGinn 9

So how much does £1 30m buy you

nowadays? Aston Villa fans began

to fi nd out after Dean Smith handed

out four full debuts and two from

the bench of his 12 new faces during

this 3-1 defeat. There was Trezeguet,

the Egyptian winger, who looked

best attuned of all Villa’s forwards

to the direct counter attacking Smith

wanted from his team. At centre-

half Bjorn Engels may not have

controlled the means of production

but was eff ective at disruption.

Wesley Moraes was Villa’s least

eff ective player and that will surely

be a source of concern as he was the

only striker brought into the club.

The Brazilian looked cumbersome,

but also lightweight. Finally, there

was Tom Heaton, just £8m of Villa’s

summer spending. Not only did he

make two stunning saves but his

handling, distribution and decision

making were 100% Premier League

proof. A bargain. Paul MacInnes

Man of the match

Kyle Walker-Peters Tottenham

Watford 0

Brighton 3

Doucouré 28og, Andone 65, Maupay 77

When Watford lost seven of their

fi nal 11 league games last season it

seemed reasonable enough to cite

their FA Cup run, and insulation

from the relegation zone, as the

major factors behind their slump.

None of that applies to their sluggish

performance against Brighton

though and Javi Gracia off er ed no

excuses. “We need to improve,”

he said. His centre-back, Craig

Cathcart, dismissed suggestions

of a hangover from last season but

the biggest concern might be that

their dip actually began around

March. Gracia has done a fi ne job,

and opening days have a habit of

throwing up strange results, but

when these sides met a year ago

Watford won with ease and they will

be wary of discovering that, in the

Premier League, the price of sliding

backwards is usually exorbitant.

Saturday’s meeting with Everton

could be telling. Nick Ames

Man of the match

Davy Pröpper Brighton

The successive Premier League

defeats Jack Grealish has suff ered

in an Aston Villa shirt.

19

Goal of the weekend

Tanguy Ndombele

Tottenham Hotspur

v Aston Villa

Spurs’ record signing had

taken time to settle in

midfi eld but his Premier

League debut will be

remembered for the quality

of his equaliser. Seizing on

a fl ick from Lucas Moura,

Ndombele’s right-foot shot

seared through a crowd

of players and beyond

the reach of previously

defi ant Villa goalkeeper

Tom Heaton.

Referee Anthony Taylor Attendance 73,620 Referee Martin Atkinson Attendance 47,635 Referee Chris Kavanagh Attendance 60,407 Referee Craig Pawson Attendance 20,245

West Ham 0

Manchester City 5

Gabriel Jesus 25, Sterling 51 75 90, Agüero 86pen

Riyad Mahrez had an odd fi rst

season at Manchester City. There

were times when the £60m winger

looked slightly out of sync with his

team mates, which can happen to

players adapting to Pep Guardiola’s

football, but he could not be written

off as a fl op. Mahrez scored some

crucial goals for the eventual

champions and winning the Africa

Cup of Nations with Algeria last

month appears to have boosted

his confi dence. With Guardiola not

risking Bernardo Silva because of

minor fi tness concerns, Mahrez

excelled during the 5-0 win over

West Ham, laying on a lovely

scooped assist for the second of

Raheem Sterling’s three goals and

winning a penalty for Sergio Agüero.

It was the kind of performance that

made the Algerian a hero at Leicester

and it came as a welcome boost for

City after losing Leroy Sané to a

serious knee injury. Jacob Steinberg

Man of the match

Raheem Sterling Manchester City

Referee Mike Dean Attendance 59,870

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