Sports

Jonathan Cook’s World Game Wrap-Up

Posted on | Posted by Jonathan Cook

Gunners go top with youngest player

Arsenal could afford to give a debut to the Premier League’s youngest player as they surged to the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Brentford.

Fifteen-year-old Ethan Nwaneri came on for Fabio Vieira in stoppage time with three points already in the Gunners’ bag.

Goals from William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and Vieira, who was in the starting line-up for the first time, secured a win that lifted Arsenal a point above Manchester City and Arsenal’s North London rivals Spurs.

The Premier League’s previous youngest debutant was Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott, who was 16 years and 30 days old when he played for Fulham in 2019.

Sent off after nine seconds

There is being hasty and then there is Jean-Clair Todibo. The Barcelona defender, on loan to French club Nice, earned himself the fastest red card in Ligue Un history when he was sent off after just nine seconds.

Referee Bastien Dechepy was quick to flash red when Todibo brought down Abdallah Sima five seconds after kick-off. Todibo had received his marching orders before Nice had even touched the ball.

Nabil Bentaleb scored a first-half winner for Angers, who had Sofiane Boufal sent off for a yellow card in the second half.

Grealish surprise fires City

There was no surprise in Erling Haaland scoring again for Manchester City but Jack Grealish?

The England international midfielder popped up to score after just 55 seconds and set City on their way to a 3-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was a timely first goal of the season for Grealish, who has openly admitted he needs to score more and provide more assists.

Grealish signed for City from Aston Villa last year and remains the clubs most expensive signing, his AUD$170 switch topping the AUD$115 million City paid Wolfsburg for Kevin De Bruyne in 2015.
Haaland scored his 11th goal in seven Premier League appearances and Phil Foden bagged City’s third against Wolves.

Napoli end Milan streak

Napoli moved to the top of Italy’s Serie A with a victory that ended AC Milan’s long unbeaten streak.

Goals from Matteo Politano and Giovanni Simeone, either side of Olivier Giroud’s fourth Serie A goal of the season earned Napoli a dramatic victory.

Champions Milan had not lost any of their previous 22 games.

Newly promoted Monza produced the upset of the round with a 1-0 victory over Juventus. Monza secured their first win of the season through Christian Gytkjaer’s second-half goal.

Juve’s cause had not been helped by Angel Di Maria’s first-half red card.

Son shines for Spurs at last

Son Heung-min broke his goalscoring drought with a hat-trick off the bench as Tottenham Hotspur put six past Leicester City.

The Korean international had failed to find the net in eight previous Premier League and Champions League games this season and found himself among the substitutes.

But with 31 minutes to go, and with Spurs leading 3-2, Son was introduced to devastating effect with three goals in a 13-minute spell.

Son scored 23 goals for Spurs last season as Tottenham finished fourth in the Premier League. The 6-2 win over Leicester put Spurs third on the table.

More pain for Foxes

Success for Spurs meant more pain for Leicester City and an increase in anxiety for Brendan Rodgers.

The Foxes have conceded 22 goals at an average of more than three every game in their seven matches so far.

Former Liverpool and Celtic manager Rodgers has struggled for answers and could soon be surplus to requirements if he cannot engineer a turnaround.

The international break, which means Leicester won’t play again until their October 3 match against Nottingham Forest, will either give Rodgers some respite, or allow the clubs owners to make a managerial change.

Howe about that Eddie

Eddie Howe’s first game against his former club Bournemouth didn’t go to plan as Newcastle United were held to a fifth draw of the season.

Howe, whose two periods as Bournemouth manager took in more than 450 games, left the Cherries in August 2020 before taking on the job at Newcastle in November last year.

But if he had imagined a nice afternoon at St James’ Park it didn’t go to plan as Newcastle went behind to Phillip Billings goal. The Toon earned a point when Alexander Isak scored a penalty for a handball spotted by the Video Assistant Referee.

For all the positive work Howe has done at Newcastle, after this game the spotlight fell on his counterpart Gary O’Neil, who has now overseen a three-match unbeaten spell.

O’Neil took over in a caretaker capacity after Scott Parker was sacked following a 9-0 loss to Liverpool.

Augsburg beat Bayern

Little known Mergim Berisha scored the only goal of the game as Bayern Munich’s stuttering start to the season hit an unexpected roadblock.

Berisha, who is on loan at Augsburg from Turkish side Fenerbahce, scored his first Bundesliga goal to seal a 1-0 win over the defending champions.

After kicking off the season with three straight wins, Bayern have failed to win any of their past four games, drawing three before losing to Augsburg.

Union Berlin, who beat Wolfsburg 2-0, are top of the Bundesliga, two points above Borussia Dortmund, who won 1-0 at home to Schalke.

Buddies end Celt’s run

St Mirren ended Celtic’s almost year-long unbeaten streak with an unexpected 2-0 victory over Ange Postecoglou’s side.

Celtic were unbeaten in 38 league games, a period stretching back 364 days, and had been anticipating another three points on Sunday.

But goals from Mark O’Hara and Jonah Ayunga secured a victory for the Buddies.

Celtic had last lost in the league away to Livingston on September 19, 2021 when Andrew Shinnie scored the only goal of the game.




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