The Premier League season opened with a busy first weekend and several individual displays immediately demanding attention. Chelsea\u2019s refreshed attack helped shape the closing stages of the round, while a number of other clubs also produced performances that stood out for different reasons.<\/p>\n
Everton\u2019s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Merseyside was not straightforward early on. The visitors started brightly, but poor finishing and Jordan Pickford kept them at bay. Pickford\u2019s best moment came with a sharp save to deny Eddie Nketiah, and his contribution was among the best goalkeeping efforts of the weekend. Only Newcastle United debutant Luk\u00e1\u0161 Horni\u010dek prevented more goals on the opening weekend.<\/p>\n
Brighton & Hove Albion also enjoyed a dominant afternoon, with Maxim De Cuyper pushed into a more advanced role in the demolition of Aston Villa. His energy caused constant problems, and he was directly involved in the move that led to Victor Lindel\u00f6f\u2019s own goal before adding another by attacking the box with real purpose. That return earned him the Fantasy Premier League Player of the Week award and a 17-point haul.<\/p>\n
There was also a memorable debut for Nobel Mendy, who marked his first appearance for Hull City by scoring against Manchester United. The defender helped his side make the most of set-pieces, and he finished the match with 12 clearances as Hull protected their two-goal cushion.<\/p>\n
At Manchester City, Josko Gvardiol made the difference against Bournemouth after an opening spell in which City\u2019s fluidity caused problems. He timed his run perfectly to meet Rayan Cherki\u2019s pass and finish calmly beyond \u0110or\u0111e Petrovi\u0107, even if the effort was initially flagged offside.<\/p>\n
Brentford had strong contributions from Keane Lewis-Potter and Mamadou Sangar\u00e9 in their win over Tottenham Hotspur. Lewis-Potter struck early, while Sangar\u00e9\u2019s debut showed exactly why the Bees committed a club-record fee for him. He linked play effectively, assisted the opener and was involved again for Brentford\u2019s third.<\/p>\n
Newcastle United also had reason to be encouraged by Yoane Wissa, whose all-round work helped drive their display against Liverpool. He was central to the transition that led to Joe Willock\u2019s go-ahead goal after Cody Gakpo had drawn Liverpool level.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s own attacking momentum was reflected by Cole Palmer and Jo\u00e3o Pedro. Palmer looked sharp after a disrupted previous campaign, while Jo\u00e3o Pedro scored in under 30 seconds and later returned the favour for Palmer. He now appears to be the league\u2019s strongest centre forward outside Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s opening-night win over Coventry City also featured a debutant contribution, rounding off a weekend in which several new and familiar faces made a strong first impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opening weekend standouts from Pickford, De Cuyper, Sangar\u00e9, Gvardiol and Chelsea’s revived attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,728,773,190,687,1710,175,238,194,172,187],"tags":[1836,59,1981],"class_list":["post-18759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-brentford","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-chelsea","category-everton","category-hull-city","category-liverpool","category-manchester-city","category-newcastle-united","category-epl","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured","tag-gameweek-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}