HAS anything really changed in the Premier League? The champions, Liverpool, strengthened by an influx of new blood, have a 100% record, so do the North London pair, Arsenal and Tottenham. Manchester United have one point from two games, while City are displaying similar problems to last season. West Ham are looking fragile and have conceded eight goals in their two defeats, including five at home to Chelsea on Friday night. The pressure is building on manager Graham Potter, especially as the Hammers’ also went out of the EFL Cup at the first hurdle. Spurs won 2-0 at Manchester City and fully deserved to do so. At the moment, the fans love their new coach, Thomas Frank, but it is still early days. There was relief for Arsenal in their emphatic 5-0 win against Leeds as Viktor Gyökeres, scored twice. Meanwhile, Liverpool won 3-2 at Isak-less Newcastle United after it looked as though the Geordies had saved a point in coming back from two-down. The winner was scored by 16-year-old substitute Rio Ngumoha in the 99th minute.
**Bundesliga: Harry’s at it again**
BAYERN Munich kicked-off the Bundesliga season with an impressive 6-0 win against RB Leipzig, underlining that the champions will be the team to beat once more in 2025-26. Harry Kane netted a 13-minute hat-trick in the second half, but Michael Olise was the player who triggered off Bayern’s fine start with two first half goals. Luis Díaz, making his league debut for Bayern, scored the other goal and also created two of the six. Leipzig were poor and included transfer target Xavi Simons in their line-up. Bayer Leverkusen, now coached by Erik ten Hag, were beaten 2-1 at home by Hoffenheim despite taking a sixth minute lead through former Liverpool defender Jarrell Quansah. St. Pauli and Borussia Dortmund shared six goals, with BVB throwing away a two-goal advantage with a quarter of an hour to go. Dortmund had Filippo Mané sent off in the 85th minute. Two goals from Jean-Mattéo Bayoha helped Eintracht Frankfurt to a 4-1 win over Werder Bremen, while Union’s Ilya Ansah netted twice in his first league game since arriving from Paderborn to give his new club a 2-1 win against Stuttgart. Both promoted sides were unbeaten, Köln winning 1-0 at Mainz and Hamburg drawing at Gladbach.
**Portugal: The big guns start well**
SPORTING do not seem to be missing Viktor Gyökeres as they preserved their 100% record with a 4-1 victory at Nacional of Funchal. The home side took an early lead and held their advantage until seven minutes into the second half when Pedro Gonçalves scored the first of his three goals. Sporting continually peppered the Nacional goal and Gonçalves netted his second on 76 minutes, while Conrad Harder added a third with seven minutes left. Gonçalves secured his hat-trick in added time to make it 12 goals in three games for the champions. Lisbon rivals Benfica won 3-0 at home to Tondela with goals from Franjo Ivanović, Fredrik Aursnes and Gianluca Presttiani, while Porto went one better and trounced Casa Pia 4-0 at the Estádio de Dragão. The visitors didn’t have a single shot on target in 90 minutes.
**Attendances**
**Home**
**Away**
75,011
AC Milan
Cremonese
75,000
Bayern Munich
RB Leipzig
72,322
Inter Milan
Torino
64,074
Olympique Marseille
Paris FC
63,381
AS Roma
Bologna
62,462
West Ham United
Chelsea
61,229
Benfica
Tondela
60,110
Arsenal
Leeds United
**Serie A: Shock for Milan**
CREMONESE, who won promotion from Serie B last season, pulled off their first victory against AC Milan in the San Siro, winning 2-1 in front of a huge crowd. The muscular Federico Baschirotto, who returned to Cremonese in the summer from Lecce, opened the scoring, but Milan came back and levelled through Strahinja Pavlović on the stroke of half-time. Despite the promptings of new signing from Real Madrid, Luka Modrić, Milan could not preserve a point and were beaten by a spectacular volley from Federico Bonazzoli. Inter Milan had a good start to the campaign, beating Torino 5-0 with Marcus Thuram scoring twice. The Torino was very generous to their hosts, making a series of mistakes that resulted in goals. Juvntus, who unveiled new signing from Lille, Jonathan David, beat Parma 2-0, with the new man getting a goal in the 59th minute. Dušan Vlahović, who may be moving on, added a second six minutes from time. Roma’s new signing from Flamengo, Wesley França, had the ideal debut for the club when he scored the winner against Bologna, while Napoli won 2-0 at Sassuolo with Scott McTominay and recent arrival Kevin De Bruyne scoring the goals.
**La Liga: Buchanan announces his arrival**
VILLAREAL’s Canadian winger, Tajon Buchanan, netted a hat-trick as his side thrashed Girona 5-0 at the Estadio de la Cerámica. Villareal signed Buchanan on a permanent basis in the close season after a spell on loan at the club in 2024-25. Villareal have a 100% record and have yet to concede a goal. Real Madrid won 3-0 at Oviedo to make it two wins in two, Kylian Mbappé scoring twice with Vinícius Juníor adding a third in the 93rd minute. Barcelona were two-down at half-time at Levante, but transformed the game by taking off Marcus Rashford, who was making his full debut. Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, has struggled to make an impact at Barca. Pedri, Ferran Torres and an own goal in added time gave the La Liga champions a 3-2 victory which looked very unlikely at the interval. Atlético Madrid are struggling to get going and were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Elche.
**Ligue 1: Marseille get off the mark**
PARIS FC were reminded of the challenge ahead of them in Ligue 1 when they lost their second game of the season at Marseille. To their credit, they retrieved a two-goal deficit before OM ran out 5-2 winners at the Velodrome, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring twice. The win ended a week in which stories emerged of a dressing room bust-up at Marseille. Paris FC’s neighbours, PSG, made hard work of beating Angers 1-0, with Fábian Ruiz providing the only goal. Lyon maintained their 100% record with a 3-0 victory against Metz, while promoted Lorient who put four past Rennes, who had two men sent off in the first 11 minutes. Strasbourg kept up their good start with a 1-0 win against a toothless Nantes side who are still looking for their first goal.
**Elsewhere…**
* PSV won 4-2 against Groningen to take the goal haul to 12 in three Eredivisie games this season
* Coventry City humiliated Queens Park Rangers, beating them 7-1 on the day the club gained control of their home stadium
* Hannover, top of Bundesliga 2, maintained their 100% record with a 3-1 win against Magdeburg.
Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a broad range of subjects. [View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen](https://gameofthepeople.com/author/georgefjord/)