Premier League Sunday Recap - Matchday 1

While Saturday’s results were somewhat predictable, Sunday’s Premier League action saw a lot more unpredictability. From Crystal Palace’s surprise draw against Chelsea to Manchester United outperforming Arsenal, here’s everything you need to know with Sunday’s action in the books.

(Image Credit to Ritchie Sumpter/Nottingham Forest FC/Getty Images)

After Sunday’s action, only the Leeds United vs Everton match is left to be played on Matchday 1 of the new Premier League season. 

Ahead of that match, let’s recap the action from Sunday’s three Premier League matches.

Forest pick up exactly where they left off in a dominant victory over Brentford

During the match, Forest’s new signings Omari Hutchinson (from Ipswich) and James McAtee (from Manchester City) were introduced to the City Ground faithful. 

While that served as a positive sign of things to come, the positivity could also be seen on the pitch. Not only did Nottingham Forest pick up exactly where they left off last season, but forward Chris Wood did so as well via scoring two of Forest’s three goals. Despite Igor Thiago converting a 78th-minute penalty to keep Brentford from getting clean-sheeted, it would ultimately not be enough, with the final score being 3-1 for the hosts.

Brentford will look to turn things around when they head home to play Aston Villa, while Nottingham Forest will be hoping to make it two wins out of two when they travel to play Crystal Palace in their next Premier League fixture. 

Palace built on their success in the Community Shield, holding Chelsea to a draw

While last week served as an emotional rollercoaster for Crystal Palace and their fans, their opening Premier League match against Chelsea all but eliminated any feelings of sorrow after the club’s appeal regarding club ownership breaches was dismissed. 

Despite Chelsea dominating in total shots 19-12, Crystal Palace were able to do better in taking advantage of their chances, winning the shots on goal count 4-3. Ultimately, Palace would do enough defensively to hold Chelsea to a 0-0 draw and to secure their first point of the Premier League season.

Next up for the Eagles is the first leg of a Europa Conference League qualifying playoff tie against Norwegian side Fredrikstad; their next Premier League fixture will see them play host to Nottingham Forest. For Chelsea, they will look to secure their first Premier League victory of the season when they travel to play West Ham on Friday. 

Red Devils look strong on the attack but uncomfortable on defence in 1-0 loss to Arsenal

In what was an unexpected move, Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim named Altay Bayindir as the starter against Arsenal, a move that snubbed Andre Onana of his typical starting goalkeeper role. 

While United looked decent on the attack, outshooting Arsenal 22-9 and 7-3 in terms of shots on goal, it was the defence that was the issue once again against Arsenal. Yes, I understand that the Red Devils did a good job defending Viktor Gyökeres. But United looked very uncomfortable when defending set pieces; the lone goal that Manchester United gave up was on a poorly-defended corner (on the part of Bayindir) that was headed in by Ricciardo Calafiori. 

Manchester United will look to bounce back from the tough loss when they travel to play Fulham, while Arsenal will open their home schedule against Leeds United. 

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Article written by Noah Guttman