Manchester City open EPL title defence as Erling Haaland scores stunner against Chelsea

Erling Haaland scored his 91st goal in his 100th appearance for Manchester City as the champions kicked off their English Premier League title defence with a 2-0 away win over Chelsea.

The big Norwegian, fed by Bernardo Silva, forced his way between Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana and finished neatly past Robert Sanchez in the 18th minute.

Former Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic made sure of victory for the visitors six minutes from time, racing through a disorganised Chelsea midfield and thumping the ball into Sanchez’s net.

“Three points, a perfect start,” Haaland told Sky Sports.

“I knew exactly what to do, I think it was a really good goal. I remember last year he made a good save against me, it had been irritating me for a long time so, yeah, it was a perfect goal.”

Chelsea, in their first Premier League outing under new manager Enzo Maresca, fashioned some hopeful attacking moves through Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and recent signing Pedro Neto but were largely outclassed by their more composed visitors.

Maresca said: “We were against the champions today. We will continue and win games. They are a master of keeping hold of the ball. The performance was there and that is the main thing.”

Meanwhile, Maresca added to speculation about Raheem Sterling’s Chelsea future when he left the winger out of Sunday’s squad, saying some players might have to move on.

“I want Raheem Sterling but I want all the 30 players that we have, but there is no space for all of them. So for some of them, they have to leave,” Maresca said when asked about the former England striker’s absence.

The Italian said Sterling’s omission was a “technical” decision.

Sterling’s representatives issued a statement shortly before kick-off, saying the player had a good working relationship with Maresca and was committed to delivering for Chelsea.

Sterling joined Chelsea from Manchester City in 2022 but his form has blown hot and cold for much of his time at Stamford Bridge and he was not included in England’s Euro 2024 squad.

Commenting on his side’s victory, City boss Pep Guardiola told Sky Sports: “I didn’t expect it.”

“We are away from our best so three points is the good news. The bad news is we have 65 games ahead of us.

“We have an advantage, it’s our ninth season together so we know each other well.”

Earlier on Sunday, Yoane Wissa’s close-range finish gave Brentford a winning start to their campaign with a hard-fought 2-1 home victory over Crystal Palace.

Palace thought they had the lead after 26 minutes, but Eberechi Eze’s spectacular free-kick was ruled out for a foul by Will Hughes as the ball was struck.

And it was Brentford who grabbed the lead against the run of play three minutes later when Bryan Mbuemo finished off a sweeping move down the right, cutting inside and firing into the bottom corner.

Palace levelled in the 56th minute when Ethan Pinnock prodded past his keeper, but Wissa scored a scrappy goal 20 minutes later to earn Brentford the three points.

England striker Ivan Toney had been left out of the Bees squad, with head coach Thomas Frank admitting he had been omitted amid “transfer interest.”

Frank said the decision to leave Toney out was made on Thursday.

“It’s part of the game we have to play, we don’t want to give too much away,” he told reporters.