Premier League Week 2 Results: Liverpool Wins Thriller At Newcastle; Chelsea Runs Amok On West Ham; Arsenal Punishes Leeds; Spurs Topple Manchester City; Everton Christens New Stadium With Win Over Seagulls; Burnley Bursts Sunderland Bubble; Palace and Forest Draw their Grudge Match; Manchester United Draws At Fulham

A valiant Newcastle effort went for naught on Monday when sixteen-year-old Rio Ngumoha scored deep into stoppage time to give Liverpool a 3-2 victory at St. James’s Park. The venerable stadium was electric for a Monday night football clash between the Magpies and a club which has largely ruined the Magpies’ summer off the pitch. First, Liverpool beat them to striker Hugo Ekitike. Now, Newcastle’s Alexander Isak is demanding to join Ekitike at Liverpool in a stand-off with Newcastle ownership which is getting nastier by the day. Liverpool has had one bid rejected but is fully expected to come sniffing once more. Isak is meanwhile training away from his teammates and has not been present on matchdays. Hopefully, he was watching on television on Monday, or he will have missed the match of the season so far.

Ryan Gravenberch put Liverpool ahead early with his first goal since May of 2024, his 35th minute blast catching a slight deflection off a Newcastle defender and leaving Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope flatfooted. Things then got uglier for Newcastle on either side of the halftime break. First, the Magpies’ Anthony Gordon was red carded in first half stoppage time for a violent challenge on Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. Ten-man Newcastle was then victimized by an Ekitike goal just seconds into the second half. Newcastle’s task was looking impossible until Bruno Guimaraes halved the deficit with a 58th minute header where the Brazilian midfielder clearly outmuscled Liverpool defender Milos Kerkez. Kerkez has not looked good in early days for the Reds, a situation which bears monitoring.

Rocked by the Guimares goal, Liverpool seemed to lose composure and cede control of the match to the undermanned Magpies. Newcastle substitute striker, 21-year-old William Osula scored an equalizer in the 88th minute to seemingly complete a remarkable comeback. Liverpool was not finished, however. Rio Ngumoha became the youngest goal scorer in Liverpool history at just sixteen years old when he silenced St. James Park in the tenth minute of stoppage time to provide a final dramatic turn on the evening and give Liverpool the 3-2 victory. Ngumoha became the fourth youngest goal scorer in Premier League history to steal Osula’s and Newcastle’s magic moment. Liverpool notched a second straight victory, but the defending champions have cause to worry about a defense that squandered two goal leads in each of those wins.

There was far less suspense when Chelsea’s attack erupted at London Stadium in a 5-1 Friday demolition of West Ham. Former Chelsea Manager Graham Potter could only look on in shock as his club was far too slow in reaction and footspeed to cope with Chelsea in a decidedly one-sided London derby. West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta offered false hope for the Hammers when the Brazilian thundered home a goal from distance in the sixth minute of play. That was it for the Hammers though as Chelsea rained in five consecutive goals. West Ham supporters first voiced their frustrations and then voted with their feet as Chelsea ran out the clock after its fifth goal in the 54th minute of play. The question now is how soon Potter may be on his way out after his side has allowed eight goals in two opening Premier League losses. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer watched the goal fest from the bench after feeling a muscle tweak during warmups. Eighteen-year-old Estevao Willian got the start in place of Palmer and proved well up to the task. Estevao’s assist, when Enzo Fernandez scored Chelsea’s third goal of the match, made him the youngest player in Chelsea history to notch a Premier League assist. Another new signing, Joao Pedro, scored his first Premier League goal for the club as Chelsea’s new additions made their presence known.

The other rout of the Premier League weekend saw Arsenal make easy work of Leeds in a 5-0 whitewash. New top gun Viktor Gyokeres scored twice in a match which saw 15-year-old Max Dowman become the second youngest player to appear for Arsenal. The celebratory mood at the Emirates began with the pre-match introduction to the crowd of Eberechi Eze, the former Crystal Palace midfielder who seemed on his way to rival Tottenham Hotspur before Arsenal intervened and steered him to the Emirates. A near perfect day for the Gunners, however, was marred by injuries to Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. Early concerns as to the severity of the damage to Saka’s hamstring were somewhat alleviated by scans taken the next day. Still, the England international could be out for weeks while Odegaard is a question mark for this coming Sunday’s massive match versus Liverpool.

Even while faring poorly in this transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur has so far succeeded on the pitch under new manager Thomas Frank. Spurs defeated Manchester City 2-0 on Saturday for a second consecutive victory out of the gate for the north London club. Spurs has not conceded a goal yet this season while scoring five of its own as Richarlison and Brennan Johnson have formed a potent combination up front for Manager Frank. Johnson’s opening  goal for Spurs on Saturday was his second of the season. Richarlison assisted on Johnson’s goal a week after the former Everton man helped himself to a brace versus Burnley. Manchester City goalkeeper James Trafford had a rough game at the Etihad, gifting one of the goals on a misplaced pass and being very fortunate in another instance when caught out of position well outside his net and colliding with a Manchester City player. Tolerant officiating allowed the former Burnley keeper to escape both a goal and a red card on the latter play but Spurs’ summer signing Joao Palhinha was quick to find the net and capitalize on Trafford’s other gaffe.

While Thomas Frank is undefeated so far at Spurs, his replacement at Brentford earned his first victory with the Bees’ 1-0 home win over Aston Villa. Former Bee forward Bryan Mbeumo has moved on to Manchester United, and his former running mate Yoane Wissa was left out of Saturday’s squad by new Manager Keith Andrews because of the noise surrounding Wissa’s own transfer demand. Instead, it was new signing Dango Ouattara who scored the winner on Saturday for the Bees. The former Bournemouth player was added to the squad just last week for a club record purchase amount to replace the departed Mbeumo. Aston Villa, meanwhile, failed to score for a second consecutive week. Including the final match of last season, Villa has failed to score in three consecutive Premier League matches for the first time in five years.

Wolverhampton is the other Premier League side which has not scored this season after a 1-0 loss to Bournemouth. Goal prospects for the tame Wolves attack were not helped on Saturday when a red card reduced the side to ten men in the 49th minute.

Everton and Burnley both recovered from scoreless opening weekends to each find the net twice in victories over Brighotn and Sunderland, respectively. The Toffees christened their new Hill Dickinson Stadium in grand fashion by defeating the Seagulls 2-0 as Jack Grealish assisted on both goals in his first start for the Toffees. The England international is on loan at Everton this season after receiving only seven Premier League starting assignments for Manchester City last season. Burnley, meanwhile, threw cold water over the euphoria created by Sunderland’s opening week success and as the Clarets responded to their own opening week frustration by defeating the Black Cats 2-0 at Turf Moor. Jaidon Anthony and Josh Cullen took turns assisting on each other’s goals in the Claret victory.

Fulham is yet to win but has salvaged a point with second half equalizers in each of their two matches. Substitute Emile Smth Rowe scored in the 74th minute on Sunday to offset an earlier Fulham own goal to draw with Manchester United 1-1 at Craven Cottage. Rodrigo Muniz, the victim of this week’s own goal, had been the hero a week earlier when his 97th minute delivered a similar 1-1 scoreline versus Brighton. Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandez missed a penalty on Sunday after an odd physical collision with the referee as he prepared to take the kick. The draw ended a string of eight consecutive victories for the Red Devils at Craven Cottage and leaves the Red Devils winless after two matches. No Manchester United player has scored this season, leaving frustrated supporters to wonder why expensive striker signing Benjamin Sesko has yet to start a match.

Nottingham Forest is playing Europa League football this season at the expense of Crystal Palace which was disqualified from the competition due to a violation of multi-club ownership rules. Supposedly, that issue was self-servingly brought to the attention of UEFA by Forest. There was thus plenty of bad blood when the two sides met at Selhurst Park on Sunday. The clubs ground to a 1-1 draw as yet another common issue hovered over the day’s result. Despite each side taking major strides under their present managers, the tenures of both Nottingham Forest Manager Nuno Espirito Santo and Crystal Palace Manager Oliver Glasner are in question. Santo has publicly disclosed a rift between him and owner Evangelos Marinakis. Glasner, meanwhile, is in the last year of his contract and is highly regarded by other European clubs. The Austrian manager is frustrated with his club’s transfer policies which saw Michael Olise leave last summer, Eberechi Eze leave last week and Marc Guehi and Adam Wharton still at risk of leaving this summer. The manager also cannot be pleased with ownership’s bungling of UEFA multi-club ownership rules which deprived Glasner of a return to the Europa League which he won with Eintracht Frankfurt. Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish risks losing the manager to a bigger club. The Eagles need to demonstrate support for Glasner with their transfer actions before the window closes.