Tijjani Reijnders and Erling Haaland starred as Manchester City opened its Premier League campaign by crushing Wolverhampton 4-0 on Saturday.
On a great day for City's new signings, Reijnders played a part in the first three goals — scoring one himself — and came off the bench to grab a late fourth.
Coach Pep Guardiola made Reijnders a priority signing to compensate for playmaker . He also snapped up the from Lyon, where he made his debut at the age of .
Reijnders prised the Wolves defense open with a delightful flick over the defense to allow Rico Lewis the space to pick out Haaland to score his first from a low cross in the 34th minute.
Three minutes later, Oscar Bobb played Reijnders in down the left and the Netherlands midfielder arrowed a superb first-time shot into the bottom right corner from just inside the penalty area.
City's third in the 61st came when Reijnders expertly took down a high ball, swapped passes with Bobb down the right and pulled the ball back for Haaland to finish with a crisp drive.
Just six minutes after going on, France international Cherki bamboozled the Wolves defense and picked his spot from 20 meters out.
Elsewhere, Newcastle lacked a cutting edge without its star striker Alexander Isak and drew at Aston Villa 0-0.
Tottenham looked far sharper, dispatching newly promoted Burnley 3-0 with Brazil forward Richarlison scoring twice.
Isak was as he tries to to defending champion Liverpool. New signing looked dangerous on the right of Newcastle's attack, but the visitors could not make the most of their possession.
Villa's Ezri Konsa was sent off in the 66th minute for pulling back Anthony Gordon as he raced through on goal.
West Ham lost at promoted Sunderland 3-0, and Fulham equalized deep into stoppage time for 1-1 at Brighton.
Mohammed Kudus set up Richarlison from the right flank for both of his goals, the second of which was an exquisite scissor kick in the 60th.
Brennan Johnson latched onto Pape Sarr's pass shortly after to make it 3-0 for Europa League winner Tottenham, which lost midweek to Champions League winner Paris Saint-Germain in the .
Forward Eliezer Mayenda and center half Dan Ballard scored with headers in the second half for Sunderland before Wilson Isidor sealed the win with an injury-time goal.
Matt O’Riley’s penalty early in the second half for Brighton punished a foul by Fulham’s Sander Berge on Georginio Rutter as he ran into the penalty box.
But Brighton failed to deal with a corner and Rodrigo Muniz fired in the equalizer in the sixth minute of injury time.
In memory of Jota
A moment’s silence was observed at those Premier League games in memory of the former Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Diogo Jota.
Before facing City, Wolves fans displayed a giant tifo of Jota, who played two seasons in the Premier League with the West Midlands club before joining Liverpool in 2020.
A banner under the tifo in his memory read “We’ll remember you when you walk in fields of gold,†and fans at Molineux Stadium chanted his name after a moment's applause was held while a Portuguese flag was flown.
They chanted his name again in the 18th minute, in reference to the jersey number he wore at Wolves.
On Friday, Liverpool players and fans paid to Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, at Anfield before and during the league-opener against Bournemouth. in a car crash in Spain last month.
Liverpool in a match marred by alleged racial abuse of Bournemouth forward by a spectator. On Saturday, Semenyo for supporting him. ___
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