Former Manchester United and Everton striker Wayne Rooney explains how Chelsea exploited Liverpool down the flanks in their 2-1 win in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge.
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Holders Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 in English football’s Premier League, while fallen favourites Man City lose 2-1 at Brighton.
Published On 31 Aug 202531 Aug 2025
Dominik Szoboszlai curled home a brilliant long-range free kick to earn Liverpool a 1-0 win over Arsenal in an early-season meeting between two of the likely Premier League title contenders.
Manchester City was also expected to be challenging for the championship this season, but collapsing to a 2-1 loss at Brighton – for a second straight loss – was another sign that Pep Guardiola’s team has lost its aura of dominance.
Little separated Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield before Szoboszlai stepped up to an 83rd-minute free kick and whipped it into the top corner from about 30 yards.
“I thought I would take a risk,” Szoboszlai told Sky Sports. “I was confident, so I tried it and finally! It’s a long time when you practice all the time and Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was taking the free kicks, but finally I could have my chance, and I did it.
“This [type of] shot I didn’t practice in the last few weeks as we were shooting from closer, but I had to take a risk and shoot it a little bit harder.”
Filling in at full back in an emergency, the Hungary captain – typically an attacking midfielder – did his best impression of now-departed right back Alexander-Arnold with a top-quality strike that was out of keeping with the rest of the game.
It’s now three straight wins to open the season for Liverpool, the defending champion.
For Arsenal, it was a first loss and first goal conceded – extending its winless record at Anfield dating back to 2012.
“Arsenal had an unbelievable season last season and three times in a row coming second,” Szoboszlai added.
“To be honest, it’s a compliment always to keep on going with City, with Chelsea with us – it is always really hard. They have an unbelievable team and an unbelievable coach.”
City’s defeat at Brighton followed a 2-0 home loss last weekend to Tottenham, which is demonstrating the same vulnerabilities and brittleness it showed last season when surrendering the title to Liverpool after four consecutive years as champions.
“This is the reality: we are not at the level from a long time [ago],” said City midfielder Rodri, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, who was starting in the league for the first time since September last year following a serious knee injury.
Brajan Gruda surged through an open defence, rounded goalkeeper James Trafford and slotted into an empty net for the 89th-minute winner for Brighton, which trailed to Erling Haaland’s first-half strike – his 88th goal in 100 Premier League appearances since moving to England in 2022.
City conceded an equalizer in the 67th minute after Matheus Nunes raised his arm in the area to block a shot, with James Milner converting the penalty for Brighton to become – at age 39 years and 239 days – the second-oldest scorer in Premier League history. He is also the second youngest, having netted as a 16-year-old for Leeds.
With City noticeably fading, Brighton created a succession of chances before Gruda converted one to seal a repeat of his team’s come-from-behind 2-1 win over City last season.
City’s only points so far this season have come from a 4-0 opening-round win at Wolverhampton, after which pundits were saying Guardiola’s team was back. Now, it has fewer points than Manchester United.
West Ham eased the pressure on manager Graham Potter with a 3-0 win at Nottingham Forest, secured by late goals by Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta — from the penalty spot — and Callum Wilson.
West Ham lost its first two games in the league, conceding eight goals in the process, and also was eliminated from the English League Cup in midweek.
Paqueta, the Brazil midfielder, celebrated his successful penalty kick by pretending to answer a call and throw away a phone before kissing the badge on his jersey – perhaps a nod to being linked over the past 24 hours with a move to Aston Villa.
Crystal Palace visits Villa in the final game on Sunday to wrap up the Premier League’s third round.
Bournemouth have agreed a deal for Liverpool winger Ben Doak for an initial £20m with a further £5m in add-ons.
The 19-year-old is expected to complete his transfer to the south coast in the next 24 hours in a move that remains subject to paperwork and passing a medical.
Doak was left out of Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday night, amid ongoing talks between the two Premier League clubs.
But Bournemouth have since secured a deal for the forward, who has six caps for Scotland, and spent last season on loan at Middlesbrough, scoring three times and recording seven assists in 24 matches.
They are understood to have beaten interest from other Premier League clubs, including Leeds, as well as Portuguese club Porto.
Doak’s move will give him a better chance of playing first team football having played just 10 times for Liverpool since joining from Celtic in 2022.
It will take Liverpool’s sales to around £200m this summer, having spent more than £270m on new signings and having had a £110m bid for Alexander Isak rejected by Newcastle.
The Premier League’s major sales have included Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich in a £65.5m deal, Darwin Nunez to Al-Hilal for £46.3m and academy player Jarrell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen for £35m.
Caoimhin Kelleher, Tyler Morton and Nat Phillips have also been sold, while the club received £8.4m from Real Madrid to release Trent Alexander-Arnold early from his contract, though the Spanish club dispute this figure.
The sale of Doak could see Liverpool bring in around £80-90m in initial fees for the winger, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold, Kelleher, Quansah and Morton. The six players arrived as either youth players or development projects and cost the Reds an initial £600,000. The subsequent profit for players classed as ‘homegrown’ can all be classed as ‘pure profit’ to immediately boost the Reds in terms of profit and sustainability calculations.
Bournemouth have also had a busy summer having sold Dango Ouattara to Brentford for £42.5m last week.
They already lost defenders Illia Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez for a combined total of about £150m to Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said his side are “not where they want to be” before defeat at Anfield and added “important movements” will be made before the transfer window closes on 1 September.
Goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, left-back Adrien Truffert and centre-back Bafode Diakite have joined the club this summer, with January signing Eli Junior Kroupi also coming into the squad after finishing last season on loan at Lorient.
Sources say the Cherries are in the market for a further central defender and a striker to compete with Evanilson, with alternative option Enes Unal expected to be out with a major knee injury until November or December.
During a three-year stay at Wolves, Jota made 131 appearances for the club, scoring 44 goals, including consecutive hat-tricks in the 2019-20 Europa League victories over Besiktas and Espanyol.
In September 2020, he joined Premier League champions Liverpool in a £41m deal, with Wolves boss Nuno saying Jota is leaving “knowing that it will never be forgotten, especially by our fans, all the memorable moments that Diogo provided”.
“We were gutted we were losing him because he was that good,” said Coady.
“But at the same time, you gave him a big hug and you went, you know what mate, you deserve it more than anyone. Go and enjoy yourself. Go and make a name for yourself at one of the biggest clubs because you can certainly do that. And he has done for that a number of years.”
Coady posted a moving tribute to his former team-mate on his social media account after hearing the news, which he said he did while he “cried my eyes out”.
In the post, he describes how he felt grateful hearing his kids say “dad, you played with Jota” when the Liverpool player came up on the television screens – a feeling he reiterated again.
“People look at football and think it’s all about rivalry. But watching him win the Premier League with Liverpool, it filled me with immense pride – to say I played with him and he has gone on to do incredible things,” said Coady.
“He took it by storm, like he took us by storm. Like he then took the Premier league by storm. Like he then took Europa League by storm with Wolves.
“He’s then gone and done it with one of the biggest clubs in the land. A remarkable footballer, but an even better team-mate, which is 10 times more important than being a remarkable footballer for me.”
Elliott made 18 league appearances under Arne Slot last season, but his only two starts came against Chelsea and Brighton, when Liverpool had already won the league.
That was in stark contrast to the previous season, with 11 starts in 34 league games for the Reds in Jurgen Klopp’s final campaign.
Elliott has made 147 appearances, scoring 15 goals, in his six years at Liverpool since joining from Fulham as a teenager, with a season on loan at Blackburn in 2020-21.
England Under-21 boss Carsley has only seen Elliott’s desire to succeed this summer.
“I’ve not seen a lot of the frustration,” he added. “What I have seen is someone who’s determined to play and to get the minutes. He wants to play every game and all of the minutes.
“He’s definitely built into the tournament. Not getting as much game time towards the end of the season, we’ve had to manage his minutes in terms of the amount he’s played and the intensity he plays at because he’s so explosive with the way he moves and his end product.
“We’re very lucky to have him.”
Brighton have been linked with a move for Elliott, as have former club Fulham, and while Wolves have been mentioned they have already signed Spaniard Fer Lopez and any fee is likely to be too high for the Molineux outfit.
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock, part of BBC 5 Live’s commentary team in Slovakia, believes Elliott has done well to ignore talk about his future and impress at the Euros.
“There’s a lot of speculation about ‘will he be at Liverpool next year?’,” said Warnock, who made 67 appearances after coming through the youth ranks at Anfield.
“That’s not easy. There will be phone calls with his agent about who’s talking, where are we looking at going and what are the potential avenues, am I going to stay at Liverpool? It’s very much a rollercoaster as the tournament goes on.
“Because of the amount of games he has played for Liverpool, and the impact he had coming in, I think we all thought he would catapult and play for a long time in the first team.
“But he has a World Cup winner in Alexis Mac Allister in front of him, [Ryan] Gravenberch had an unbelievable season and [Dominik] Szoboszlai was brought in for big money.
“He has responded well in this tournament. Mo Salah talks about moments in games and Harvey Elliott is one of those players for the moment. When the moment presents itself he is calm and composed.”