London made a ropey start to the Premier League season with two wins, three draws and two defeats.

Arsenal emerged victorious with a highly competent defensive display against a much improved Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Riccardo Calafiori heaxed in the game’s sole goal in the 13th minute in a match where the Gunners had an uncharacteristically low 38% of possession.

Opinion was divided on the legitimacy of the goal. United’s Turkish keeper Altay Bayindir was selected over Andre Onana. At a Declan Rice corner, William Saliba backed into Bayindir who could only weakly palm the ball to a grateful Calafiori.

United manager Ruben Amorim defended his keeper. Certainly Salibi seemed to have no other intenrtion than to obstruct the keeper’s challenge for the ball but most media pundits were unsympathetic to the Turk.

Steven Railston in the Manchester Evening News was savage about Bayindir’s selection:

“Bayindir is not aggressive enough at corners and fails to command his area. He made the same mistake against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup in December last season and struggles to claim aerial deliveries.

“The Turkish international is meek when set-pieces are taken. And if that wasn’t bad enough, he attempted to clear the corner with his left glove, which was the wrong hand to punch the ball with.

“From a technical standpoint, it was a shocking mistake from Bayindir and it cost United on the opening day of the Premier League season. Amorim gave Bayindir a second chance after a similar mistake against Spurs, but it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that he needs to be replaced as second choice.”

Arsenal won’t care. They have navigated one of the season’s more awkward fixtures with three points and a clean sheet. Should their title rival falter at Old Trafford, they will look back at this result with an even greater glee.

Crystal Palace have had a turbulent off season with their demotion to the European Conference from the Europa Cup. They had qualified for the latter by dint of winning the FA Cup. Having won the Community Shield too in the ‘traditional curtain raiser to the English season‘, they secured an impressive 0-0 draw at Chelsea in the first of this season’s 42 EPL London derbies.

They might even have won but for a rightly disallowed goal from an Eberechi Eze free kick. Attackers have to stay one metre away from the defensive wall at free kicks. Marc Guéhi forgot and impeded Moses Caicedo in the Chelsea wall.

Harsh on Palace? Maybe. But the rule was introduced precisely to stop what Guéhi was doing.

The other winners were Tottenham, under Thomas Frank for the first time, who beat promoted side Burnley 3-0 at White Hart Lane in the start of their post-Son era.

In this era, the three promoted sides are expected to fill ther three relegation slots but that will come as cold comfort to West Ham, who lost 3-0 at promoted Sunderland.

Brentford are also starting a new era with Keith Andrews having replaced the much loved Frank as manager. They fell 3-1 at Nottingham Forest. Igor Thiago scored the Bees goal with a penalty but that apart, there was nothing to cheer the large Bees traveling support.

Andrews told the BBC:

“It was always going to be difficult but we made it harder for ourselves. We knew their strengths and we knew the problems they would cause. Set-pieces were always going to be a threat.

“Get back to basics. Basics in the game is a dirty word at times, but you have to have an edge and do the ugly side of the game and compete as a team. I didn’t think we did that.

“I saw it a lot in the first half and it’s something we need to address. The second half was a lot better on a lot of fronts.”

Rodrigo Muniz scored an injury time equaliser to give Fulham a 1-1 draw at Brighton. Like Palace’s Eze, there are doubts over his future at the club.

The opening week concluded with nine points from seven games for the Capital Crew.

The season’s second derby takes place on Friday when West Ham host Chelsea, with both seeking their first win.

Tottenham, Arsenal and Brentford face Manchester City, Leeds and Aston Villa respectively on Saturday. Palace and Fulham host Nottingham Forest and Manchester United on Sunday.

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