Arne Slot passed his first major examination as Liverpool manager with a statement 3-0 win at Manchester United thanks to Luis Diaz‘s double and a Mohamed Salah strike on Sunday. Slot has the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp but has made a perfect start with a 100 percent record from three Premier League games to sit alongside Manchester City at the top of the table. “I think everything you want to see as a manager you saw in this game,” said Slot.

A second consecutive defeat leaves United boss Erik ten Hag already under pressure just three games into the new season.

The Dutchman survived an internal review at the end of last season after overseeing the club’s worst ever Premier League finish of eighth.

A shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City saved Ten Hag’s job and offered hope for a fresh start, particularly after being backed with a 200 million pounds ($262 million) spend in the transfer market.

But all the hallmarks of United’s failings last season were exposed by the impressive visitors.

“It’s not like I’m Harry Potter,” said Ten Hag.”We just had a third game in the season and again we have to build a new team.

“We will be fine. It’s clear we have to improve but at the end of the season I’m quite confident that we will have a big chance to lift another trophy.”

Casemiro was the fall guy for the home side as the Brazilian was at fault for both Diaz’s goals and hooked off at half-time in favour of youngster Toby Collyer.

United paraded new 42 million pounds signing Manuel Ugarte before kick-off and must now hope the Uruguayan can have a transformational impact to shore up the midfield.

Liverpool, by contrast, did not delve into the market for a defensive midfielder and Slot’s decision to move Ryan Gravenberch into that role has proved an inspired early decision.

Despite Liverpool’s ascendency over United during Klopp’s reign, the German managed to win only two of his 11 away games against United.

This time Liverpool were ruthless and could easily have matched their record 5-0 victory away to United in 2021.

Salah’s swansong season?

United had been handed an early reprieve when Trent Alexander-Arnold fired in Diaz’s deflected cross but the ball had struck Salah, who was in an offside position, on its way through to the right-back.

Casemiro had looked more like his old self in the opening matches of the campaign after struggling badly last season.

But the five-time Champions League winner had another afternoon that suggested his time at this level may now be over.

The former Real Madrid midfielder’s slack pass was pounced on by Gravenberch who fed Salah and his dinked cross was headed in by Diaz at the back post.

Ten Hag’s men collapsed once the second goal went in three minutes before half-time.

Casemiro was caught in possession by Diaz, who then raced into the box to sweep home Salah’s cross.

Salah got his customary goal against United on 56 minutes to rub salt in the home side’s wounds.

The Egyptian’s stunning finish from Dominik Szoboszlai‘s pass was his 15th goal in 16 meetings against the Red Devils, including at least one in each of his last seven appearances at Old Trafford.

However, he again hinted this season could be his last for Liverpool with less than 12 months left to run on his contract.

“I was coming to the game, (thinking) it could be the last time (playing at Old Trafford),” Salah told Sky Sports.

“I had a good summer and had a long time to myself to try to stay positive because as you know it’s my last year at the club.

“I just want to enjoy it and I don’t want to think about it.”

Arsenal have been tipped as the side most likely to dethrone City as champions after four consecutive titles for Pep Guardiola’s men.

But Liverpool could have done little more in the early weeks of the campaign to dispell any doubts they remain contenders even without Klopp at the helm.

Manchester United were stunned by Brighton and Hove Albion last week.© AFP

After the first two matchdays, expected Premier League title challengers Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool all have a perfect 100% record, along with the ever-exciting Brighton. New Liverpool boss Arne Slot has made a perfect start to the daunting task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp with two wins from his opening two Premier League games without conceding. Now, Slot faces his first major test with a trip to Manchester United, while Newcastle and Tottenham also face off on Sunday hoping to dispel early season doubts over their credentials for a top-four finish. We look at the best of this weekend’s action in the Premier League:

Dutch duel at Old Trafford

His first chance to seriously impress the Liverpool support comes at one of Klopp’s least favourite grounds as English football’s two most successful clubs face off at Old Trafford.

Despite Liverpool largely enjoying the superior league position during Klopp’s near nine-year reign, he won just two of his 11 away games to United.

That run included a 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final exit and 2-2 Premier League draw last season that precipitated a Liverpool collapse in his final few months in charge.

Yet the pressure is arguably even more on the Dutch manager in the other dugout.

Erik ten Hag was backed by those at the top of United’s new sporting structure at the end of last season despite finishing eighth – the club’s worst ever Premier League performance.

Hope of a new dawn for the Red Devils has been diminished in the opening weeks of the new campaign.

Joshua Zirkzee’s late winner on his debut at least ensured a winning start against Fulham, but a 2-1 defeat to Brighton last weekend had many of the same hallmarks that have seen United struggle previously under Ten Hag.

Another damaging defeat at home to fierce rivals will put the former Ajax boss’ future back on the agenda just three games into the new season.

Spurs’ Newcastle nightmares

Tottenham’s last two trips to St James’ Park have resulted in 6-1 and 4-0 thrashings by the Magpies.

Both sides have four points from their opening two games but have a point to prove to further their ambitions of returning to the Champions League next season.

Newcastle battled past newly-promoted Southampton 1-0 with 10 men on the opening weekend but were lucky to emerge with a point from a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.

Eddie Howe’s men also needed penalties to get past Nottingham Forest in the League Cup in midweek and there is frustration on Tyneside at their inability to strengthen in the transfer market.

Newcastle have the financial might of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund behind them but have been restricted by the need to meet profit and sustainability rules.

Tottenham cruised past Everton 4-0 last weekend but a 1-1 draw at Leicester exposed familiar vulnerabilities for Ange Postecoglou’s men on the road as a combination of missed chances and careless defending cost them all three points.

Big-spending Brighton to trouble Arsenal?

Two of the four sides still with a perfect record meet at the Emirates as Arsenal host Brighton.

The Seagulls have become accustomed to having their best talents picked off by richer rivals in recent years but this time it is Brighton who have been one of the biggest spenders in the division.

New boss Fabian Hurzeler has been backed with a near £200 million ($264 million) spending spree on eight new signings.

That investment has been met with an immediate reward in wins over Everton and United, but 31-year-old Hurzeler is aware of the step up in class his side face on Saturday.

“They’re one of the best teams in the world at the moment,” said the youngest manager in Premier League history.

“They don’t have a lot of weaknesses, they have quality and solutions for all phases.

“We’re going to need a really good day. We’ll need individual performances, a great togetherness. We go there to win because my squad has the potential.”

Holders Real Madrid will face Liverpool away and host Borussia Dortmund in a repeat of last season’s final in the league stage of the new-look Champions League, the draw for which took place on Thursday. Every team will play eight games against eight different opponents in the new format of Europe’s elite club competition, with all 36 clubs now pooled together into one league rather than split into groups. Madrid, who have signed France superstar Kylian Mbappe since winning a record-extending 15th European Cup, will also notably play AC Milan at home and will go to Atalanta.

Real beat last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw earlier this month.

Liverpool, who are back in the Champions League after a one-season absence, will also notably meet Milan and take on tournament debutants Girona.

However, supporters of the Anfield club will perhaps be most excited about the prospect of hosting German champions Bayer Leverkusen, coached by former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, winners of the competition in 2023, will play at home to Italian champions Inter Milan and go to both Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

However, they were also handed more comfortable opponents including Club Brugge, Sparta Prague and Slovan Bratislava, who have never played in the modern Champions League proper.

Other standout head-to-heads will include Bayern Munich against both PSG and Barcelona, and Arsenal against Inter and Paris.

The number of clubs in the Champions League has increased from 32 in the past, with the 36 participants split into four seeded pots of nine for the draw.

Every team faces two teams from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. The first matches will be played on September 17, 18 and 19.

The two extra matchdays in the new league phase will take place in January, at the end of which the top eight clubs in the 36-team classification will advance directly to the last 16.

Those ranked between ninth and 24th place will go through to play a play-off round from which will emerge the remaining eight sides advancing to the last 16.

The bottom 12 in the league phase will be eliminated altogether, with no clubs parachuting down into the Europa League as in the past.

The Europa League and third-tier Conference League, the draws for which take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 clubs, although the latter competition will involve only six matchdays in the league phase.

File photo of Federico Chiesa.© Instagram

File image of UEFA Champions League trophy.© AFP

A new era in European club football begins on Thursday when the draw takes place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League featuring a radically changed format. European football’s governing body is selling what it describes as “a thrilling new future” for the game on the continent with more teams playing more matches, and more prize money on offer. UEFA needs to generate hype around the new format, because there is a risk — in the beginning at least — that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.

For the last 21 years, the Champions League had consisted of a group stage in which 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two in each group qualified for the knockout phase.

The new version will feature 36 clubs with everyone playing eight matches, but all teams pooled together into one giant league rather than in groups.

Clubs will still be split into four seeded pots of nine teams, with every participant given two opponents from each pot.

The top eight in the final ranking go through to the last 16, while the next 16 sides advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remainder go out.

The new format was introduced against the backdrop of the threat by Europe’s biggest clubs to break away and form their own Super League.

But UEFA are also hoping the format can be a solution to the problem of competitive imbalance in the sport which was making the group stage more predictable.

“The new format will introduce a better competitive balance between all the teams, with the possibility for each team to play opponents of a similar competitive level throughout the league phase,” UEFA say.

Financial rewards

What the changes will certainly not address are concerns about too much football being played and damaging the quality as a result.

The increasing demands on players, and the lack of rest as a result, were cited as reasons why many matches at Euro 2024 proved disappointing.

The new Champions League, in a season which is also set to finish with the first expanded version of FIFA’s Club World Cup, will feature a total of 144 games in the group stage, up from 96 before.

The financial rewards are greater, however, with UEFA’s total prize pot for the Champions League rising by about 25 percent to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).

The winners of the competition can pocket over 86 million euros just in prize money, not including bonuses of 700,000 euros for every point gained in the league phase or income from television.

Real Madrid were the winners last season, raising the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.

The addition of Kylian Mbappe to their squad means they will hope to go all the way again, and emerge victorious in the final in Munich on May 31, next year.

Newcomers

This season’s Champions League will include newcomers such as Girona from Spain, while Bologna of Italy take part in Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in 60 years.

Brest of France had never qualified for any European competition before, but now take part after finishing third in Ligue 1 last season — taking advantage of the extra place handed to France as the fifth-ranked league in Europe.

As for the other additional places, one goes to a national champion who will emerge from the qualifying rounds, while Italy and Germany get an extra team each because of the performances of their clubs in Europe last season.

UEFA said the draw itself will be a “hybrid” affair, between the manual drawing of balls and the use of software, having calculated that doing it all by hand would take more than three hours.

The Europa League and Conference League, the draws for which will both take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 teams, although there will be only six matches for clubs in the league phase of the latter competition.

Arne Slot enjoyed a winning bow as Liverpool boss at Anfield with Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah scoring in a 2-0 win over Brentford on Sunday. The Reds join Manchester City, Arsenal and Brighton as the only sides with maximum points from two games of the new Premier League season. Tougher tests lie ahead of Slot in his daunting task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp, starting with a visit to Manchester United next weekend. But the early signs are positive for the Dutchman as his side are yet to concede and showcased their wealth of attacking options, spearheaded by Salah.

“Most players are quite used to what we want because it is not too different to what Jurgen did in the past,” said Slot after building on an opening weekend win at Ipswich.

“We still have to prove a lot against teams that can end up in the top six.”

Slot is expected to instill a more possession-focused approach than the one adopted by Klopp in his near nine years in charge.

However, Liverpool’s opener was straight out of the Klopp copybook.

From a Brentford corner, Salah released Diogo Jota, who timed his pass perfectly into Diaz to charge through on goal and fire into the top corner on 13 minutes.

Thereafter there were only flashes of the football Slot is hoping to bring in the first half.

Brentford were again missing Ivan Toney, who is expected to leave the club before Friday’s transfer deadline.

But the Bees still posed a threat without the England striker and should have levelled 10 minutes into the second half.

Nathan Collins met Mathias Jensen’s enticing cross with a bullet header that Alisson Becker did brilliantly to parry.

That warning awoke Liverpool from their slumber early in the second period.

Collins made a goal-saving block moments later to deny Jota turning in Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s low cross.

Vitaly Janelt was next to get a vital foot in to prevent Salah rounding off a slick team move.

Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken then produced a brilliant stop to turn Diaz’s powerful effort behind.

As is so often the case, the Reds had to turn to Salah to provide the clinical finish to finally make the points safe.

The impressive Diaz this time bagged the assist and the Egyptian managed to time his run perfectly to remain onside and dink the ball over Flekken.

“In the first half there is more energy in the other team, then in the second half it eventually leads to gaps that open up,” added Slot.

“In the end Brentford didn’t have the legs anymore to defend us.”

Slot was serenaded in the closing stages by the 60,000 crowd chanting his name — as they had been instructed to do by Klopp at his farewell in May.

For much of last season Liverpool looked on course to give Klopp a glorious goodbye as they rivalled City and Arsenal for the title until falling away in the final weeks of the season.

There has been much consternation among the Liverpool support at the lack of a single new signing heading into the final week of the transfer window to strengthen that squad.

But they look best placed of the rest to push City and Arsenal again if there is to be a three-way battle for the title.

Arne Slot got off to a winning Premier League start as Liverpool manager thanks to two quickfire goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah in a 2-0 win at newly-promoted Ipswich on Saturday. Slot has the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield, but the Dutchman will have been heartened by a commanding second-half performance.

“The first taste in the first half was maybe as expected because they were all on top of us, very aggressive. Second half was a joy to watch,” said Slot.

Ipswich were riding the crest of a wave after back-to-back promotions and a return to the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. Celebrity fan and minority owner Ed Sheeran was in attendance at Portman Road, although the singer-songwriter had to leave at half-time to attend a gig in Serbia.

Sheeran saw the best of the Tractor Boys, who were far from overawed by their illustrious opponents early on. Omari Hutchinson had a shot blocked inside two minutes before Jacob Greaves headed the best chance of the first half too close to Alisson Becker.

Slot is the only new face at Anfield as Liverpool are the only side in the Premier League yet to make a signing in the transfer window. The need for some fresh faces was shown in a sloppy and slow first 45 minutes on the ball.

However, Slot’s half-time team talk did the trick as the Reds were a different side after the break and could have ran out far more convincing winners. “First thing was we don’t have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels,” added Slot.

“I think we needed to win the long balls through the air. That helped and gave us control. I don’t think Ipswich could keep up with the tempo in the second half.”

Greaves needed to make a vital clearance to prevent Salah’s effort curling in at the far corner. But Liverpool also had a narrow escape as a potential penalty for a Virgil van Dijk push on Liam Delap was ruled out for a marginal offside in the build-up.

Luis Diaz missed a glorious chance to open the scoring when he scooped over from close range after wonderful play from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai to tee up the Colombian. Alexander-Arnold’s teasing cross was then headed wide by Jota with the goal gaping.

Liverpool’s pressure finally told on the hour mark as another defence-splitting pass from Alexander-Arnold opened up Ipswich and Salah unselfishly squared for Jota to make amends for his earlier miss. Five minutes later it was 2-0 as Salah pounced to score for the ninth time on the opening weekend of the season for Liverpool after a one-two with Szoboszlai.

Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton made a string of saves in the closing stages, notably from Salah and Conor Bradley, to prevent a more embarrassing opening day defeat. Kieran McKenna’s men had been unbeaten at home in the league for nearly 12 months.

But Ipswich were given an early lesson in the gulf in quality between the Championship and Premier League. Things will not get any easier for Ipswich next weekend when they travel to defending champions Manchester City.

Liverpool, on the other hand, have the chance to build up some early momentum under Slot. Either side of a trip to Manchester United next month, they face Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Wolves and Crystal Palace in their next six Premier League games before the October international break.

Virgil van Dijk in an interaction with the referee during Netherlands vs England Euro 2024 semi-final.© AFP