MANCHESTER UNITED VS BRIGHTON – Written by Sam Hardy

Manchester United: United boss Erik Ten Haag made his debut in the Old Trafford dugout on Sunday, with the former Ajax boss lining up with a fluid front four that doesn’t involve Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar started on the bench.

GK: David De Gea

RB: Diogo Dalot

RCB: Harry Maguire

LCB: Lisandro Martinez

LB: Luke Shaw (90′)

RDM: Fred (53′)

LDM: Scott McTominay (78′)

RM: Jadon Sancho (90′)

CAM: Bruno Fernandes (90′)

LM: Marcus Rashford

CF: Christian Eriksen

Substitutes: Tom Heaton, Tyrell Malacia (90′), Raphael Varane, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, James Garner, Donny van de Beek (78′), Anthony Elanga (90′), Alejandro Garnacho (90′), Cristiano Ronaldo (53′)

Brighton: Graham Potter opted for a 5-3-2 system at Old Trafford, with Leandro Trossard occupying the Left Wing-Back role after the departure of Marc Cucurella. New signing Levi Colwill also wasn’t named in the first 11.

GK: Robert Sanchez

RWB: Solly March (90+1′)

RCB: Joel Veltman

CB: Lewis Dunk

LCB: Adam Webster

LWB: Leandro Trossard (75′)

RCM: Alexis Mac-Allister

CM: Moises Caicedo

LCM: Pascal Gross

RST: Danny Welbeck (90+5′)

LST: Adam Lallana (75′)

Substitutes: Jason Steele, Tariq Lamptey (75′), Levi Colwill (90+1′), Enock Mwepu (75′), Denis Undav (90+5′), Neal Maupay, Jan Paul Van Hecke, Jeremy Sariemento, Kaoru Mitoma

United started the game brightly against Brighton, with the only real clear-cut Manchester United chance in the first half came to Bruno Fernandes who blazed over from around 15 yards out after superb work down the right hand side. However, despite the home side looking positive early on, it was Brighton who opened the scoring. Leandro Trossard picked out Danny Welbeck’s run in-behind which was deemed onside by VAR, he fired it across the face of the goal and Pascal Gross was there at the back post to tap home. The second goal didn’t come long after, and it was that man Pascal Gross again. A simply sublime move from the Seagulls starting at their own corner flag ending up in a Pascal Gross tap-in after Welbeck was originally denied.

United were on the comeback road in the second half , an own goal from Alexis Mac-Allister after a double mistake from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez from the United corner injected belief into Old Trafford. Question marks were raised by Brighton about a challenge on the goalkeeper by Diogo Dalot but they were waved away by VAR. The Red Devils just couldn’t find that second goal though, even after bringing on Cristiano Ronaldo early in the second half. United weren’t good enough and Brighton were superb and resolute throughout the 90 minutes.

LEICESTER VS BRENTFORD – Written by Max Robertson

It’s been a long summer for Leicester fans, with no incomings and top players being linked away, but a 2pm kick off vs Brentford could change this, with a new enforced singing section and the clappers gone, it was set to be a good day for the Foxes. 

LEICESTER : With the amount of injuries sustained by Leicester last season, (31 players injured), fans thought it couldn’t get worse, but Leicester were left without Harvey Barnes and Ricardo Pereira, who picked up injuries in their final pre season game vs Sevilla. 

GK : Daniel Ward 

CB : Wesley Fofana 

CB : Jonny Evans 

CB : Daniel Amartey 

RWB : Timothy Castagne 

LWB : James Justin 

CDM : Wilfred Ndidi 

CM : Youri Tielemans 

CM : Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (73′)

CAM : James Maddison 

ST : Jamie Vardy

SUBS : Daniel Iversen, Luke Thomas, Çaglar Söyüncü, Nampalys Mendy, Dennis Praet, Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka (73′)

BRENTFORD : After surviving comfortably last year, Brentford came to Leicester hoping for a win, and with a pretty much full strength lineup, it left Brentford fans confident.

GK : David Raya 

RB : Aaron Hickey (84′)

CB : Pontus Jansson 

CB : Ben Mee (59′)

LB : Rico Henry 

CM : Vitaly Janelt

CM : Christian Nørgaard (73′)

CM : Mathis Jensen (59′)

LW : Yoanne Wissa

RW : Bryan Mbeumo (84′)

ST : Ivan Toney

SUBS : Thomas Strakosha, Finley Stevens, Mads Bech Sørensen (84′), Frank Onyenka, Mads Roerslev Rasmussen, Joshua Dasilva (59′), Keane Lewis-Potter (59′), Shandon Baptise (73′), Halil Dervisoglu (84′)

FULL TIME : Leicester 2-2 Brentford 

A performance which left Leicester fans angered, the season didn’t get off to a good start, 5 minutes before kick off 2,000 Leicester fans were stuck outside in queues, due to the new mobile tickets system. After the iconic ‘When You’re Smiling’ was played, the Leicester faithful really came to life, despite being at home, they out sung Brentford who took 2,700 fans to the King Power, despite the 3,200 allocation given. The deadlock was broken in the 33rd minute, James Maddison’s corner was whipped in onto the head of Timothy Castagne, who fired it home passed David Raya, Leicester fans absolute jubilant in the stands, some sort of unexpected, due to the Foxes problem in converting and defending corners. Into Half Time, Leicester were 1 up and in control of the game, the action resumed and straight away Academy graduate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fired one in to the bottom corner, right infront of the Kop with fans even falling 2 rows down celebrating. With Leicester in control, the system working perfectly, manager Brendan Rodgers decided to sub on Zambian international Patson Daka, for Dewsbury-Hall, a change which Leicester fans didn’t understand. Brentford hit back with just over 30 minutes to go, Daniel Amartey got the wrong side of Ivan Toney, who smashed it in passed Daniel Ward. With Leicester under pressure, Joshua Da Silva levelled the scoring in the 86th minute, after Daniel Amartey’s error once again lead to a goal, after he failed to close him down. Absolute pandemonium in the away end, despite being quiet all game. Boos were heard at full time, after another underwhelming performance. Leicester fans were promised a rebuild after a 4-1 loss away to Nottingham Forest, which fans presumed as signings, but when going into the opening pre season game vs Nottingham County, Brendan Rodgers claimed it was a mentality rebuild, such as seeing out games, but this wasn’t on show today, once again and not for the first time this season. 

Looking at the 2 teams, Leicester look to have an other underwhelming season, despite a great first half, there is no consistency in the team. The changing room doesn’t look a good place to be in right now, with star players Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans being linked away. Leicester fans were left angered with Wesley Fofana who’s been linked with Chelsea in recent weeks, after he headed straight down the tunnel at full time, unlike the rest of the players who stayed out and clapped the fans. 

For Brentford, it looks like another mid table season for them, with the likes of Ivan Toney being able to score goals, they shouldn’t be pulled into a relegation battle, but you never know… it’s the Premier League at the end of the day. 

Controversial comments were made by Brendan Rodgers at full time, speaking to BBC Leicester, he claimed players were fatigued. If this was the case, he wouldn’t have only made 1 substitution, we could see lots of these excuses from him this season, but that may not be the case, he’s the favourite to be sacked first by the Bookies, and isn’t a popular figure around Leicester fans at the moment. 

WEST HAM VS MANCHESTER CITY – Written by Ryan Knight