A weekend full of news, high-profile clashes, anticipated debuts and upsets around the wide world of soccer has concluded and 90 Minutes is here to recap the very best.
This weekend, Chelsea and Arsenal faced off in a clash of new coaches, Cristiano Ronaldo finally made his Serie A debut, Sergio Aguero put on a clinic at the Etihad and much more.
Enjoy the latest weekend edition of 90 Minutes’ Top Five.
1. Battle of the newcomers
The main conclusion coming out the debuts of Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery was how much more ahead Sarri was of the Spaniard in establishing their brand of game.
When the two faced each other on Saturday, that notion was only reinforced.
Sarri’s Chelsea obtained their second victory of the season against Emery’s Arsenal in a wild affair at Stamford Bridge that showcased the best and the worst of both teams in this premature stage of the Premier League season.
The Blues are close to mastering Sarri-ball on the offensive side and received the much-needed boost of a plugged-in Alvaro Morata who broke his lengthy drought. The defense was exposed as a pending assignment for Sarri to fix after squandering a 2-0 first-half lead before the halftime break.
Speaking of defense, the concerns about Arsenal’s defense only grew after Saturday’s loss despite almost coming away with a point, if not a win with so many chances wasted. Emery has an uphill battle to fix a defense that continues to crumble very easily no matter how the opponent attacks it.
2. Goal-less party
Cristiano Ronaldo’s long-awaited debut in Serie A may have lacked any goals from the Portuguese, but that did not prevent it from being a spectacle.
Juventus featured Ronaldo in the starting XI for the first time in their visit to Chievo, needing a comeback to defeat the home side, 3-2, on Saturday.
Despite the lack of goals, fans filled the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi to watch Serie A’s biggest star in years and almost came away with an upset victory against the defending champions.
If there’s anything to be taken away from Ronaldo’s debut on the field, is that he won’t have it as easy to score in Serie A as many thought. If Chievo managed to stop him, better teams certainly can as well.
3. Aguero
Pep Guardiola will need a very good reason to leave Sergio Aguero on the bench in the near future.
The Argentine put together a remarkable performance on Sunday, scoring a hat-trick in Manchester City’s trouncing of Huddersfield, 6-1, and could have easily scored more.
Last season, Aguero sat on the bench for long periods of time in favor of Gabriel Jesus, which sparked rumors of a possible exit from the club despite becoming its all-time leading scorer.
This season, the striker already has five goals in three games including his brace against Chelsea in the Community Shield and is showing no signs of slowing down.
4. Best of the rest
Kylian Mbappe picked up right were he left off in Russia with a brace in his return to action, helping PSG avoid a scare in their visit to Guingamp.
Three teams that couldn’t avoid were Marseille, who lost to the newly-promoted and very surprising Nimes, Manchester United, who looked very bad in their 3-1 loss at Brighton and Inter, whose highly-hyped squad stumbled out of the gate with a 1-0 loss to Sassuolo.
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Barcelona and Real Madrid kicked off their league campaigns on a positive note, earning home victories against Alaves and Getafe, respectively, with lineups that featured almost all players from last season’s squads.
5. Goal of the weekend
This weekend’s top goal comes from a crazy Ligue 1 weekend featuring plenty of unexpected results.
One of upsets was Toulouse’s 2-1 victory against Bordeaux on Sunday, which started with the beauty of a goal from 20-year-old forward Aaron Leya, who chipped one over Benoit Costil from distance.