Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on September 13, 2025
LONDON (Reuters) - Arsenal ensured former Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou endured a miserable return to English football with a 3-0 victory over his new club Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Newcastle United's new signing Nick Woltemade enjoyed a dream debut, heading home in their 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers for their first victory of their campaign, while Bournemouth continued their strong start to the season with a 2-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Fulham recorded their first win of the season by beating Leeds United 1-0 thanks to a late own goal, while Crystal Palace were held to a 0-0 draw by Sunderland and neither Everton nor Aston Villa could find the back of the net in a scoreless draw.
Villa have failed to score in their opening four league games of a season for the first time in their history.
Arsenal dominated at the Emirates as Martin Zubimendi's double and Viktor Gyokeres's tap-in gave Mikel Arteta's men a comfortable home victory, condemning Postecoglou to defeat in his first game as Forest boss.
Spain midfielder Zubimendi struck a stunning volley in the 32nd minute and then Arsenal doubled their lead within a minute of the restart when Eberechi Eze, making his Gunners debut, laid it on a plate for Gyokeres to score his third of the season.
The game was petering out when Zubimendi put it to bed in the 79th minute with a simple header from Leandro Trossard's cross.
"(Zubimendi) has given us a lot of positive things: his presence, his authority on the pitch, the way he connects with the players and that composure that he's having," Arteta said.
"If he starts to add assists and goals like this, then it's another dimension of a player."
Arsenal's victory provisionally moved them to the top of the table ahead of holders Liverpool who play at Burnley on Sunday.
Newcastle's new club record signing Woltemade stole the show in Tyneside, in their first game since their former hero Alexander Isak departed for Liverpool.
Woltemade, who debuted to raucous cheers from the crowd, rewarded the supporters in the 29th minute when he arrived at the back post to send a header past Sam Johnstone.
"The fact we haven't won a game puts more pressure on you in the latter stages," Newcastle boss Eddie Howe told the BBC. "The win was all that mattered but we'd love to win in a better style and score more goals.
"It was great to see Nick score on his debut. Very strong, I was very pleased with him. Tactically he understood what we wanted. He took his goal brilliantly."
At Bournemouth, Alex Scott opened scoring with a brilliant strike from outside the box in the 18th minute.
Brighton drew level in the 48th on a goal from Kaoru Mitoma but Antoine Semenyo sealed the victory for Bournemouth's third win on the bounce with a penalty in the 61st after Evanilson was brought down.
"It was pretty ugly. The manager said at halftime to get stuck in, it's going to get ugly," Semenyo told the BBC.
"The mood in the camp is perfect. We can't ask for any more, we just have to keep going."
Fulham appeared headed for another draw when Gudmundsson scored a horror own goal from a corner kick in the 94th minute, stooping to head in the ball with great force.
"An own goal in the last minute of the game so we have to feel a bit fortunate," Fulham boss Marco Silva said.
"A nice feeling for us, a difficult feeling for Daniel (Farke, Leeds' manager) and the Leeds boys but that is part of the game.
"It was important for us to keep a clean sheet because we need to create this habit and it allowed us to go on and try to win the game."
Later on Saturday, West Ham United hosted Tottenham Hotspur while Chelsea travel to Brentford.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Manchester; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
