New signing Viktor Gyokeres scores twice to help Arsenal thrash Leeds 5-0 in their first home game of the Premier League season – but they lose Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard to injury.
MATCH REPORT: Gyokeres scores twice as Arsenal crush Leeds
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In their first Premier League home game since signing Viktor Gyokeres, Arsenal defeated Leeds 5-0 thanks to the injuries of Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.
Gyokeres scores twice in the match report for Arsenal to defeat Leeds.
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Yoane Wissa may be desperate to leave Brentford but the presence of Claudia Schiffer and Thomas Tuchel at their win over Aston Villa showed why the Gtech Community Stadium might be one of the places to be this season.
Wissa returned to training with the Brentford squad this week having previously expressed his desire to move on.
However, Brentford boss Keith Andrews said after his side’s 1-0 win over Villa it was “the right decision for the group” not to include Wissa in Saturday’s matchday squad.
He missed the chance to meet supermodel and actress Schiffer, who attended the game with her Brentford investor and filmmaker husband Matthew Vaughn.
The 54-year-old German even popped into the home dressing room before the match for a quick meet and greet with the Brentford players.
“We all said ‘hello’ before the game,” Bees midfielder Jordan Henderson told BBC Match Of The Day.
“Hopefully she comes to the next one as well if we get the three points.”
England manager Tuchel, 51, took in the chance to see Henderson in action along with Tyrone Mings, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins.
Henderson, who was given a shock recall by the Three Lions boss last March, was a steady presence in midfield for Brentford.
The 35-year-old left the pitch to a standing ovation from the home supporters when he was substituted in the 68th minute.
“It was nice to be back,” Henderson added. “The Premier League is the best in the world and hopefully I can play a few more.”
It’s hard to imagine Schiffer and Tuchel knocking around their old Griffin Park stadium, watching the Bees in the fourth tier, as they were back in 2008-09 season.
“It shows where the club is I suppose,” Andrews said.
“It’s a nice part of London for people to come and watch football games so I hoped they enjoyed it.”
Brentford’s clean sheet against Villa equalled their tally from the whole of last season at home in the Premier League.
Club-record signing Dango Ouattara’s debut – and clinically taken winning goal – was particularly pleasing for Andrews.
“He [Ouattara] was amazing. He will be a big player for this club,” added the Bees boss.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta singles out Max Dowman for praise after the 15-year-old became just the third player to appear in a Premier League game before turning 16, making his debut for the Gunners in their 5-0 win against Leeds United.
MATCH REPORT: Gyokeres scores twice as Arsenal crush Leeds
Watch highlights of every Premier League match this season.
The third Championship weekend of the season brought more drama with 29 goals across 11 games.
Coventry City, who reached the play-offs last season, laid down a marker with a 7-1 thrashing of QPR which manager Frank Lampard described as a “a performance of quality, mentality and attitude”.
Parkin: “Coventry are full of goals – that’s 12 in two games. One of my concerns with them last year was there was an over-reliance on Jack Rudoni and he played well and contributed, but to be getting other goals from the likes of Victor Torp and]Brandon] Thomas-Asante, Haji Wright, gives them a really good opportunity to emulate what they did last season.
” My one criticism towards the tail-end of last year was they were a little bit one-dimensional, a lot of balls into the box, but they seem to be scoring different types of goals.
“Normally teams suffer a hangover when you get beaten in the play-offs, but nobody anticipated them getting there last year and such has been the improvement under Frank Lampard they can put that to one side and focus on the positives of the second half of last season and really attack this year.
QPR, on the other hand, conceded five Coventry goals inside the first 45 minutes alone.
And while Richard Kone scored a late consolation, the 7-1 defeat leaves them still searching for a win under new manager Julien Stephan.
Parkin:” There’s players that are getting up to speed. ]Richard] Kone came on and got a goal and I think he’ll be a really good signing, but they’ve taken him and a couple of others from lower levels and they look a little bit patched up, the squad looks a little bit threadbare.
“I didn’t anticipate them losing in that manner, it’s pretty alarming.
” For the QPR fans it will be a bit of a wake-up call about how good Marti Cifuentes did. It encapsulates to me that he was getting the utmost out of a squad that’s not one of the strongest in the Championship.
Sheffield Wednesday looked to be heading for a third defeat after conceding two first-half goals to Wrexham.
But the troubled South Yorkshire side retaliated through Barry Bannan before Bailey Cadamarteri levelled nine minutes from time to earn them a first point of the season.
Parkin: “They’re patched up in terms of their bench, with young players, but the 11’s actually pretty good, experienced, they’ve got some leaders.
” Sheffield Wednesday have been competitive in every game – yes, they lost at home to Stoke, but against Leicester on the opening day they did well and and again against Wrexham, so I’m not surprised.
Sheffield United’s spiral from the play-off final defeat to Sunderland in May continues, as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall and are bottom of the Championship.
Ruben Selles, who replaced manager Chris Wilder in the summer, has now lost his first three matches in charge.
Parkin: “It’s the flip side of Coventry. Sheffield United were]in the promotion race] for so long and so many of those players would have almost been able to touch the Premier League or been pretty certain that they were going to make it. To lose in the manner they did takes some getting over.
” Some of the individuals probably still think they could move on and the squad is thin in areas. They still need one or two new players and he’s]Selles] finding out about what’s the best way to go formation-wise, and personnel-wise.
Stoke and Middlesbrough maintained their 100% starts to the campaign and both have three wins from three games.
Stoke held on with 10 men to beat Southampton 2-1 away, while Middlesbrough won 2-1 at Norwich.
Parkin: “Brilliant stories, both of them.
” Middlesbrough were not really expected to hit the ground running, they had a terrible pre-season – a new manager, a new change in style, new formation with the back three, so I probably didn’t have them to be so defensively good.
“That was the first goal they’ve conceded today in the three games.
Comedy legend Freddie Starr, once amongst Britain’s most cherished performers, was given a proper send-off in the UK after a kind-hearted stranger stepped forward to pay for his funeral when the star died without a penny to his name. The entertainer, who raked in fortunes during his heyday in the 1970s and 80s whilst hosting his own BBC programme, succumbed to a heart attack in 2019 aged 76.
When he passed away, he was residing in a humble one-bedroom property on Spain’s Costa del Sol and was allegedly facing the prospect of becoming homeless.
Fears quickly mounted that the quirky comic would end up with a pauper’s funeral in Spain – a basic burial funded by taxpayers for those without means, typically in an anonymous or shared plot – worlds apart from his desire to be interred back on home soil.
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His Bulgarian carer Nelly Georgieva, who discovered his remains, disclosed that she hadn’t been in contact with his relatives for years, casting doubt over his final send-off until a compassionate stranger intervened, reports the Daily Record.
Speaking at the time, Nelly revealed: “Freddie had bad feelings about back home, he felt the British people had deserted him.
“It would be terrible if Freddie ends up being buried in a pauper’s grave. I don’t want to see that happen but I’m worried if I tried to do something about it his relatives would object,” she added.
Starr, who left behind six children, three former spouses and a widow, departed this world with nothing but outstanding debts and no concrete plans for his burial.
When the late comedian found himself without a benefactor, Sheffield-based funeral director Michael Fogg, who had never crossed paths with Starr, nobly shouldered the costs of his repatriation and funeral, asking nothing from Starr’s family.
Mr Fogg explained his altruistic act: “Anyone who can make a funeral director laugh must be a bloody good comedian. And Freddie Starr could make me laugh. He shouldn’t be buried in foreign land, he should be brought back to be in his own country.”
Fogg’s magnanimity ensured that Starr was returned to British soil, sparing the beloved entertainer the indignity of an anonymous pauper’s burial abroad.
Undeterred by public curiosity, Mr Fogg elaborated: “For those asking why I am paying, well it is my money, it is my business and that is what I want to spend my money on.
“He should be reunited with the people he loved and his family. He shouldn’t be buried in foreign land, he should be brought back to be in his own country.”
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