Premier League Round-Up: Hull Keep Pace at the Top, Fernandes Hits Three and Spurs Hit Bottom

Two matchweeks into the Premier League season, the names at the top are Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Hull City, and only one of those requires you to read the sentence twice. Promoted Hull have won both games without conceding a goal. Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick at Old Trafford, Chelsea and Brighton traded seven goals at Stamford Bridge, and at the other end of the table Tottenham sit bottom, two games played, no goals scored, five conceded, and a stadium that emptied early.

The shape of the round

Four clubs have six points: City and Arsenal, who were expected to, and Hull and Chelsea, who supply the round's texture. Brentford, Newcastle, Everton and Leeds follow on four, all unbeaten. Liverpool have drawn twice under Andoni Iraola, twice recovering late, and sit 13th. Then comes the basement, where five clubs have nothing: Fulham, Coventry, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Spurs, with Villa, Tottenham and Coventry yet to score at all. A window that closes on Tuesday hangs over most of them, and several of the weekend's post-match interviews were as much about arrivals and departures as about the football.

Friday: Crystal Palace 1-4 Manchester City, Maresca rolls on

The round opened at Selhurst Park, where Enzo Maresca's City made it two wins from two with a performance that grew steadily heavier on Palace's shoulders. Erling Haaland opened on 17 minutes from Antoine Semenyo's assist, and the game broke properly in a six-minute burst after the interval: Rayan Cherki scored on 54 and 59, either side of Palace's goal, an unfortunate Gianluigi Donnarumma own goal from a superb Pino free-kick. Haaland added his second on 84, Phil Foden's second assist of the night after also teeing up Cherki's first. Maresca kept the assessment level: "We scored four, probably could've scored more, only conceded one." Palace boss Pierre Sage lamented that his substitutions drained the side's energy, and admitted the anger was aimed at himself as much as the team. Palace have lost both and face a busy few days before the window shuts.

Chelsea 4-3 Brighton: seven goals and a debut keeper signed at lunchtime

Xabi Alonso's first home league game in charge produced the round's wildest scoreline and its strangest team news: Emi Martinez started in goal less than four hours after his £7.5m move from Aston Villa was confirmed. Chelsea were three up inside 32 minutes. Romeo Lavia tapped in his first Chelsea goal after Bart Verbruggen fumbled, Pedro Neto prodded in Morgan Rogers' cross, and Joao Pedro scored against his former club from Jorrel Hato's pass. Brighton clawed their way back through Malick Yalcouye's volley and a Pascal Gross shot that deflected in off Joao Pedro, before Cole Palmer eased the nerves with a brilliant curler from outside the box on 74. Gross headed a third with virtually the final action, too late to finish the comeback. Martinez, who turns 34 next week, was unlucky with two of the three he conceded and sharp for everything else, and Chelsea's perfect start survives. Their next assignment is Arsenal away on Sunday, which will tell everyone rather more.

Manchester United 5-2 Ipswich Town: Fernandes takes the game personally

Old Trafford watched Ipswich lead through Leif Davis's 29th-minute goal, and then watched Bruno Fernandes decide the afternoon had gone on long enough. The captain levelled from Matheus Cunha's pass on 40, and after Jacob Greaves turned the ball into his own net on 56, Fernandes added a penalty on 61 and completed his hat-trick on 68. He then turned provider for Bryan Mbeumo's fifth before Chuba Akpom pulled one back in stoppage time. Fernandes, capping what he called a huge week with three goals, kept the explanation simple: "It is one of those days when everything comes to you and you have to take it." Michael Carrick was as pleased with the mentality as the football, and a 74,148 crowd went home having seen United respond to a setback rather than sink into one. United are tenth with three points.

Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Newcastle United: the £300m start goes backwards

Roberto de Zerbi spent more than £300m in the summer, and two games in Spurs are bottom of the Premier League without a goal. Newcastle's new manager Matthias Jaissle collected his first Premier League win with the round's most pointed subplot: Sandro Tonali, now a £100m Spurs record signing, faced his old club for the first time and was booed relentlessly by the away end, which waved him off when he was substituted. Nico Gonzalez, on debut after his £52m move from Manchester City, started the opening goal with a superb crossfield pass, Amar Dedic headed into Anthony Elanga's path, and the Swede spun away from Tonali and shot in off the post on 62. Yoane Wissa acrobatically hooked in the second from Nick Woltemade's headed knockdown ten minutes later. Spurs missed their chances, Omar Marmoush the chief culprit, and have won three of their past 23 home league games. The pre-season optimism has gone the way of the crowd: early.

Coventry City 0-1 Hull City: the promoted club nobody can score against

Hull went to fellow promoted Coventry, let the hosts have the ball for most of the afternoon, and left with a 100% record: played two, won two, no goals conceded. Liam Millar settled it on 82 minutes, played through by Mohamed Belloumi and firing past Carl Rushworth in front of 31,239. Coventry, who have spent more than £100m on ten players and are still waiting for a first win in the division since April 2001, put only three of eleven efforts on target. The framing numbers all favour Sergej Jakirovic's side. Goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis, a £20m signing from Olympiakos, is the first keeper to keep a clean sheet in a promoted side's opening two games of a Premier League season since David Raya in 2021-22, and Hull sit level on points with Manchester City. History offers Hull a caution rather than a promise: they are one of only three clubs relegated from the Premier League after winning their opening two games. Nobody at the MKM Stadium will care about that this week.

Monday: Aston Villa 0-1 Arsenal, Saka settles a grind

The round closed at Villa Park, where Bukayo Saka's 59th-minute finish from Riccardo Calafiori's assist gave Arsenal a second win from two. It was not a spectacle; Jamie Carragher, watching for Sky Sports, called Arsenal "arguably the best team in world football" while conceding the game itself was no classic. Mikel Arteta preferred the phrase "a great squad performance", and Ezri Konsa made his Arsenal debut against his former club. Villa have lost both games without scoring, and yet Unai Emery sounded like a man reading from a longer book: "They are favourites to win the Premier League and we are trying to build a team." The window shuts on Tuesday; Villa's rebuild may have another chapter left in it.

The rest of the weekend

Liverpool 2-2 Nottingham Forest

Anfield's new era under Andoni Iraola is still waiting for a first win, and this one needed rescuing twice. Dan Ndoye slotted Forest ahead on 24 minutes after one long ball undid the Liverpool defence, and Alexander Isak levelled on the hour, tapping in Cody Gakpo's low cross. Then Alisson was penalised for catching Neco Williams after a quick throw-in and Morgan Gibbs-White sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot. Victor Munoz, on his full debut, thumped in off the crossbar from Florian Wirtz's pass with eight minutes left. Neither Iraola nor Oliver Glasner has a win since taking over in the summer, and 60,415 went home with the season's pattern forming: Liverpool concede simply, then rally late.

Bournemouth 1-1 Everton

Marco Rose's first home game in charge of Bournemouth followed the script of his first away one: a lead, then late heartbreak. Alex Scott's deflected strike on 41 minutes, set up by Evanilson's fine wing work, looked like being enough, largely because Djordje Petrovic kept saving from Everton. James Tarkowski had other plans, thumping in a 91st-minute equaliser after two Bournemouth players failed to clear Hayden Hackney's corner. Everton stay unbeaten on four points; Bournemouth have one.

Leeds United 1-1 Brentford

Brentford dominated the first hour at Elland Road and led through Kevin Schade's neat flick on 41 minutes, with Leeds failing to register a first-half shot on target. The game then bent the other way as the crowd got louder, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin tapped in Lukas Nmecha's cross on 79 for his first goal of the season. James Trafford saved well from Igor Thiago's header, Calvert-Lewin had a late effort kept out while offside, and both sides stayed unbeaten. On balance, a point gained for Leeds and two dropped by Brentford.

Sunderland 1-0 Fulham

A scrappy game was settled by two substitutes: Habib Diarra's rapid run down the right produced a low cross Bernd Leno could not gather, and Wilson Isidor converted on 75 minutes for Sunderland's first win of the season in front of 46,781. Fulham did not manage a shot on target, and their head coach Alvaro Arbeloa did not reach for diplomacy: "We didn't even fight, we didn't run, poor technical level. We were not in the game." Fulham have lost both. Sunderland, with a Europa League campaign starting later this year, will take the clean sheet as gladly as the goal.

What the second table says

City, Arsenal, Hull and Chelsea on six points is a sentence that will read differently by October, but the details underneath it are worth keeping. Arsenal have not conceded. Hull have not conceded. Chelsea have scored seven and conceded five, which is a settled identity if not a defensive plan. The unbeaten quartet on four points, Brentford, Newcastle, Everton and Leeds, all look organised in a way that early-season tables tend to reward. And the bottom five are pointless for five different reasons: Spurs, Villa and Coventry cannot score, Palace fade late, and Fulham's own manager questioned their desire in public.

The window closes on Tuesday, which means several of these squads are about to become different squads. Chelsea visit Arsenal on Sunday in the first genuinely loud fixture of the season, Hull host Villa with the table upside-down between them, and Liverpool will keep looking for the first win of the Iraola era. Two games is a mood, not a verdict. But moods harden quickly in this league, and a few managers already know which way theirs is leaning.

Sources: BBC Sport.