Brentford 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 1
Brighton ended Brentford’s unbeaten start to the season as Leandro Trossard scored the only goal of the game in the 90th minute in west London.
The Belgian curled into the corner on the stroke of full-time to punish Thomas Frank’s side for a lack of cutting edge and inflict a first defeat at home since Valentine’s Day.
The newly promoted Bees had created the better of the chances, but Bryan Mbeumo was guilty of failing to make the most of them and they were hit with a sucker-punch late on.
Brighton’s deadline-day signing Marc Cucurella was handed a full debut and was introduced to life in England with a flailing arm from fellow Spaniard Sergi Canos, which earned an early yellow card.
The Brentford fans, who had been treated to a memorable opening-day home win over Arsenal, were almost on their feet celebrating inside 10 minutes when Ivan Toney tried his luck from 40 yards, but his chipped effort sailed just over the crossbar, much to the relief of away goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Danny Welbeck had a better opportunity for the away side soon after and yet his weak effort was too close to David Raya before the hosts got into their groove.
A neat free-kick routine saw Mbeumo cross into the area for Toney, but his header landed on the roof of the net.
The Bees’ front duo were causing plenty of problems and a wonderful touch by Toney from Raya’s long-range pass saw him get away down the left before he cut back for his strike partner.
Frenchman Mbeumo curled over, however, and did the same again 60 seconds later at the midway point of the first period after an exquisite dummy by Toney, who seemed buoyed by his first top-flight goal at Aston Villa.
Brighton boss Graham Potter had another problem to solve when Adam Webster went down with a muscle injury. Eventually the centre-back limped off to be replaced by Jakub Moder, which saw Joel Veltman moved inside from his right wing-back role.
It did remain goalless at the break, though, with Mbeumo again wasteful after more excellent link-up play with Toney, rifling wide from 16 yards before Vitaly Janelt fired straight at Sanchez as Frank’s side were unable to make their first-half dominance count.
The Seagulls’ frustration with referee Graham Scott had started to boil over at the end of the opening 45, but it was the patience of the official which ran out when he booked Veltman and Shane Duffy in quick succession.
While Brentford had looked the more likely to break the deadlock, former striker Neal Maupay had the first chance of the second period when he dragged an effort wide on the turn.
Shandon Baptiste had suffered an injury-hit 2020-21 campaign but failed to mark his first Premier League start with a goal when he curled over for the hosts with 20 minutes left as both managers rolled the dice with changes.
Brighton substitute Alexis Mac Allister saw an effort deflect wide in what appeared the final opportunity until he found Trossard outside the area and the Belgian worked a yard of space away from Pontus Jansson to rifle home.
It sparked wild celebrations in the away end, where Seagulls chairman Tony Bloom was present, and helped the visitors make it three wins out of four in the league this season.
Southampton 0 West Ham United 0
Premier League player of the month Michail Antonio was shown a late red card as West Ham missed the chance to go top of the table after scraping a goalless draw at winless Southampton.
Antonio was dismissed for a second yellow card deep into added time following a late tackle on Moussa Djenepo having earlier been booked for a tangle with Jack Stephens.
Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off had opened the door for the Hammers to climb to the summit with victory at St Mary’s.
But David Moyes’ unbeaten side were lucky to escape with a point as lively Saints substitute Armando Broja struck a post and had a header hacked off the line late on.
Adam Armstrong and Nathan Redmond also had decent openings for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s hosts, who registered a third consecutive draw, while Antonio, Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen had the visitors’ best openings.
With a Europa League campaign to contend with this term, West Ham’s visit to the south coast marked the start of seven games in 23 days.
Hammers boss Moyes resisted temptation to rotate, naming an unchanged starting XI for the fourth successive game and leaving new signings Kurt Zouma, Alex Kral and Nikola Vlasic awaiting debuts from the bench.
United had won six of the past seven meetings but there was little to separate the two sides during a forgettable first half.
The visitors shaded possession, yet a tame early shot from increasingly-isolated Southampton striker Armstrong was the sole attempt on target.
West Ham’s lack of attacking threat was surprising given they came into the contest having scored 10 times in their opening three games, a record matched only by champions Manchester City.
In-form Antonio contributed heavily to that statistic with four goals and three assists and he eventually threatened two minutes into the second period.
The away side broke swiftly following a Saints corner, culminating in the 31-year-old — who had a loan spell at St Mary’s 12 seasons ago — stinging the palms of home goalkeeper Alex McCarthy with a low effort which looked set to sneak inside the right post.
That attempt helped inject some much-needed tempo into proceedings.
Around 3,300 travelling fans behind McCarthy’s goal — who were revelling in rivals Spurs losing at Selhurst Park — were then poised to celebrate but the towering Soucek somehow failed to connect with a corner, before Saints winger Redmond was unable to capitalise on a rapid counter-attack.
Eager to exploit his team’s growing superiority, Moyes sent on creative Croatia midfielder Vlasic, who arrived on deadline day from CSKA Moscow for a reported £27million, with 27 minutes remaining.
Shortly after, McCarthy tipped over a volley from Bowen and it seemed only a matter of time before the breakthrough arrived.
Yet, momentum swung back the other way and the Hammers would be grateful to leave with their unbeaten record intact.
Chelsea loanee Broja — born in Slough to Albanian parents — was changing the course of the game, causing constant problems for the Hammers with his direct running.
With just under 10 minutes remaining, the 20-year-old moved the ball away from the retreating Angelo Ogbonna, only to see his well-struck effort rebound off the left upright.
Fellow substitute Ibrahima Diallo then fired over, before the Hammers were reliant on captain Declan Rice to clear Broja’s goal-bound header off the line.
With a congested fixture list to come, Moyes would perhaps have been relieved to come out of this contest relatively unscathed.
But he was then deprived of the services of star man Antonio for next weekend’s visit of Manchester United after the forward foolishly lunged at Djenepo five minutes into time added on.
Watford 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
Hwang Hee-chan scored on his debut as Wolves claimed their first goal, point and victory of the season with a 2-0 win at Watford.
In an unfortunate sequence of events, Hornets defender Francisco Sierralta headed the ball into his own net in the 74th minute to give Wolves the lead, and manager Bruno Lage his maiden Premier League goal in charge of the club.
Substitute Hwang then bundled the ball over the line to double his side’s lead and score his first goal on his debut.
Watford had won their opening game against Aston Villa but have suffered back-to-back defeats since, and this was the first game of a new era after Troy Deeney was allowed to leave at the end of August to bring his 11-year chapter with the Hornets to a conclusion.
It was a quiet opening 15 minutes with neither side creating any clear-cut chances, despite the away team dominating the ball and Adama Traore looking dangerous on the right.
Wolves had to wait until after the half-hour mark for their first shot on target, but goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann was able to make a relatively easy save to prevent Francisco Trincao’s low drive from crossing the line.
Watford had a great opportunity just before half-time when Ismaila Sarr found himself with space in the box and was able to pass the ball across the face of goal to the arriving Josh King, but he was unable to get a decisive touch on the ball.
Wolves had another chance to break the deadlock just after the hour when Nelson Semedo was played in by a lovely flick-on from Raul Jimenez, but the Portuguese player dragged the ball wide.
Yet another chance went begging for the visitors in the second half when Joao Moutinho’s free-kick from the right was headed wide by an unmarked Jimenez at the near post.
It took until the 74th minute for the first goal, with Sierralta making a costly error at the back from a Marcal corner to hand Wolves a much-needed breakthrough.
The Chile international had been a doubt for the game after he missed international duty over the last week, with his country asking for the defender to be banned.
Wolves sealed victory late on when Hwang did enough to squeeze the ball over the line and secure three points for Lage’s men.
