LONDON: Arsenal ensured Ange Postecoglou endured a miserable return to English football with a 3-0 victory over his new club Nottingham Forest, while Tottenham Hotspur beat West Ham United 3-0 on Saturday to join their north London rivals on nine points.

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 former Spurs boss 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 scored just 10 times in 236 games for Real Sociedad. He commanded a 60 million ($81 million) fee in the transfer window because of his defensive abilities and distribution from the base of the midfield.

“[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.”

A comfortable victory achieved without William Saliba and Bukayo Saka and, for much of the match, Martin Odegaard or Declan Rice, underlined the depth of Arsenal’s squad as they aim to go one better after three consecutive second-placed finishes.

Tottenham sit behind Arsenal only on goal difference after a three-goal blitz of 10-man West Ham early in the second half.

Pape Matar Sarr exposed the Hammers’ frailties from set-pieces to head Spurs in front at the London Stadium on 47 minutes.

Tomas Soucek’s straight red card moments later for a wild lunge on Joao Palhinha made a difficult task for Graham Potter’s men an impossible one.

Lucas Bergvall’s looping header quickly doubled Tottenham’s lead before Micky Van de Ven fired in a third.

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.”

Leeds were undone by a 94th minute own goal by Gabriel Gudmundsson to lose at Fulham while Sunderland’s strong return to the Premier League continued by holding Palace at Selhurst Park.

Isak could make his Liverpool bow as the defending champions aim to retake top spot when they play away to Burnley on Sunday before Manchester City host Manchester United.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025