Man City, Liverpool start 2019-20 Premier League campaign with big win

Manchester City made a flying start to their Premier League title defence as Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick inspired a 5-0 demolition of West Ham on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s side are bidding to become just the second club in the Premier League era to win three successive titles.

And after Liverpool laid down an early marker with a 4-1 win against Norwich in the season’s opening game on Friday, the champions responded with a swaggering display of their own at the London Stadium.

Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring to repay Guardiola’s faith after the City manager picked him instead of the club’s record goalscorer Sergio Aguero.

Then Sterling took over, replicating his dynamic form of last season with a two classy finishes. Substitute Aguero bagged City’s fourth with a penalty after his first effort from the spot was saved, only for VAR to call for a retake after Lukasz Fabianski came off his line too soon.

Sterling wrapped up his treble in the final moments as City showed they have no intention of conceding any early ground to European champions Liverpool, who finished just one point behind them last term.

This was the perfect start as City made it nine successive opening-day wins.

strong start

Earlier in season’s opener on Friday at Anfield, Liverpool faced a huge setback as they could be without inspirational goalkeeper Alisson Becker for a number of weeks after the Brazilian suffered a calf injury 4-1 thrashing of Norwich to kick-off the season in style.

The European champions aiming to end a 30-year wait to win the Premier League after missing out by only one point to Manchester City last season, laid down an early marker in the title race by racing into a 4-0 lead before half-time.

Norwich captain Grant Hanley’s hapless own goal just seven minutes in set the tone for what could be a long season for the Canaries before Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Divock Origi netted as Liverpool shot out of the blocks.

However, the Reds’ joy was curtailed when Alisson pulled up after kicking the ball clear from a routine goal kick and needed support to limp off the field.

Alisson kept 20 clean sheets in his first Premier League season and was also instrumental in Liverpool’s Champions League triumph.

Spanish goalkeeper Adrian only joined Liverpool this week on a free transfer after Simon Mignolet departed to join Club Brugge.

But the former West Ham stopper could now have a huge role to play in the coming weeks to ensure Klopp’s men cede no early ground in the title race to City with tricky matches against Southampton and Arsenal to come.