The defending champions and last season’s dominant Treble winners withstood the absence of manager Pep Guardiola after back surgery and a rare missed penalty by Erling Haaland to triumph 2-1 over newly-promoted Sheffield United thanks to Rodri’s dramatic late winner at Bramall Lane.
West Ham had been the early leaders after beating Brighton 3-1 with an away-day masterclass on the south coast to top the table on Saturday.
Arsenal joined them on seven points after they came from behind against Fulham but were pegged back by Joao Palhinha’s late goal after Calvin Bassey was sent off. There was also drama as Manchester United came from two goals down to beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 at Old Trafford.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Crystal Palace and Brentford played out a 1-1 draw. Chelsea kicked off a busy weekend of top-flight action with a 3-0 win over Luton to claim their first victory under Mauricio Pochettino. Raheem Sterling scored twice while Nicolas Jackson bagged his first Blues goal to get the west London side off the mark.
Tottenham beat Bournemouth 2-0 on Saturday lunchtime thanks to goals from James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, while on Sunday Aston Villa won 3-1 at newly-promoted Burnley.
