LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal moved back to the top of the Premier League with a dominant 3-0 win at Brentford, while Everton beat West Ham 1-0 to get their first victory of the season on Sunday.
Injuries to captain Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko had stretched Arsenal’s squad to the extent that 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri came off the bench late to become the youngest player in Premier League history.
However, the Gunners showed no sign of weakness at a ground where they were beaten 2-0 last season to move back one point above Manchester City and Tottenham at the top of the table.
William Saliba and Gabriel Jesus headed in before half-time and Fabio Vieira marked his first Premier League start with a stunning strike after the break.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank said he believes Arsenal will be title contenders and they played like it to blow away the Bees in the first 45 minutes.
The match had been moved forward two hours to help ease police pressures around Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and Britain’s longest serving monarch was remembered in a minute’s silence before kick-off.
Once the action did get underway, it was one way traffic as Arsenal bounced back in style from their sole defeat of the season away to Manchester United two weeks ago.
It took just 17 minutes for Mikel Arteta’s men to make the breakthrough when Saliba flicked Bukayo Saka’s corner in off the far post.
Jesus also used his head to score his fourth goal in seven Premier League games since joining from Manchester City as he powered home an enticing delivery from Xhaka.