Manchester City will seek revenge against Tottenham Hotspurs on Saturday for its dramatic Champions League exit last season as Liverpool and Manchester United also look to build on impressive Premier League starts this weekend.
City completed the first ever domestic treble of trophies in England last season, but fell short once more in the Champions League as Tottenham progressed from its quarterfinal tie on away goals.
VAR disallowed Raheem Sterling’s strike deep into stoppage time of a thrilling second leg 4-3 win for the English champion in April, robbing Sterling of his hat-trick on the night and City a place in the last four.
A Sterling start
Yet, Sterling has started the new campaign as he finished the last, scoring a hat-trick on the opening weekend as City thrashed West Ham 5-0 to already move to the top of the table.
Tottenham was also victorious against Aston Villa, but needed to come from behind and two goals in the final five minutes from Harry Kane to secure a 3-1 win over promoted Aston Villa.
Kane has warned that Spurs cannot fall behind so early in the campaign if it wants to maintain a title challenge.
We have to make sure we get off to a good start,” said the England captain.
“It’s important that we stay in touch as long as we can. We have full belief that we can go all the way but there’s a long road ahead.”
Liverpool will hope to have forged ahead by the time City and Spurs kick-off at the Etihad when it travels to a Southampton side reeling from a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Burnley to start the season.
Chelsea was the only member of the ‘big six’ to get off to a losing start as the Blues were humbled 4-0 by Manchester United in Frank Lampard’s first game in charge. The former England midfielder fairly argued that the scoreline was very harsh on his side after the team enjoyed the better of the opening hour.
And there was further encouragement for Lampard in his side’s performance despite losing the UEFA Super Cup to Liverpool on penalties after a 2-2 draw in Istanbul on Wednesday.
