Lampard must hope Chelsea youngsters can step up, promoted trio look up for the fight and Zaha finds home comfort at Palace

Eddie Howe has a quality problem when it comes to goalkeepers. In the end it was the 21-year-old Aaron Ramsdale, who has been capped at youth level by England and shone in League One with AFC Wimbledon during the second half of last season, who got the nod ahead of Artur Boruc, Mark Travers and Asmir Begovic to make his Bournemouth debut against his former club, having left Sheffield United for around £800,000 on deadline day in January 2017. At the time Chris Wilder was six months into his dream job – and about to tie the knot with wife-to-be Francesca. “I sold him an hour before I got married in London,” Wilder said. “He tried to balls that up. Myself and the chief executive sold him and then that got done and within the hour I was married.” Ben Fisher

Related: The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos

Related: Solskjær salutes new signings after Manchester United trounce Chelsea

Related: Nicolas Pépé cameo gives Arsenal cause for optimism in workaday win| Jonathan Wilson

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• Manager’s praise for Wan-Bissaka, Maguire and James
• Disappointed Lampard unfazed by Mourinho criticism

Ole Gunnar Solskjær praised Manchester United’s “risk and reward” play as Chelsea were torn apart at Old Trafford on Sunday.

An 18th-minute penalty from Marcus Rashford before a second from the forward after the break, along with strikes from Anthony Martial and Daniel James on 65 and 81 minutes, respectively, secured a confidence-boosting victory in what is expected to be a season of transition for United.

Related: Martial and Rashford reward Solskjær’s Manchester United rejig | Jamie Jackson

Related: Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea: Premier League player ratings | Andy Hunter

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Harry Maguire is influential on debut as Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba shine while Chelsea’s defenders have a day to forget

David de Gea A confident start to the new season with good positioning and fine saves from Barkley, Emerson and Mount. 7

Related: Martial and Rashford reward Solskjær’s Manchester United rejig | Jamie Jackson

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Manchester United beat Chelsea 4-0 to ruin Frank Lampard's debut as a Premier League coach in their season-opening game on Sunday.

Marcus Rashford scored twice, Anthony Martial grabbed another and substitute Daniel James completed the rout on his debut, but it was also an impressive defensive performance from United with the world's most expensive defender, Harry Maguire, playing his role in keeping the visitors at bay.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka also impressed on his debut after playing from the start

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The hosts struggled to hold their lead until telling interventions by Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford that bode well for their campaign

Across two breathtaking minutes Manchester United shot an electric bolt through Old Trafford.

Until then Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side clung to a lead against a Chelsea side who surely wondered how they still trailed.

Related: Manchester United make it a nightmare start for Frank Lampard’s Chelsea

Related: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 top scorers 2019-20

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Murals, bubbles, VAR drama and a tribute to Justin Edinburgh in this week’s roundup of the best top-flight pictures

• View the Dozen archive

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As opening games go, Manchester United will have to be happy with this one. They won, they kept a clean sheet and Ole Gunnar Solskjær was noisily serenaded by all four sides of the ground. Sure, there was the impertinence of José Mourinho, in his new role in the television studios, opining that Manchester City’s B team would stand a better chance of winning the Premier League. Yet this was the fifth season in a row United have won their first game of a top-flight season and the last time that happened was 1910 - the very year that Old Trafford opened for business.

Not that anyone should be getting too carried away just yet. Or, indeed, thinking that Mourinho might necessarily have been mistaken. A 4-0 winning margin does not quite tell the full story, particularly when taking into account a first half in which Chelsea’s players often gave their opponents the run-around, hitting the woodwork twice as well as creating all sorts of danger.

Related: Manchester United 4-0 Chelsea: Premier League – live reaction!

Related: Aubameyang’s Arsenal winner gives Steve Bruce losing start at Newcastle

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• Latest updates from the 4.30pm BST kick-off
• Newcastle v Arsenal – live with Ben Fisher!
• Mourinho: City ‘B team’ closer to title than United
• And why not email Rob with your thoughts

4.18pm BST

Harry Maguire speaks

“I’m really proud to join this club and I’m looking forward to playing now. It’s a big game to start. We want to be on the front foot and play in their half. The atmosphere will be unbelievable – I played here last year on the opening as well and I know it will be great.”

4.02pm BST

José Mourinho department

Related: Manchester City’s ‘B team’ are closer to title than United, says José Mourinho

3.59pm BST

“I guess this is naïve,” says Francis Mead, “but Angel Gomes looks a fantastic player. Please just put him in the team and play him. Give him a chance - please, please, please.”

He was included in the matchday squad. What more do you want?

3.57pm BST

Both managers have picked young sides. The oldest player in in the United team is the captain David de Gea, 28. The oldest outfield player is Jesse Lingard, who is reportedly 26.

Chelsea have only three players over the age of 25 - Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho and the game’s only thirtysomething, Pedro.

3.52pm BST

What a difference 11 years makes

Good lord pic.twitter.com/U0Qy5EY1B9

3.34pm BST

Manchester United give debuts to Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire, while Frank Lampard prefers Mason Mount to Christian Pulisic. Tammy Abraham, who made two appearances as substitute in 2015-16, starts his first league game for Chelsea.

Manchester United (4-3-3) De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Pereira, Pogba; Lingard, Rashford, Martial.
Substitutes: Romero, Mata, Young, James, Greenwood, Matic, Tuanzebe.

3.14pm BST

There’s just over half an hour remaining at St James’ Park, where Newcastle are playing Arsenal. You won’t believe the score!

Related: Newcastle United v Arsenal: Premier League – live!

3.14pm BST

Essential pre-match reading

Related: Manchester United needed a rebuild this summer but failed to act once again | Daniel Harris

Related: Own man Frank Lampard ready to prove Chelsea doubters wrong

Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær expects Harry Maguire to give side a new dimension

3.01pm BST

This transfer news, from the PA wires, is best digested with a nice Chianti

Highly-rated Monaco teenager Hannibal Mejbri is heading to Manchester United in a $10m deal, subject to FIFA clearance.

10.18am BST

Hello and welcome to live coverage of more football. Between them, Manchester United and Chelsea have won the title in 18 of the 27 Premier League seasons. This year, they start as 50-1 outsiders. Let that marinate for a few seconds: before they’ve kicked a ball, Manchester United and Chelsea are 50-1 to win the title.

For both teams, the realistic grail is fourth place rather than first. Both have been in endless transition - United since 2013, Chelsea since about 2007. And though Chelsea have managed to win a few titles in that time, an extraordinary achievement in many ways, such fleeting relationships with managers rarely create the same memories.

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• Mourinho: ‘I think even City’s B team could fight for the title’
• United agree €10m deal for Monaco teenager Hannibal Mejbri

José Mourinho has ruled Manchester United and Chelsea out of title contention – and added that Manchester City’s “B team” might be good enough to win the Premier League.

Mourinho was a lively presence on Sky Sports in the buildup to the clash between his former clubs at Old Trafford on Sunday, having signed up as a pundit for the new season.

Related: Solskjær’s uphill battle: why Manchester United have a mountain to climb | Paul Wilson

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The Manchester United manager says the defender was his No1 transfer target and insists he will have a huge impact

Ole Gunnar Solskjær is looking for a massive impact from Harry Maguire as the England centre-back joins his new-look Manchester United side.

The Norwegian says he decided to target Maguire after he impressed in United’s 1-0 win at Leicester on 3 February. Fast-forward to Chelsea’s visit on Sunday for the season opener and after an £80m payment to Leicester, Maguire is expected to be in the XI and start his role as the key man in the new Solskjær project.

Related: Solskjær’s uphill battle: why Manchester United have a mountain to climb | Paul Wilson

Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær ‘relieved’ window closed as Manchester United look ahead

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Ahead of their first meeting of the season, new Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard said that he and his Manchester United counterpart, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, are starting on an equal footing given their respective club rebuilding projects.

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Players such as Christian Eriksen and Paul Pogba could still move clubs after closing of Premier League window, complicating season planning at many clubs

Mauricio Pochettino is right about the transfer window deadline; it makes no sense to be three weeks out of step with the rest of Europe.

Given the way Romelu Lukaku has just left Manchester United in the lurch, basically forcing through his own departure with only time left for his club to make a half-baked and easily resisted attempt to sign the 33-year-old Mario Mandzukic as a new attacking figurehead, any manager in charge of a squad containing a player coveted abroad will not be able to rest easy until the beginning of September. Such players include Paul Pogba, Christian Eriksen, Morgan Schneiderlin and perhaps a few more whose amenability to a transfer overseas has not been flagged up all summer; as the Tottenham manager points out, it is “not common sense” to build that sort of crisis into your constitution when the earliest a replacement could be found is now around Christmas.

Related: Spurs ‘vulnerable’ to bids for players from Europe, says Mauricio Pochettino

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While City, Liverpool and Tottenham are proving the value of joined-up thinking, United remain a concoction of the ideas, hopes and mistakes of a series of managers

Back in the old days of the then fledgling Premier League, before Arsène Wenger arrived at Arsenal and the money turned up at Chelsea and Manchester City, Newcastle were frequently Manchester United’s biggest rivals in what was always an entertainingly unequal contest.

Unequal because by the mid-90s Alex Ferguson had turned Manchester United into a sleek, efficient trophy-winning machine, whereas Newcastle were run more along the lines of a soap opera. At their best under Kevin Keegan they were a match for anyone, though the actual business of playing winning football often seemed secondary to a whole series of distractions on and off the pitch. One United was predictable and hard-nosed about the business of coming out on top, the other was prone to wild fluctuations of fortune and emotion which in the end had an effect on results.

Related: VAR VAR voom! The Premier League gets set for video referees

No 1: Arsenal
No 2: Aston Villa
No 3: Bournemouth
No 4: Brighton
No 5: Burnley
No 6: Chelsea
No 7: Crystal Palace
No 8: Everton
No 9: Leicester City
No 10: Liverpool
No 11: Manchester City
No 12: Manchester United
No 13: Newcastle United
No 14: Norwich City
No 15: Sheffield United
No 16: Southampton
No 17: Tottenham Hotspur
No 18: Watford
No 19: West Ham
No 20: Wolves

Related: New world order? Welcome to Premier League's new era of excellence

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Ole Gunnar Solskjær hopes his brave new world starts with a promising performance following a first summer in charge of Manchester United. Frank Lampard, in his competitive debut as the Chelsea No 1, will look for precisely the same from his team. Harry Maguire is set to make his bow for United, while Chelsea’s transfer embargo means no fresh faces were added in the window. Jamie Jackson

Sunday 4.30pm Sky Sports Premier League

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• Manager ‘very confident’ team will score goals after Lukaku exit
• ‘Club does not feel negativity from fans over summer spending’

To listen to Ole Gunnar Solskjær sitting before a larger than usual audience to preview Manchester United’s season was to witness a man who conspicuously did not want to say anything that could add to the sense – once again – that the club could have had a much more productive summer.

Solskjær wanted to make the point that the negativity swirling around Old Trafford was not shared by himself or his colleagues. Every question was seen as a potential trap. He even declared he had no problem whatsoever with Romelu Lukaku despite the striker effectively abandoning all sense of duty to train with Anderlecht before finalising his move to Internazionale. Was he disappointed with what had happened? Solskjær smiled and answered the question, choosing his words very carefully, in a way that did not really answer the question.

Related: Manchester United needed a rebuild this summer but failed to act once again | Daniel Harris

Related: Premier League 2019‑20 preview No 12: Manchester United

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As the season kicks off the Premier League appears to have it all. But this brave new world brings fresh challenges for all

Bring me my bow of burning gold. Bring me my all-English Euro finals. Bring me my £5bn three-year domestic TV rights cycle. Bring me my Amazon stick of fire.

The Premier League has always been an imperial, expansionist force. From the start the aim has been to fill the skies, to build a luminous new global super league in England’s own green and pleasantly deregulated land.

Related: Transfer window 2019 – every summer deal from Europe's top five leagues

No 1: Arsenal
No 2: Aston Villa
No 3: Bournemouth
No 4: Brighton
No 5: Burnley
No 6: Chelsea
No 7: Crystal Palace
No 8: Everton
No 9: Leicester City
No 10: Liverpool
No 11: Manchester City
No 12: Manchester United
No 13: Newcastle United
No 14: Norwich City
No 15: Sheffield United
No 16: Southampton
No 17: Tottenham Hotspur
No 18: Watford
No 19: West Ham
No 20: Wolves

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The Glazers may have spend £80m on Maguire but then sold Lukaku for £74m, leaving United to start another season short on quality

It is a truism that people who talk money are boring, likewise that money talk infiltrates our lives to dispiriting extent. Football – a warm buzz of fantasy, community and identity – should give us refuge from this, but it has become impossible to grasp one without referencing the other. “Company structure”, “EBITDA” and “Mr Potato Head” now form part of the supporter’s lexicon – still prefixed and suffixed with profanity, but miserable nevertheless.

Related: Transfer window: team-by-team guide to the Premier League summer deals

Related: Manchester United have been owned by the Glazers for 13 years. No wonder they’re struggling | David Conn

Related: Premier League 2019‑20 preview No 12: Manchester United

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West Ham have the talent to cause Manchester City problems on opening weekend while David de Gea has a point to prove

While there is plenty of excitement to be drawn from Liverpool’s much-lauded front three, a good argument could be made that the two most thrilling players in Jürgen Klopp’s side are defenders. Technically, anyway. In reality, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson spent last season making a mockery of their job descriptions, zooming forward with exuberant abandon and each laying on more goals than any of the side’s so-called attackers. Meanwhile, down in the Championship, a similar operation was in progress. Norwich’s full-back duo, Jamal Lewis and Max Aarons, are under strict instructions from Daniel Farke to play with the handbrake permanently off and duly raised pulses at Carrow Road, clocking up 10 assists between them with Lewis being named the EFL young player of the season. In theory, that could spell good news for Sadio Mané and Mo Salah on Friday night: Liverpool’s chief goal threats should not be short of vacant space to exploit on their respective flanks. But either way, with so many tireless shuttlers on show, proceedings at Anfield may look less like a football match than an Olympic swimming contest. AH

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Related: Manchester City’s Leroy Sané facing long spell on sidelines with knee injury

Related: Steve Bruce relishes having ‘local hero’ Andy Carroll back at Newcastle

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• Inter make new offer of £70m including add-ons
• Player’s representative met with United on Wednesday

Inter are confident of signing Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United after making a new, improved, offer of £70m including add-ons for the striker. The player’s representative, Federico Pastorello, met with United representatives in London on Wednesday with the hope that the long-running saga can finally be sorted out.

Related: Transfer window 2019 – every summer deal from Europe's top five leagues

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• ‘What I lived in these 21 years ... I have no words’
• Luis Suárez pays tribute to Uruguay teammate

The former Manchester United and Uruguay forward Diego Forlán has announced his retirement. The 40-year-old, who also played for Villarreal, Atlético Madrid and Internazionale, revealed his decision on Twitter.

He wrote: “After 21 years I made the decision to end my career as a professional footballer. A beautiful stage closes full of great memories and emotions but another of new challenges will begin. Thanks to all who in one way or another accompanied me on this path!”

Related: Diego Forlán: ‘Uruguay is a small nation but the people expect a lot of us’

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