Late Gvardiol strike earns Maresca winning start, Liverpool snatch last-gasp draw

Manchester City's post-Pep Guardiola era has begun with Josko Gvardiol's stoppage-time winner earning a 2-1 victory at home to Bournemouth in Enzo Maresca's first Premier League game in charge on Sunday.

New Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola also required some even later intervention as Dominik Szoboszlai's last-gasp penalty salvaged his side a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United, another club beginning the campaign with a new man at the helm.

An unpredictable opening weekend of the Premier League season also saw Unai Emery's Aston Villa thrashed 4-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion, all the goals arriving before halftime.

Maresca's reign began with a chastening Community Shield defeat by champions Arsenal last week and City were in danger of another loss after Marcus Tavernier slammed home a 26th-minute shot from a low ball across the area by Evanilson.

City huffed and puffed in response with newly-shaven Erling Haaland missing several chances to equalise.

But Marc Guehi, playing as a deep midfielder rather than in defence, hauled City level in the 84th minute when he rose to power home a header from a Rayan Cherki corner.

Gvardiol sparked wild celebrations with a close-range finish in the 91st minute that was initially ruled offside but allowed after a VAR overturn.

It was tough on Bournemouth and Iraola's replacement Marco Rose as the south coast club's 18-match record unbeaten league run stretching back to January came to an end.

'THE JOY OF THE THREE POINTS'

Maresca, who was welcomed with a banner unfurled in the East Stand, said it had been a perfect day despite the scare.

"I was glad when it was over also, to give them the joy of the three points. It was quite emotional and the perfect day," Guardiola's former assistant at City said.

"It's a game that we deserved to win. A game probably you don't need to win in the last eight minutes for the amount of chances we had."

Fans of Newcastle and Liverpool were united in their show of respect for Kevin Keegan at St James' Park after the death of their shared hero, who passed away aged 75 in July.

An emotional pre-match tribute to Keegan included a huge tifo depicting the man who scored 100 goals and won seven major trophies with Liverpool and who later played for and managed Newcastle, where he was known as King Kev.

Both sets of players wore warm-up shirts bearing Keegan's name and famous No.7.

"It was probably the best fixture to happen for the first game of the season after what happened," Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot at the end of last season, said.

"It's good that both supporters can remember him like they did today."

As so often happened when the two sides met during Keegan's managerial career at Newcastle, the game had a dramatic finale as Szoboszlai robbed the home side of what would have been a great start under their new manager Matthias Jaissle.

Anthony Elanga put the hosts ahead in the fifth minute only for Cody Gakpo to level early in the second half.

Joe Willock immediately curled Newcastle back ahead having come off the bench but Lewis Hall was adjudged to have bundled over Victor Munoz and Szoboszlai lashed home the penalty in the ninth minute of stoppage time.

'THINGS TO IMPROVE'

"I've liked a lot of the things I've seen from the team today," Iraola said. "Definitely things to improve but I've liked the energy, especially the players coming from the bench. I think we finished the game quite strong physically."

Villa have seen their Europa League-winning side dismantled over the summer with the likes of Morgan Rogers, Lucas Digne, Youri Tielemans and Ezri Konsa all sold and the size of Emery's rebuilding job was exposed in the south coast sunshine.

They capitulated before halftime, conceding four goals and having new signing Joao Gomes sent off.

An own goal by Victor Lindelof after eight minutes was followed by a second from Maxim De Cuyper.

Jack Hinshelwood's double inside two minutes had Brighton in dreamland and while Villa did show some character in the second half it was a worrying start to the campaign.

The Villa exodus could continue with striker Ollie Watkins left out of the squad on Sunday.

Asked why, Emery said: "Ask him. I only can answer it by silence."

The opening round of fixtures concludes on Monday with Chelsea at local rivals Fulham.