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English Premier League: Saturday Matchday 1 Roundup

By Orri Benatar

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Raheem Sterling of Manchester City scores his team's fifth goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Raheem Sterling of Manchester City scores his team's fifth goal during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 10: General view inside the stadium where the big screen shows that a VAR review has resulted in a goal being disallowed during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 10: General view inside the stadium where the big screen shows that a VAR review has resulted in a goal being disallowed during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images) /

A Sterling hattrick, Sheffield heroics, more blowouts, clutch Harry Kane, and of course VAR were the defining moments of the first Premier League Saturday of 2019-20.

Liverpool’s 4-1 thrashing of Norwich wasn’t the only thrashing of the first weekend of the Premier League season as we saw tons of goals on the first full Saturday of what should be another exciting year. But before Man City kicked-off against West Ham, we got the return of the 3D logo intro. It’s so beautiful!!!

https://twitter.com/NBCSportsSoccer/status/1160146213318119424

West Ham 0-5 Man City

The first match of 2019-20 was typical City at the London Stadium. Manchester City starts their second-straight title defense with a 5-0 win over West Ham and the game had plenty to see. Raheem Sterling grabbed a hattrick in the victory, the first on opening weekend since 2011 as he had open space in the box and finished all his chances. We also saw VAR in action for the first time ever in the league with a Gabriel Jesus goal disallowed because Sterling’s shoulder was offsides on the initial pass and a Declan Rice encroachment allowed Aguero to retake a penalty he missed.

https://twitter.com/NBCSportsSoccer/status/1160177851712323584

Despite VAR taking the attention in the second half, Manchester City once again announced themselves as the favorites with their 201st point in their last 77 EPL games. The Citizens will open at home next weekend in a much-anticipated rematch against Tottenham, the team that stopped them in Europe last season. For the losers of the match West Ham, they’ll need to recover from the defeat when they go to Brighton to play the Seagulls with a good chance of getting their first points of the season.

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