Andre Gray grabs a hat-trick as Burnley breeze past Rangers at Ibrox, whilst Adama Diomande’s brace brings Hull City some much-needed cheer.
Elsewhere on a busy Saturday afternoon, Wayne Routledge also strikes twice as Swansea hammer Wolves, Middlesbrough new boys Alvaro Negredo and Viktor Fischer get amongst the goals, whilst Jordon Ibe is on the scoresheet again as he fires Bournemouth to victory against Cardiff.
Here’s a look at the early fixtures from Saturday, with a further round-up article to follow later this afternoon.
Bournemouth 1 Cardiff City 0
Record signing Jordan Ibe’s solo goal was enough to see off Cardiff in Bournemouth’s second match in 24 hours.
The £15 million capture from Liverpool struck after 11 minutes of a match in which coach Eddie Howe made wholesale changes from the team who drew with Reading.
Key among them was the return to action of defenders Steve Cook and Adam Smith (who had been sidelined since last season through injury), whilst Howe also gave pitch time to new signings Lys Mousset and Brad Smith.
The clean sheet would have boosted the Bournemouth boss, as would a first full 90 minutes from Andrew Surman, but the early withdrawal of Harry Arter through injury offset some of that pleasure.
Cherries assistant manager Jason Tindall was upbeat on the club’s injury issues, however:
“Harry came off today and we’ll assess him as soon as possible. It doesn’t look serious though and hopefully he’ll be fine. Junior (Stanislas) came through a successful operation on his hernia and we hope to have him back very soon. We also welcomed back Adam Smith – he’s been frustrated in the fact that he wanted to train sooner, but the medical team have managed him well. It was a good 45 minutes for him and hopefully we can get everyone fit ahead of Manchester United.”
Bournemouth XI: Federici, A.Smith (Lee 46), Jordan, Cook, B.Smith (Harfield 87), Ibe (Green 75), Surman, Arter (Whitfield 36), Fraser (Buckley 80), Grabban (Matthews 75), Afobe (Mousset 67).
Rangers 1 Burnley 3
An Andre Gray hat-trick confirmed the Burnley striker as the hottest of pre-season prospects.
Priced at 6.5 in the Fantasy Premier League game, Gray converted an early penalty he earned himself before scoring again either side of the break to take his summer tally to eight goals in five matches.
Scott Arfield played Gray in for his second and he completed his hat-trick from a Lukas Jutkiewicz assist after 54 minutes.
Burnley’s pressing game stifled Rangers, but while praising Gray, boss Sean Dyche still found time for some negatives in the win:
“Andre’s going really well, he’s fit and in good form, there’s a number of them in good form. I was generally pleased today but the last 30 minutes was unacceptable from our team. Some of it is fitness, fatigue, that weird thing when you’re 3-0 up you can get a bit lax, but you can’t do that in the Premier League, we were there two years ago and teams will hurt you.”
Burnley’s starting XI was perhaps close to the likely line-up for the opening day fixture with Swansea, with striker Sam Vokes making his first appearance of the pre-season in tandem with Gray following his Euro 16 exploits.
Dyche will be hoping that Stephen Ward can make a return from injury at left-back for the Swansea meeting; Daniel Lafferty was deployed in that role in yesterday’s outing.
The Clarets’ boss brought us this on Ward’s prognosis…
“Wardy has pulled his hamstring, it’s not a drastic one but it will be into next week before we know more.”
Burnley XI: Heaton; Darikwa, Keane, Mee, Lafferty; Arfield (Gudmundsson 46), Marney (Kightly 84), Jones (O’Neill 84), Boyd (Ulvestad 84); Gray (C.Long 84), Vokes (Jutkiewicz 46).
Fulham 3 Crystal Palace 1
Palace fell to their first defeat of the summer despite a Keshi Anderson goal on his return to action after a year out injured.
Alan Pardew fielded a strong starting XI, including a fit-again Wilfried Zaha back after a two-week injury lay-off, but three matches in six days eventually took their toll as Fulham ran out easy winners.
Anderson’s goal, from debutant Luke Dreher’s pass, came 12 minutes from the end, giving Fulham enough time to score a third goal to seal the deal.
The 21-year-old had been introduced from the bench on the hour, replacing Jordan Mutch who started this match in attack following his two goals so far over the summer.
Palace’s pre-season campaign should receive a welcome shot in the arm next week, with Euro 2016 stars Wayne Hennessey, Joe Ledley and Yohan Cabaye all returning to the squad.
New signing from Marseille, goalkeeper Steve Mandanda will also join up with his team-mates.
There was further good news provided by another summer acquisition, James Tomkins, who is hopeful of being fit for the start of the season after picking up a hamstring injury on the club’s trip to America.
“I am pushing for the start of the season…It is one of those injuries that you take day by day, as cliche as it sounds. It can settle down quickly or it could take a little longer. But I am optimistic about making the first game.”
Crystal Palace XI: Speroni; Ward (Kelly 75), Dann, Delaney, Souare (Croll 71); Jedinak (Williams 82), Puncheon (Dreher 71); Zaha (Kaikai 78), Townsend (Lee 75), Bolasie (Wickham 45); Mutch (Anderson 62).
Everton 1 Real Betis 1 (Betis win 4-3 on pens)
Everton ended their triangular tournament in Germany with no wins and a number of concerns over a lack of creativity and cutting edge.
After losing to their Dresden Cup hosts 24 hours ago, coach Ronald Koeman made wholesale changes, with Romelu Lukaku, Gareth Barry and Arouna Kone given their first starts of the summer.
Barry impressed, but Lukaku was largely anonymous, fuelling suspicions that the Belgian international won’t be an Everton player for much longer.
The Toffees took the lead when Betis struggled to cope with a Tom Cleverley corner and Mason Holgate’s header went in off a Spanish defender.
The lead lasted less than ten minutes as Everton defended poorly from a set-piece and Koeman’s men created little of note after that.
Wantaway defender John Stones, who played the day before, was forced into action late on after Matthew Pennington pulled a hamstring and the England international was one of only three Everton players to score from the spot in a losing shoot-out.
The extent of Pennington’s injury will be determined once the squad returns home.
Everton XI: Robles; Holgate, Oviedo, Pennington (Stones 77) Galloway; Barry (Dowell 60), Besic; McCarthy (Grant 60), Cleverley, Kone (Lennon 73); Lukaku (Davies 60).
Nottingham Forest 1 Hull City 2
A brace from Adama Diomande secured another pre-season victory for Hull, with assists from Mohamed Diame and Ahmed Elmohamady.
Caretaker manager Mike Phelan again had to cope with a lengthy injury list, but was able to give Irish international David Meyler his first start since returning from Euro 2016, while left-back Andy Robertson returned after being rested for the midweek draw at Barnsley.
The result was pleasing enough for Phelan, the fact that goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic couldn’t come out for the second half with a minor back problem less so.
Owned by 12% of FPL managers, the 4.0 priced Jakupovic is currently the third most popular stopper in the game and, after the match, Phelan provided good news on the keeper’s injury situation:
“Eldin is fine and will be ready to train on Monday. It wasn’t a big problem and in a way it was just a precaution (to take him off). It also gave Dusan a chance to get some more minutes.”
Phelan is also optimistic on a number of players as Hull prepare to travel to Austria next week, with top scorer Abel Hernandez giving cause for concern after missing out with a hernia problem yesterday:
“I think two or three of them will be available for next week. Tom (Huddlestone), Jake (Livermore), (Shaun)Maloney hopefully although he might take a little bit longer, and Abel (Hernandez) will be available as well.”
Hull City XI: Jakupovic (Kuciak 46); Elmohamady (Olley 85), Davies, Clackstone, Robertson; Bowen (Tymon 62), Meyler (Hinchliffe 81); Clucas, Snodgrass (Barkworth 85) Diame; Diomande (Ter Horst 75).
Aston Villa 1 Middlesbrough 3
Three second half goals transformed a previously woeful Middlesbrough performance, and left coach Aitor Karanka with the cliched ‘nice problem to have’ as to who will lead the line when the season begins.
Karanka fielded a strong starting line-up, giving Alvaro Negredo and Victor Valdes their first starts in England, but the team struggled badly until Negredo tapped in from a Viktor Fischer shot.
Boro then tore Villa apart on the break, Fischer putting them ahead and sub Jordan Rhodes putting the result beyond doubt.
With the club waiting for Gaston Ramirez’s international clearance to come through, Karanka is not exactly short of options up front, but the key performer was Fischer.
Used in earlier matches as a Number 10, the capture from Ajax returned to his more customary position on the left flank and caught the eye throughout. Fischer commands a price of 5.5 in the FPL and has already hinted that he could outperform that valuation.
Karanka has made nine summer signings so far, but local reports suggest he’s not finished yet, with Verona centre-half Filip Helander and Leeds defender Charlie Taylor both linked with moves to the Riverside.
Middlesbrough XI: Valdes; Nsue, Fry, Gibson, Friend; Clayton, De Roon (Forshaw 70); Downing (Reach 75), Adomah (Stuani 75), Fischer (Nugent 75); Negredo (Rhodes 75).
FC Groningen 0 Southampton 1
A Charlie Austin header made it three wins out of three for Southampton in Holland as coach Claude Puel gave Fraser Forster and Shane Long their first starts of pre-season since returning from Euro 2016.
The Saints played 52 minutes against ten men once Hans Hateboer had been sent off for a second bookable offence and Austin’s winner from a Jake Hesketh cross came after sustained second half pressure.
The match started rather less promisingly for Southampton when Matt Targett picked up a knock in a challenge and had to be replaced by Sam McQueen.
In all, Puel made ten changes as the match progressed, although neither Steven Davis nor Ryan Bertrand were included and Jay Rodriguez was also absent.
Southampton XI: Forster, Yoshida (Højbjerg 46), Clasie (Reed 63), Long (Austin 46), Tadić (Hesketh 46), Romeu (Stephens 68), Martina (Valery 63), Ward-Prowse (Isgrove 63), van Dijk (Jones 83), Redmond (Gallagher 63), Targett (McQueen 6).
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 Swansea City 4
An emphatic victory at Wolves was undermined by reports that Swansea stars Ashley Williams and Andre Ayew are being courted by Everton and West Ham respectively.
Two goals from Wayne Routledge, who now has five so far in pre-season, and strikes from Kyle Naughton goal and Oliver McBurnie underlined the Swans’ superiority, with assists coming from Nathan Dyer and Modou Barrow (two).
The latter now has a goal and four assists in Swansea’s last two matches, though despite a kind 5.0 price tag, his classification as a forward in FPL is a major deterrent.
Coach Francesco Guidolin again employed a 4-3-3 formation, with Ayew used through the middle up front, but the Italian spent much of his post-match interview duties talking about off-pitch matters.
“I don’t want to speak about the transfer market. I can say that for me it is too long and every day I have to answer the same questions. He (Williams) is very important for us and I don’t know this situation and I can say nothing…Andre (Ayew) is happy and next week we begin another week of training sessions.”
Williams, together with Neil Taylor, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Ki Sung-yueng, returns for those sessions.
Swansea XI: Nordfeldt, Naughton, Fernandez (van der Hoorn 70), Amat, Kingsley (Rangel 45), Britton (Fulton 70), Cork, Fer, Dyer (Barrow 45), Routledge (Montero 63), Ayew (McBurnie 70).
Queens Park Rangers 2 Watford 0
Watford failed to score for a second successive match as their underwhelming pre-season continued with defeat at Loftus Road.
Continuity has been key for new coach Walter Mazzarri, who again utilised a 3-5-2 formation and stuck with Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo up front.
Craig Cathcart played the full 90 minutes for the first time and new signing Juan Camilo Zuniga got another half under his belt, but the Hornets were second-best for much of the match, conceding a goal either side of the break.
Classified as a 4.5 defender, Zuniga started the match on the right of midfield, but later switched to a left-wing back role with the introduction of Isaac Success, as Mazzarri chased the game.
In terms of injuries, Valon Behrami, Jerome Sinclair and Brice Dja Djedje all missed out with minor knocks.
Watford XI: Gomes (Pantilimon 62); Nyom (Kabasele 45), Cathcart, Britos (Prodl 62); Anya (Amrabat 45), Doucoure (Zuniga 45), Suarez (Watson 62), Capoue (Guedioura 75), Holebas (Success 75); Deeney, Ighalo.
