Julian Alvarez gives Premier League champions a hard-fought win over Newcastle

Pep Guardiola’s team kept the Magpies at bay despite their midweek exertions.

Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez celebrates his winning goal against Newcastle (Nick Potts/PA) (PA Wire)

Julian Alvarez fired Manchester City to a hard-fought victory over Newcastle as the treble winners maintained their perfect start to the new Premier League season.

The World Cup-winner curled a shot into the top corner after 31 minutes of a tight encounter at the Etihad Stadium to secure a 1-0 win and three more points.

Eddie Howe’s men had travelled in hope after last weekend’s opening 5-1 drubbing of Aston Villa, but left empty-handed after the hosts summoned up commendable stamina in the wake of their midweek UEFA Super Cup triumph in Athens on Wednesday.

Ange Postecoglou oversaw a thrilling first win as Tottenham manager as Pape Sarr’s strike and a Lisandro Martinez own goal settled a pulsating clash with Manchester United.

Spurs, whose struggles in the second half of last season have been compounded by home-grown star Harry Kane’s recent switch to Bayern Munich, proved too good for a sub-par United on the day.

Former Celtic boss Postecoglou’s influence has borne early fruit and his new-look side sealed a fine 2-0 win thanks to Sarr’s effort and a late Martinez own goal.

Liverpool survived Mo Salah’s penalty miss and Alexis Mac Allister’s red card to surge to a 3-1 Premier League victory over Bournemouth.

The Cherries took a third-minute lead through Antoine Semenyo, but Luis Diaz levelled before Salah converted the rebound after Neto had repelled his spot-kick.

Summer signing Mac Allister’s untimely departure had little impact as Diogo Jota secured the points.

Solly March’s double helped Brighton climb to the top of the table after the 3pm kick-offs following a fine 4-1 win at Wolves.

Goals from Kaoru Mitoma and Pervis Estupinan put the Seagulls in charge, and March struck twice before substitute Hwang Hee-chan pulled one back for the home side, who had Matheus Nunes sent off for a second bookable offence at the death.

Bryan Mbeumo also scored twice to help Brentford to an impressive 3-0 victory at Brentford.

Yoane Wissa opened the scoring and after defender Tim Ream had been dismissed for two yellow card offences, Mbeumo converted the resulting penalty before adding a second in stoppage time.