New hero at Emirates

LONDON • Arsenal and Manchester City continued their strong starts to the new Premier League season, after both teams clinched their second wins in as many games yesterday.

Mikel Arteta's Gunners beat Leicester City 4-2 at the Emirates thanks to a brace from Gabriel Jesus on his home debut, while Pep Guardiola's City dominated Bournemouth 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

Having not scored in the 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace last week, Arsenal's new £45 million (S$75 million) striker Jesus ran riot in the first half with two goals in 35 minutes to put his team 2-0 up.

The Brazilian showed great determination for his first, getting to the ball as he was surrounded by Leicester players and shot into the top corner from inside the box.

He was then in the right place at the right time for a corner, heading perfectly for his second.

"I am so happy because we played so good against a tough opponent," said Jesus on Premier League Productions.

"I work all day every day to score goals. I was not unhappy at (former club) Manchester City, I just wanted to play and the club understood (I wanted to leave)."

Leicester pulled a goal back in the 53rd minute with an own-goal from William Saliba but, just two minutes later, Jesus teed up Granit Xhaka and Arsenal swiftly restored their two-goal lead.

A remarkable, similar situation happened in the 74th minute when James Maddison scored for the Foxes to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Gabriel Martinelli made it 4-2 for Arsenal in the 75th minute.

Leicester were ultimately no match for the Gunners, who continued their impressive pre-season form - they won all six games - into the campaign.

At the Etihad, City were equally relentless and were 3-0 up by the 37th minute thanks to goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden.

Gundogan scored in the 19th minute after collecting a short pass from Erling Haaland, before de Bruyne weaved his way past his opponents in the 31st minute and unleashed the ball to make it 2-0.

Foden then made it three before half-time with a low drive into the goal, assisted by de Bruyne.

According to Opta statistics, de Bruyne has both scored and assisted for the 20th time in a Premier League game - only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (24) and Tottenham's Son Heung-min (21) have done so on more occasions.

Guardiola's men could afford to take their foot off the gas in the second half, but they still went 4-0 up after a Jefferson Lerma own-goal.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS