Pre-Season Roundup: Man City, Palace & West Ham Grab Wins as Newcastle Fall to Preston

With less than three weeks now until the start of the Premier League season, pre-season is beginning to heat up, with games becoming less about gaining fitness and more about tactical preparation for the season ahead. 

That's not to say the results we've seen this weekend are an accurate reflection on how teams will fare once the competitive stuff kicks - far from it - but it's still worth keeping an eye on how things are shaping up. 

Here's our roundup of Saturday's pre-season matches. 


Yokohama F. Marinos 1-3 Manchester City

Starting with the Premier League champions who continued their tour of Asia with a visit to Yokohama, the J-League side more than held their own but were ultimately undone by the superior quality possessed by Pep Guardiola's men. 

Kevin de Bruyne was the star of the show, scoring the opener and then assisting Raheem Sterling - playing at centre-forward in the first half - for the second after Keita Endo levelled things up. 

Youth academy graduate Lukas Nmecha put some gloss on the scoreline when he poached a late third. 


Everton 0-1 Sevilla/Everton 1-3 Mainz

Fabian Delph,Nolito

Quirky pre-season tournaments with strange stipulations that would cause warfare in a competitive context have become the norm, and the Opel Cup is certainly no different. 

Consisting of three teams all playing each other in hour-long matches all squeezed into one day, it seems Everton didn't adapt too well to the unconventional structure, as they lost both matches. A Lucas Ocampos penalty was their undoing against Sevilla, before Mainz ran riot with a double from Robin Quaison and a strike by 18-year-old Erkan Eyibil. Lewis Gibson pulled one back for the Toffees before Quaison's second put the game to bed. 


Barnsley 1-4 Sheffield United

Jake Wright,Ike Ugbo

Premier League new boys Sheffield United were playing in some more familiar surroundings, meanwhile, as they made the very short trip to Barnsley to continue their preparations. 

Ravel Morrison and Ben Osborn were handed debuts, with the latter opening the scoring before a Callum Robinson double and a late Luke Freeman goal secured a handsome victory. 


Birmingham 0-4 Brighton

It was a similar story for Brighton, who had an unlikely double from Shane Duffy to thank as they dismantled Championship side Birmingham. 

Glenn Murray got things off and running with a characteristically Glenn Murray close-range effort, Solly March added a second, and then the big centre-back popped up with two late headers to put an exclamation mark on the result. 


Brentford 1-3 Bournemouth 

Bournemouth's new number nine Dominic Solanke got his pre-season account started as Eddie Howe's side recorded a convincing victory of their own at the expense of Brentford. 

The former Liverpool striker, a £19m acquisition in January, takes over the shirt vacated by Lys Mousset, and celebrated in style by netting his side's second goal after Jordon Ibe had opened the scoring. Ibe then assisted young striker Sam Surridge for number three, before Marcus Foss pulled one back for the home side. 


Bristol City 0-5 Crystal Palace

Roy Hodgson

Crystal Palace enjoyed similarly good fortunes against Championship opposition, as Roy Hodgson's side warmed up for the new season by smashing five past Bristol City. 

Andros Townsend and Jeffrey Schlupp gave Palace a two-goal lead by half time, before Christian Benteke, Max Meyer and forgotten man Connor Wickham piling on the misery in the second 45. 


Charlton 1-4 Aston Villa

It was the battle of the promoted sides at Charlton, as the League One playoff winners hosted their Championship counterparts, with Aston Villa recording a comfortable victory in the end.

Anwar El Ghazi got things started in the first half, before Andre Green added a second, and then John McGinn took it into his own hands to score once from the edge of the box and then again after winning possession high up the park and doing that

As ever it was Lyle Taylor on the scoresheet for the home side. 


Fulham 0-1 West Ham

Jack Wilshere

West Ham took on Fulham at Craven Cottage, as Pablo Fornals made a long-awaited debut alongside new target man Sebastien Haller. 

Manuel Lanzini's spectacular curled effort from outside the area proved the difference despite a host of Hammers chances, in what proved to be a worthwhile exercise for Manuel Pellegrini's side. 


Luton 1-5 Norwich

Norwich are preparing for life back in the Premier League, and Daniel Farke's side look to be in pretty decent shape. They followed a win over Schalke with defeat at Brentford during the week, but while their previous pre-season games were tightly contested, there was no doubt over the winner this time. 

Marco Stiepermann opened the scoring, Manchester City loanee Patrick Roberts closed it, and new striker Josip Drmic filled out the space in between with a clinical hat-trick. 


Preston 2-1 Newcastle

Jack Colback

Newcastle's miserable summer got a little bit worse at Deepdale, as two penalties from Paul Gallagher inflicted defeat on Steve Bruce's side. 

The Magpies' new away kit was on show, as was new striker Joelinton who made his debut, and change looked to be for the better initially as Jonjo Shelvey gave them a first-half lead. Some catastrophic second half defending led to capitulation, however - something they will be hoping to get out of their system before league business kicks off.  


QPR 0-1 Watford

A local derby between QPR and Watford was on the cards at Loftus Road, with Etienne Capoue's deflected strike on the half-hour mark proving the difference between the sides.

It's been a promising pre-season run for Javi Gracia's side so far, narrowly losing to Ajax and beating Bayer Leverkusen before this one, so they will take plenty of heart heading into the start of the season.


Stoke 1-2 Leicester/Rotherham 2-2 Leicester

Leicester opted for the strategy of splitting the squad up in order to maximise pre-season minutes, as they took on both Stoke and Rotherham.

At the Britannia Stadium, it was a stronger looking side who took to the pitch, with Ayoze Perez debuting alongside Jamie Vardy up top, and the seniority was reflected in the performance as goals from Marc Albrighton and Youri Tielemans, either side of a Nick Powell equaliser, secured victory. 

In Rotherham, meanwhile, there was a decent run-out by a more youthful looking Foxes side, as Kelehechi Iheanacho was at the double in a 2-2 draw. 



Source : 90min