10-man Newcastle take three points at St James’ Park in a 1-0 Win Against Southampton

Newcastle defied an early red card for Fabian Schar to edge past Southampton 1-0, while Brighton ran riot under new manager Fabian Hurzeler in a 3-0 victory at Everton.

Newcastle’s hopes of a winning start to the season looked to have been undone when Schar was sent off after just 28 minutes for what the referee deemed a headbutt on Ben Brereton Diaz despite limited contact between the pair.

Southampton had dominated even the early exchanges against the Magpies‘ full compliment but failed to convert from 19 shots and nearly 80 percent possession. By contrast, Newcastle were clinical as Alexander Isak teed up Joelinton for the only goal just before half-time.

Everton’s final season at Goodison Park got off to a nightmare start as 31-year-old Hurzeler enjoyed a dream start to life in the Premier League. Kaoru Mitoma fired Brighton in front on his return from injury that saw the Japanese international miss much of last season.

Danny Welbeck added a second after the break before Everton were reduced to 10 men when Ashley Young saw red. Simon Adingra made it 3-0 late on and only a VAR review denied Brighton a fourth through Yasin Ayari.

Antoine Semenyo stepped into the void left at Bournemouth by the departure of Dominic Solanke with a late equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest.

Aston Villa travel to West Ham in Saturday’s late match. City begin their defence of the title in the standout fixture of the weekend at Chelsea on Sunday.