Villa, City, Liverpool, Arsenal and United All Win Champions League Openers
Manchester United marked their return to the competition by beating Sabah 4-0 on Thursday, completing a clean sweep of opening wins for five Premier League clubs.
Aston Villa, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United all won their opening Champions League matches this week, with United completing the set by beating Sabah 4-0 at Old Trafford on Thursday night.
The five victories, three of them away from home, give the Premier League clubs an ideal start to the league phase, in which each side plays eight matches and is ranked in a single 36-team table.
United end a long wait
United's first Champions League match in more than 1,000 days was effectively settled by half-time. Matheus Cunha opened the scoring on 27 minutes, Bruno Fernandes added a second on 42 and Benjamin Šeško made it three just before the interval. Lisandro Martínez scored the fourth on 68 minutes.
Sabah, from Azerbaijan, were making their debut in the competition. Michael Carrick described his side's performance as "really encouraging".
Villa hold on in Bruges
Villa opened the English programme on Tuesday with a 3-2 win at Club Brugge. John McGinn scored after 11 minutes, a goal that made him the club's leading scorer in UEFA competitions, moving him past Ollie Watkins.
Hugo Vetlesen equalised for Brugge, but Emiliano Buendía restored Villa's lead three minutes later, and Nicolas Jackson, signed from Chelsea, scored on his competitive debut two minutes before half-time. Nicolò Tresoldi's penalty on 61 minutes made for a nervous final half-hour, but Villa held on.
Haaland double in Porto
City's 2-0 win at Porto on the same night was built on Erling Haaland's finishing. He scored within two minutes of the restart and added a second in stoppage time.
The result gave Enzo Maresca his first Champions League victory as City head coach. Porto failed to manage a shot on target and suffered their first home defeat of 2026.
Liverpool and Arsenal follow suit
On Wednesday, Liverpool came from behind to beat Atlético Madrid 2-1 at Anfield. Marcos Llorente gave the Spanish side an early lead, Dominik Szoboszlai equalised before half-time and Alexis Mac Allister drove in the winner in front of the Kop shortly after the break.
Bradley Barcola, making his first Liverpool start since a £123m move from Paris Saint-Germain, missed a clear chance a minute before Mac Allister's goal.
Arsenal left Naples with a 1-0 win over Napoli, captain Martin Ødegaard scoring the only goal late in a tight contest.
Why the opening round matters
Under the league-phase format, the top eight clubs qualify directly for the round of 16, those finishing between ninth and 24th go into a two-legged play-off, and the rest are eliminated. With only eight matches each, early points ease the pressure later in the autumn, and away wins are especially valuable.
Strong results from several English clubs also feed into UEFA's country coefficient, which influences how many Champions League places each nation receives in future seasons.
What happens next
Domestic football returns at the weekend, and United go straight into a Manchester derby against City on Sunday. When the Champions League resumes, United's next fixture is away to Atlético Madrid, who will arrive at that game still looking for their first points after the defeat at Anfield.
Image: Woodym555 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
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