Sunday Wrap: Arsenal pass big early test after late DRAMA at Everton

Football writer David Coverdale looks at the key talking points from Sunday's Premier League action.

Premier League champions Arsenal maintained their 100 per cent start to the 2026/27 season as they came from behind to beat Chelsea.

The London rivals both began the day with perfect records having won their opening two matches of the new campaign.

But at the end of Matchweek 3, only Arsenal and last year’s runners-up Manchester City have nine points from a possible nine.

It is the first time since their famous "Invincibles" season of 2003/04 that the Gunners have won their opening three Premier League games while conceding fewer than two goals.

“From start to finish, it was a joy to watch our team play and compete,” jubilant Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told Sky Sports.

The Gunners’ win on Sunday came despite going behind as early as the second minute, as Chelsea became the first team in Premier League history to score inside the opening five minutes in each of their first three games.

It was Chelsea signing Morgan Rogers – an Arsenal transfer target this summer, according to media reports – who volleyed the visitors ahead, becoming the first Blues player to score or assist in each of his side’s opening three top-flight matches since Eden Hazard in 2018/19.

However, Arsenal forward Kai Havertz equalised against his former club in the 25th minute, cutting in from the right and beating Emiliano Martinez at his near post for his third goal in all competitions this campaign.

Then, five minutes after the break, Havertz’s smart dummy from Christos Tzolis’s pass allowed captain Martin Odegaard to hammer the hosts in front.

In three Premier League appearances this season, Odegaard has already doubled his goal tally from the top flight last season - and his strike proved to be the winner, largely thanks to David Raya’s brilliant save from Estevao’s powerful late strike.

“Conceding early is never ideal, but the reaction was top,” Gunners skipper Odegaard told Sky Sports. “We got our rewards in the end. It was a brilliant performance.”

After suffering his first defeat as Chelsea manager, Xabi Alonso admitted: “It hurts. The guys gave everything, tried everything. But it's game three and this is going to be a long, long ride.”

Just five days after making the move to Everton, Ainsley Maitland-Niles scored a stunning stoppage-time equaliser to earn a dramatic 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

The former Arsenal right-back, who joined Everton from French club Lyon on deadline day, sent a 25-yard strike into the top corner in the 96th minute, less than 20 minutes after coming on for his first Premier League appearance in more than three years.

Maitland-Niles’s debut goal was just his second in 110 Premier League appearances and came almost eight years after his first, for Arsenal against Liverpool in December 2018.

“It’s amazing,” the 29-year-old told Sky Sports. “Everybody wants to start off like that and thankfully I did."

It marked an incredible end of a frenetic finale.

Bryan Mbeumo had earlier given Michael Carrick’s visitors the lead a minute after half-time when he cut in from the right side and curled into the far corner.

But Everton winger Tyrique George – who made his loan move from Chelsea permanent in the summer – hammered home an 83rd-minute leveller for his first Toffees goal in his 15th appearance for the club.

Man Utd substitute Benjamin Sesko then looked to have scored an 88th-minute winner at Hill Dickinson Stadium for the second season running when he headed in from Luke Shaw’s cross.

But Maitland-Niles had other ideas, meaning Man Utd have conceded two or more goals in each of their first three league games for just the second time in 50 years.

Watch all the late drama in Everton 2-2 Man Utd

“We’re disappointed that we haven’t come away with the win,” Man Utd boss Carrick told the BBC. “We should have seen the game out.”

“It felt like a win,” said Maitland-Niles. “We dug deep and managed to get a point in the end.”