A little over two minutes before the moment that will forever define his career, Manchester City hero Sergio Aguero showed sharpness in the Queens Park Rangers goalmouth that would not have been out of place at Old Trafford.

Old Trafford cricket ground that is, just down the road from City s bitter rivals and their home of the same name.

As Edin Dzeko s equaliser from David Silva s right-wing corner bounced back off the netting, Aguero pounced, snaffling it like a quicksilver short-leg fielder and darting back to the centre circle for City s final tilt at the improbable.

There was certainly nothing wrong with the striker s movement after Joey Barton brazenly tried to dead leg him – one of many surreal and key incidents that fed into a frenzied and famous race a…

The new Premier League season kicks off this weekend with clubs still finalising their squads for the challenge ahead.

Champions Manchester City and last season’s runners-up Arsenal will resume battle with the Gunners’ having struck an early blow in the Community Shield, while newcomers Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton begin the task of ensuring their stay among the big boys is not fleeting.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at some of the talking points surrounding the opening fixtures.

Auf wiedersehen, Harry?

Harry Kane’s “will he, won’t he?” summer saga finally approached its conclusion on the eve of the new campaign as he headed for Germany with a view to tying up a £95million switch from Tottenham to Bayern Munich. The England skipper’…

Luis Suarez scored the fastest goal in Inter Miami s history as his brace secured a 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati on Saturday.

Though their task was made slightly harder by Tomas Aviles first-half red card, the hosts cruised to a comfortable victory despite Lionel Messi s continued absence.

It took just 31 seconds for Suarez to get Miami up and running, meeting Marcelo Weigandt s cross with a first-time volley to send it into the bottom-left corner.

And he had his second just five minutes later after a wonderful link-up with Matias Rojas set him up to fire in at the near post.

Aviles received his first booking 11 minutes in and was punished for a needless, clumsy challenge after 42 minutes, resulting in him receiving his marching orders.

Cincinnati t…

Kingsley Coman netted another vital Champions League goal against his former club Paris Saint-Germain as Bayern Munich claimed a 1-0 lead from the away leg of their last-16 tie.

Paris-born Coman scored the only goal when Bayern beat PSG in the final three years ago, and he repeated the trick at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday.

The first-leg victory was no more than Bayern deserved, and the Bundesliga giants will hope they do not pay the price for winning by just the one goal against a PSG side who played without Kylian Mbappe until the 57th minute.

Mbappe, returning from injury, was introduced soon after Coman s goal and could not inspire a turnaround – seeing a late equaliser disallowed – but his involvement in the return match in Germany could yet be decisi…

Sheffield United have appointed Chris Wilder as their new manager after sacking Paul Heckingbottom.

The Blades fired Heckingbottom after they slipped to the bottom of the Premier League table, with just five points, after Saturday’s embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Burnley, their 11th reverse in 14 matches.

Wilder returns to the club after leaving his first spell in March 2021 with the Blades on the way to relegation to the Championship, and will take charge of Wednesday’s Premier League clash with Liverpool.

Chris Wilder is the new manager of Sheffield United.

Former Blades favourite Wilder returns on a contract until the summer of 2025. Alan Knill, Matt Prestridge and former Republic of Ireland international Keith Andrews will assist Wilder.

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Greg Vanney continues to battle without standout LA Galaxy midfielder Riqui Puig as his side prepare to host New York City FC on Wednesday in MLS.

The Los Angeles outfit are unbeaten throughout this season at their home Dignity Health Sports Park after overcoming Sporting Kansas City 4-2 on Saturday.

Vanney s men are yet to lose through eight games on their own turf, sitting third in the Western Conference and just three points behind leaders Real Salt Lake.

Yet the Galaxy remain without star man Puig, formerly of Barcelona, as Vanney continues to work around the Spaniard s absence.

I think for me, we are positionally a little bit more stable, Vanney said, before lauding Puig.

Our two pivots stayed in our pivots. [Against SKC] we were able to �…

Pep Guardiola was delighted to see Ilkay Gundogan seal a complete surprise return to Manchester City but does not envisage a similar swoop for Raheem Sterling.

Gundogan returned to the Etihad Stadium on a one-year deal on Friday, just over 12 months after leaving the club to pursue a new challenge with Barcelona.

The midfielder won 14 trophies during a hugely successful initial stint at City between 2016 and 2023, making 188 Premier League appearances for the club.

Only 10 City players, meanwhile, have bettered his total of 44 Premier League goals for the club, while he also has 16 assists to his name in the competition.

Gundogan became available due to Barcelona needing to raise funds to complete the registration of new midfielder Dani Olmo, and while Gu…

Jarrod Bowen praised a shift in West Ham’s mindset as they won at Arsenal in the Premier League for the first time since 2015.

The Hammers secured a 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium to go four points behind the top four and prevent their hosts moving back to the top of the table.

Bowen capitalised on rocky Arsenal defending to cross for Tomas Soucek to open the scoring, the goal standing after a lengthy VAR check could not conclude if the ball had gone out of play before the England international’s centre.

Former Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos then headed in his first West Ham goal to seal the three points – with David Moyes’ side now having beaten Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal this month.

While those victories have been ti…

Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel is thrilled by Kylian Mbappe s ambition to win a triple-whammy of the Champions League, Euro 2020 and the Olympics football tournament this year.

Mbappe, 21, has already won nine trophies in senior football, including the 2018 World Cup, in which the striker scored four times.

PSG again look on track to dominate French football this season, as they lead Ligue 1 and remain in the hunt in the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue.

But the trophy that has continued to elude them since Qatar Sports Investments took over as majority shareholders in 2011 is the Champions League, and Mbappe wants to finally end that wait this season, before then going on to enjoy Euro 2020 and Olympics success with his country.

While this …

Thomas Muller might not be as crucial to Bayern Munich as he once was.

Indeed, he has featured only 12 times in the Bundesliga this season, making just nine starts.

Yet his next appearance, set to come against Bochum on Saturday, will see him overtake his namesake – the late, great Gerd Muller – for the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club by an outfield player, with 428.

Ahead of breaking the record, he has started 371 of his 427 Bundesliga matches, tasting victory on 307 occasions and losing only 47 times. He has won 11 titles and has a 12th in his sights this year.

Since making his Bundesliga bow in 2008, Muller has played more times in the competition than any other player, while he has directly contributed to 296 goals (140 goals,…