Son Heung-min scored a treble as Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a 5-2 win over Burnley on Saturday. The 31-year-old Spurs captain has now scored four hat-tricks for the club in the English top flight.

 

Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma bagged his third assist of the season as Brighton & Hove Albion overcame visitors Newcastle United 3-1 for their third win in four matches. His compatriot Takehiro Tomiyasu, meanwhile, came on as a second-half substitute and helped Arsenal post a dramatic 3-1 win against Manchester United on Sunday.

Takefusa Kubo became the highest-scoring Japanese player in La Liga history after bagging a brace in Real Sociedad’s 5-3 victory against Granada on Saturday. The 22-year-old opened the scoring in San Sebastian early to take his tally to 17 goals in Spain and beat the record of former Eibar and Alaves winger Takashi Inui. 

 

He then cut in from the right before his slightly deflected left-foot strike beat goalkeeper Raul Fernandez for his 18th league goal. Kubo continued to impact the game in the second half and sealed the win in the 76th minute when his cross found the back of the net after taking a deflection off Miki Bosch.

Japanese striker Kyogo Furuhashi decided the Old Firm derby between Celtic and Rangers with a first-half strike that gave the reigning champions, also featuring Daizen Maeda and Korean duo Oh Hyeon-gyu and Yang Hyun-jun, a 1-0 win at Ibrox on Sunday. Furuhashi’s third of the season kept Celtic unbeaten and top of the table after four games. 

 

Australian trio Martin Boyle, Jimmy Jeggo and Lewis Miller started for Hibernian as they beat Aberdeen 2-0 for their first win of the season while their compatriots Keanu Baccus and Ryan Strain featured for St Mirren in their 1-1 stalemate with Livingston on Saturday. 

Japan’s Daichi Kamada scored the winner for Lazio as they recovered from a goal down to post a 2-1 win over defending champions Napoli in Serie A on Saturday. The 27-year-old’s maiden goal for Maurizio Sarri’s side came in his third outing in the Italian top tier following his move from Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt. 

 

Uzbekistan striker Eldor Shomurodov came on as a substitute for Cagliari but could not stop his side from falling to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of hosts Bologna. This is the 28-year-old’s second loan stint away from his parent club AS Roma. 

Takuma Asano opened his account for the new season by bagging a double as VfL Bochum earned a 2-2 draw against Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday. The 28-year-old Japan winger is in his third season in Germany and scored three goals in each of the past two league campaigns. 

 

His compatriot Kou Itakura was also on target for Borussia Monchengladbach at the weekend, but defending champions Bayern Munich, with Korea’s Kim Min-jae in their defence, came back to win the game 2-1. Meanwhile, Jeong Woo-yeong and Hiroki Ito both bagged an assist as Stuttgart beat Ritsu Doan’s Freiburg 5-0. 

Socceroos goalkeeper Mathew Ryan made a crucial save in the penalty shootout as AZ Alkmaar edged Norway’s Brann to reach the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage on Thursday before keeping a clean sheet in the Eredivisie leaders' 2-0 win over Vitesse. Japanese full-back Yukinari Sugawara also played both games.

 

Meanwhile, Japan striker Ayase Ueda scored his first goal for Feyenoord as the defending champions posted a resounding 5-1 win over Utrecht, who had Iraq midfielder Zidane Iqbal on the bench, on Sunday. Islamic Republic of Iran’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh was an unused substitute for the winners. 

Korean midfielder Hong Hyun-seok scored twice as Gent defeated Club Brugge 2-1 in the Belgian Pro League on Sunday. Accounting for two assists in five league fixtures so far, Hong also helped his club reach the group stage of the Europa Conference League by defeating APOEL 4-1 on aggregate earlier in the week. 

 

Palestine international Oday Dabbagh scored his second goal of the season while Japanese midfielder Ryota Morioka also started as Charleroi were held to a 1-1 draw by a Sint-Truiden side featuring the Japanese contingent of Ryotaro Ito, Daiki Hashioka, Rihito Yamamoto and Shinji Okazaki.  

Australia women’s international Clare Polkinghorne scored as Vittsjo posted a 6-0 win against Kalmar in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan on Sunday. The win was the third in a row for the fifth-placed side, who also featured fellow Matildas player Charlotte Grant.

 

Philippines international Katrina Guillou, meanwhile, started for fourth-placed Pitea as they defeated reigning champions Rosengard 1-0 on Friday and stayed in contention for the title trailing leaders Hacken by five points after 18 matches.