Jose Mourinho rates Phil Jones as Manchester United's first choice centre half and the Liverpool bench looks thin - 10 THINGS WE LEARNED

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The first weekend of the new Premier League season served up plenty of drama and goals.

The Manchester clubs looked strong and Liverpool showed some familiar failings at the back, with Spurs starting well.

Here, Sportsmail's Ralph Ellis shares 10 things he learned from the weekend.

Romelu Lukaku scored twice on his league bow for Manchester United as they started strongly

1. Jose Mourinho seems to rate Phil Jones as his first-choice centre back on the evidence of his team selection for the opening day.

The 25-year-old, banned from the Super Cup final against Real Madrid, was back in the starting line-up for the 4-0 romp over West Ham with Chris Smalling consigned to the bench.

Jones appeared at the start of last season to have no future at Old Trafford, but since an injury crisis gave him a chance at Swansea in November, he's been picked by Mourinho virtually every time he's been fit.

Jose Mourinho seems to rate Phil Jones as his first choice centre half after his latest selection

2. John Stones has long been considered the future for the England team when it comes to finding a ball-playing centre-half, but moving to Everton might just help Michael Keane emerge as an alternative contender.

Playing in a three-man defence alongside the resolute Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams is giving the £30m former Burnley star the chance to show his quality on the ball.

In the 1-0 win over Stoke he made more passes (66) than any other Everton player, with only 10 of them failing to find a team-mate.

Everton's Michael Keane is emerging as a genuine ball-playing defender to rival John Stones 

3. If Liverpool do end up being railroaded into selling Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona they need to spend the £100million they'll collect on three or four experienced Premier League players.

At the moment Jurgen Klopp's bench is horribly thin, as proved by his options among the substitutes in the 3-3 draw at Watford.

Take out veteran James Milner and the other six subs had just 51 Premier League starts between them (Divock Origi 21, Ragnar Klavan 15, Loris Karius 10, Joe Gomez 5, Marko Grujic 0, Dominic Solanke 0).

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp's bench is horribly thin in terms of experienced back-up options

4. Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele has added a more physical side to his game.

A few weeks after his 30th birthday the Belgian international, more renowned for his dribbling and passing skills, got stuck in to Newcastle's midfield in the 2-0 win.

No Spurs player won more duels than the Belgian international's seven, and he also came out on top in a couple of crunching tackles.

Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele appeats to have added a more physical side to his game

5. It was curious to see predominantly right-footed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain used as a left wing-back by Arsenal in the season's opener with Leicester.

The England star, who is being targeted by Chelsea, took to the role far more comfortably than you might have expected and was a potent attacking force.

He managed six goal attempts in all – two on target, two off, and two blocked. That was nearly a quarter of the shots made by the entire team during the thrilling 4-3 win.

Right-footed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain used as a left wing-back by Arsenal against Leicester

6. Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe spoke to Harry Arter several times last season over his lack of discipline as the combative midfielder picked up a red card and 12 yellows, with four of them for dissent.

He must have wondered if he'd been wasting his breath as Arter began the new campaign with yet another booking for complaining to referee Bobby Madley during the 1-0 defeat at West Brom.

Harry Arter failed to hold his tongue and was booked for complaining to referee Bobby Madley

7. Brighton will play easier matches than title favourites Manchester City, but Chris Hughton clearly isn't planning to stake the club's top flight survival on playing pretty football.

He asked goalkeeper Mat Ryan to kick it long pretty much every time he had possession – and nobody in his team played more accurate passes to a team-mate in the forward half than the 11 managed by the Australian international.

Brighton keeper Mat Ryan was clearly instructed to kick long by manager Chris Hughton

8. Nedum Onuoha, the last of the big-money signings left at Queens Park Rangers, is wanted by Stoke but Ian Holloway will be hoping he can hang on to his club captain. 

Now 30, the former Manchester City defender who played 47 games for the Hoops last season has made an outstanding start to this campaign and was excellent in their 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.

Onuoha has 12 months left on the £55,000-a-week contract he signed two years ago.

Nedum Onuoha has made an impressive start to the season for Queens Park Rangers

9. Rotherham boss Paul Warne, once the club's fitness coach, decided to ditch his normal match day track suit and wear collar and tie for the home game with Southend.

'I felt I needed to get away from the "cone boy" look because people still see me as the fitness coach rather than the manager,' was the 44-year-old's explanation.

Whatever the reason, it clearly worked. Kieffer Moore scored a hat-trick as the Millers ran up a 5-0 win.

Rotherham boss Paul Warne ditched his usual tracksuit for their 5-0 win against Southend

10. It was a bad weekend all round in the Bruce household. While Aston Villa boss Steve was licking his wounds from the 3-0 flop at Cardiff, his son Alex was also on the wrong end of three goals as he made his debut for Bury.

The 32-year-old centre-back, released by his dad's old club Hull at the end of last season, has signed for the League Two side on non-contract terms while he seeks a permanent new club.

He did score his new team's goal in the 3-1 defeat, but couldn't stop two Nick Powell goals and another by Michael Jacobs as Wigan made it two wins from two at the start of the campaign.

Bury's Alex Bruce endured a tough afternoon at Wigan and dad Steve's Aston Villa also lost