CITY PLAY WITH HART AT THE LANE
Manchester City 0 - 0 Tottenham
The most anticipated pre-season question was emphatically answered at White Hart Lane by City boss Roberto Mancini so as who to play in goal. Was it to be England’s new number one, Joe Hart? Or the consistent, experienced hands of Shay Given? Like Fabio Capello did on Wednesday, Mancini went with the young Ex-Shrewsbury town keeper. He was not let down by his selection, with a resplendent performance and above all, clean-sheet that Hart provided. He first saved from Defoe 15minutes in, after which he pulled of a save from a magnificent volley from Huddlestone. Tottenham proceeded to pile on the pressure in the first half, Bale striking the post and taking many corners.
Fresh from having signed Mario Balotelli on Friday, City looked as though they were strangers in the first half. They started with three of their new signings, Kolarov, Toure and David Silva. In the 2nd half however, City began to turn on the heat. Their best chance came when Shaun Wright-Phillips found himself in and through, only for Assou-Ekotto to pull out a superb, last-ditch tackle in the penalty area.
At the final whistle, the first thoughts of many were that the money had not had immediate success. With Tottenham enjoying the lion share of chances and opportunities, it leaves City Manager, Roberto Mancini with plenty to work on. Harry Redknapp was generally pleased with his team’s performance, “we created lots of chances, but couldn’t beat a great-keeper”.
MILNER’S PARTING GIFT??
Aston Villa 3 - 0 West Ham
Downing 15’
Petrov 40’
Milner 66’
There were few anxious faces around Villa Park as the teams walked out on to the pitch at Villa Park, not only were they without a secure manager, Academy Manager Kevin McDonald standing in, but also fearing that this could be the last game for their main playmaker, James Milner.
West Ham also had a new manager taking charge, Avram Grant having replaced Gianfranco Zola in the off-season.
Villa started the brighter of the two teams, and were rewarded for this with Stewart Downing’s goal on 15minutes, having pounced on Robert Green’s parry, to the cry of the West Ham defenders that Downing was offside, which, replays showed, was indeed offside.
Following this, Villa persisted with good, attacking play, resulting in Ashley Young almost catching Green off his line with a lob, only for Green to save it. Green could not manage to stop Stiyilan Petrov’s stronger header from a Young cross to double the Villan’s lead 5 minutes shy of half time.
If West Ham thought that there would be a change of events at half time, they were very mistaken as the match continued on its very one-sided path. This was exemplified by Stewart Downing’s magnificent free-kick that rocked the cross-bar. Only for Milner, with what could be his last goal for the club, to produce a beautiful left-foot drive across goal from the edge of the box after hot young prospect Albrighton beat 2 West Ham men and cut back to Milner to make it 3-0. Villa did not see fit stopping there though, but couldn’t make it four, not for the want of not trying however, with Carew hitting the post.
Villa had dominated and strolled the match, doing no more than was necessary against a poorly shaped West Ham side that “start sloppily” accorded to Grant and never recovered from that start. McDonald saying in his post-match conference that the “players were true pro’s” after the turmoil Aston Villa have seen this last week after O’Neill’s departure.
CHELSEA CRUISE TO SIX AS DROGBA TREBLES UP
Chelsea 6 - 0 West Brom
Malouda 6’, 90’
Drogba 45’, 55’, 68’
Lampard 63’
It was the return of West Brom boss, Roberto DiMatteo, to Stamford Bridge, his old stomping ground for this fixture. That will probably be the only positive memory he will maintain from the experience or, should I say, the drubbing.
His post-match sentiments of “we’ll have to do better” could not be more spot-on with his “yo-yo” side looking to avoid another Premier League relegation.
West Brom can’t even look back and say “at least we made them wait”, because the first goal came in the 6th minute, courtesy of Frenchman, Florent Malouda due to a poor parry off of a Drogba free-kick from keeper Scott Carson that Malouda was all to happy to finish off from 5 yards. This set the tone for the match, with West Brom simply giving away far too many free-kicks within goal-scoring range for the likes of Drogba and Lampard to attempt to punish. Drogba did indeed punish this ill-disciplined tackling just before half time, with a low free-kick that found its way through the wall and into the bottom corner of Carson’s net.
After half-time, Chelsea came out even more ruthless, terrorising the Brom defence and after 10minutes managed to find their 3rd goal, once again, through Drogba with a scrappy finish from a corner. Coach, Carlo Ancelotti will be pleased with such ruthlessness as he thinks there will be “a lot of teams involved at the top” this season.
Chelsea were far from finished though, with Lampard running into the penalty area unmarked after Anelka and Cole made a smooth interchange of passes. Five minutes later, Drogba – rather fortunately – found his hat-trick with a 20 yard shot that took a horrendous deflection to complete bamboozle and wrong-foot Carson.
Malouda decided to finish the rout in injury time in similar fashion to Lampard, simply wandering through unmarked, taking the ball around the keeper and slotting home cooly.
West Brom, though probably given the worst first fixture of the season, will be needing to do much better than this in the future, with their defensive shape poor and lax. Chelsea however, sit atop the Premier League pile after the first week on a very strong goal-difference which, with so many challenging teams this season, could prove pivotal come May.
HOWARD HOWLER HANDS BLACKBURN POINTS
Blackburn 1 - 0 Everton
Kalinic 14’
This is a day that if Everton miss out on European Football by 1 or 2 points at the end of season, Tim Howard may come into account for, the only separator in this match was his terrible mistake.
The match had got off to a slow, considered start from both teams looking to keep possession early-on and try and work out each other’s weaknesses. This approach changed on 14 minutes, when a seemingly innocuous, regulation take for Tim Howard managed to find its way to the ground, with Blackburn striker, Kalinic being quickest to react to the gaff and swiftly putting the ball into Everton’s open net.
In an otherwise eventless match, Nzonzi should have made the lead 2-0 with a header from a Diouf cross that he failed to convert.
After the match, David Moyes refused to blame Howard for the loss, instead choosing to sight the fact that Everton had not presented “enough attacking threats” to deserve or merit taking any points out of the game.
BRUM CLAW A DRAW AS 3 DEFENDERS SCORE!
Sunderland 2 - 2 Birmingham
Bent 24’ (Pen) Dann 77’
Carr (OG) 56’ Ridgewell 88’
It was a day where three Birmingham defenders got on the score-sheet and we saw our first red card of the season, unsurprisingly from Lee Cattermole.
It wasn’t for his use of the elbow in an aerial challenge that got him the card, but instead received 2 yellows, the second of which, a terrible challenge on Lee Bowyer from behind on the stroke of half time. All of this happening after Cattermole had been entrusted with the captaincy by Steve Bruce, who formerly managed the Blues, saying afterwards that Cattermole “needed to learn more common sense”.
When Frazier Campbell was felled by Carr, debatably outside of the box, a penalty was awarded, one that was cooly placed home by rejected England striker Darren Bent.
This lead extended itself 10 minutes into the second half, when Steven Carr – the Brum skipper having a severe off day – lobbed his keeper with a header from a long diagonal ball to leave both him and Ben Foster looking rather silly.
Despite this cushion, Sunderland were beginning to tire, being one man light and Birmingham began to pressure them more effectively. This eventually culminated when, in the 77th minute, Scott Dann managed to find a header from a Birmingham corner to half the deficit.
An exciting 10minutes of football ensued, with Birmingham continuing to press hard on a Sunderland back-line that was beginning to wilt. Birmingham managed to make this count two minutes from time when Liam Ridgewell was adjudged to have the last touch on a near goal-line scrap against the Sunderland defenders from another corner, something Steve Bruce will no doubt be looking to sort.
Birmingham had salvaged an early point away from home and one that could prove important as they look for an outside chance of Europa League football. Sunderland, though, will be disappointed that they failed to hold on to a 2 goal lead when their players will be the freshest they’ll be all season. Bruce failed to mention as such in his press conference, instead saying that the referee, who was making one of his first few Premier League appearances, was not quite at the races after Cattermole’s red card.
TANGERINE’S TORCH THE DW
Wigan 0 - 4 Blackpool
Taylor – Fletcher 16’
Harewood 38’, 43’
Baptiste 75’
Any person who decided to put a bet on Blackpool being top of the league after the 3pm Saturday kick off’s, though surely receiving many laughs at his expense before hand, will be laughing all the way to bank after the Orange’s dismantled Wigan away from home.
It was simply a joy to behold, with all the pre-season speculation saying that Blackpool would never be able to stay afloat and that they didn’t have the resources, players or the funds to make it. Though only one win, this will have boosted their image massively. However they will have to watch out for any complacency and instead aim to play as well in all other matches as they did in this season’s opener.
Having said this, the pre-season chat around the DW stadium was not exactly bright and enterprising itself. Both clubs seem to have been predicted by many to face the drop come the end of the season and this dismal display of football and defending in particular, will have done nothing to silence the critics.
The dream started for Blackpool in the 16th minute, when ex-Hammers striker, Marlon Harewood, put in a low cross to the back post where Taylor-Fletcher lay in wait to tap in, queue pandemonium in the small section of the DW where all the Blackpool fans were situated.
If it hadn’t been for Kirkland and the linesman, the score-line could have been even more embarrassing for Roberto Martinez’s side, as Kirkland made a string of fine saves and the linesman denied Taylor-Fletcher a second that was in fact legitimate.
The often criticised Harewood then managed to help himself to two goals within 5 minutes before the half time whistle sounded. Firstly he hit a 20 yard daisy-cutter that admittedly should have been saved and then he pounced on a rebound from an acute angle to leave Blackpool fans celebrating a 3-0 lead.
Wigan defender, Gohouri then had a goal disallowed, once again mistakenly by the linesman’s offside flag, leaving Wigan supporter’s up in arms. This, before Baptiste completely put the match to bed with a freak goal, beating Kirkland at his near-post in similar fashion to how Arsenal keeper Lukas Fabianski was beaten away at Porto in last year’s Champions League tie.
Wigan will have been left distraught and embarrassed by such a hammering at home at the hands of a team that is being backed to go back down to the Championship. Martinez openly admitted that “everything that could have gone wrong did”. In contrast to Holloway’s summary of the match, “I’m proud of these boys and their fantastic spirit!” Let’s just hope Holloway will still be able to say the same things in May.
WOLVES HOWL STOKE AWAY
Wolves 2 - 1 Stoke
D. Jones 37’ Faye 55’
Fletcher 39’
Two sides that were both candidates for relegation last year, but eventually finished 11th and 15th met to do battle on the opening day of a season that they both hope will end similarly than the last.
Stoke had the best of the early exchanges, with new record signing Kenwyne Jones hitting the bar early on with the scores deadlocked. His afternoon was ended shortly afterwards by a horrible ankle twist after being on the receiving end of a Jody Craddock tackle that saw him play no further part in the match.
In the mean time, the Jones of Wolves had a goal disallowed for a foul on Sorensen. Not to be stopped however, he produced a magnificent goal 37minutes in. A free-kick had been won for Wolves just outside the edge of the penalty D. Jones stepped behind it to have it laid back, this happened, then Jones flicked the ball up with his left foot, volleyed it with the same foot and got the ball over the wall and then to dip to hit the underside of the crossbar and go in. It was a truly fantastic attempt and a reward to all of those who dream of scoring inventive goals. Steven Fletcher went on to double the lead 4 minutes later with a header from short range after a Berra cross deflected over Sorensen to take Wolves into half time 2-0 up in front of their home fans at Molineux.
The ever-physical Stoke team continued to drive on valiantly, and were given an opportunity when Faye headed home from an Etherington corner. However they could not find another goal to get themselves a share of the points.
This allowed Wolves to take all 3 and give themselves a great start to what could possibly be a very tough one. Tony Pulis bemoaned the loss of Jones so early on saying “it took the wind out our sails”. Fortunately scans have shown that Jones will not be out for as long as first thought.
STOCKDALE SUPREME IN STALEMATE
Bolton 0 - 0 Fulham
The big news at the Reebok was that Mark Schwarzer was left on the bench by new Fulham boss Mark Hughes, leaving reserve keeper Stockdale to make his debut. Does this show the world that Hughes could well be resigned to losing Schwarzer, who is being tailed by Arsenal.
If it was worried that Fulham would not be the same with Schwarzer, those fears were dispelled after a string of fine saves by Stockdale from first Martin Petrov and then Elmander.
Bolton’s Holden came closest to breaking the deadline when he hit the post only for the ball to rebound unhelpfully.
This match was probably the most easily predictable 0-0 draw out of the weekend’s matches, with neither team renowned for goal-scoring and normally fairly consistent at the back.
POINTS LET OFF THE REINAS
Liverpool 1 - 1 Arsenal
Ngog 46’ Reina (OG) 89’
The first Super Sunday of the new season, and there were indeed parts of it that were super. Roy Hodgson and Joe Cole made their headline debuts whilst Arsene Wenger had just signed a new contract to keep him at Arsenal until 2014 and Chamakh and Koscielny starting the Premier League for the first time. Jack Wilshere rounded of a great personal week with a start for Arsenal to go alongside his first England cap.
Arsenal were completely without the services of skipper Fabregas and Van Persie was left on the bench alongside Fernando Torres.
The game took a while to get off its feet with both teams fairly conservative and whilst Arsenal took 60% of the first half possession it was neither threatening nor high tempo for the majority. Thomas Vermaelen had the first opportunity of the game with a brilliant free-kick from 30 yard struck with venomous power, alas though, Reina was equal to it.
The game had a real talking point to speak of just shy of half time when Joe Cole lunged through Koscielny, crushing his ankle, to receive a straight red, much to his and the Kop’s dismay. Koscielny, though having been stretchered off the pitch, rejoined the game in the 2nd half, much to the thanks of his shin-pad I suspect.
In spite of this setback, Liverpool fired out of the blocks in the 2nd half, with Ngog opening the scoring a minute in after beating Almunia at his near-post with a lethal hit from a narrow angle. This brought a slightly higher tempo of passing out of Arsenal, using Nasri as their focal point and they should have equalised when Rosicky wrestled clean through only for Reina to produce a magnificent save to tip it over the bar.
Walcott and Van Persie were brought on as Arsenal looked and sought an equaliser and they very nearly unlocked Liverpool when Van Persie kept the ball in play, headed back across goal, with Walcott just failed to get a clean opportunity with the company of three Liverpool defenders.
With 90minutes gone, the pressure on Liverpool reached its breaking point as Rosicky sent in a beautiful cross that hung up in the sun, not aiding Pepe Reina, who found Chamakh running across the line of ball. Chamakh got a touch that rolled into the post and out, with Reina running back towards his own goal he could not prevent himself from juggling it into the back of the net to get Arsenal back in the game.
An edgey 5 minutes of football followed, with Koscielny picking up a 2nd yellow for an apparent handball at close range and Gerrard testing Almunia with a stinging free-kick. However the game finished 1-1 which at the end of the day was a fair result with neither team at full strength with their respective passing and moving games. Liverpool did however do very well with 10 men and it barely showed that they were a man light, perhaps a testament to the training drills and defensive shape that Roy Hodgson is famous for drilling into his teams.
SCHOLES ROLLS BACK THE YEARS IN UNITED PROCESSION
Manchester United 3 - 0 Newcastle United
Berbatov 33’
Fletcher 43’
Giggs 85’
15 years ago, this fixture would have been a top of the table clash, now though, whilst one team still owns that status, the other has only just rejoined the League from the Championship. This fact was glaringly obvious throughout the match, with Man Utd on superb form and in particular one Paul Scholes who drew the words “Paul is a master of his trade. His vision, passing range and willingness to play is marvellous” from Alex Ferguson after the match.
Whilst Wayne Rooney was withdrawn after an hour having still not scored for club or country in over 1000 minutes, it was Berbatov who finally shouldered his weight up front as he, along with Scholes played a very strong match and bagged himself a goal half an hour in thanks to a well weighted through ball from Scholes and he proceeded to finish across goal from a tough angle.
It was Newcastle on the other hand who had the first meaningful chance of the game, with Andy Carroll rising well from a corner only to head the ball wide from 6 yards, a chance he will surely regret missing. From then on in though, Man Utd simply dominated with the “Ginger Pele” pulling any and every string available. His superb passing range was on show for all to see with 30/40 yard diagonals out to Valencia, Nani and Rooney in stark contrast with little give and go’s with Berbatov and Fletcher. Newcastle could simply not keep tabs on him and he punished them for it time and again. Scholes did nevertheless manage to get himself a yellow card with his now customary poor tackling ability when he felled Joey Barton (sporting a hilarious moustache!) with his studs showing.
United went 2 up after the Newcastle midfielders were caught ball watching, allowing Evra to run through unchallenged, fizz a ball across to Rooney who touched it on to Fletcher who turned and shot from close range to go into half time with a comfortable and well deserved 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, Utd simply did not quit in the 2nd half, and whilst Newcastle tried to play on the counter with big men Carroll and Nolan up front, it failed miserably and they were left constantly chasing the ball with little or no reward. They purely did not deserve to be there playing against such a team on such magnificent form.
United inevitably created more chances, with Scholes having a penalty appeal refused after great one-touch play with Berbatov. Berbatov himself had some good chances as well, a one on one with Harper that he should have finished but instead rolled wide. On top of this a chance in the 82nd minute when he rescued an Evra cross, turned and beat a man to shoot at Harper from close range from a difficult angle.
United got their 3rd and final goal 5 minutes from the end when another Scholes diagonal found Giggs’ left foot volley into the far corner to round up a superb performance and send out a warning shot to the other challenging teams.
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