Premier League Round-Up: Opening Weekend
Credit: Julian Finney
Matchweek 1:
Liverpool 4-1 Norwich
West Ham 0-5 Man City
Bournemouth 1-1 Sheffield United
Burnley 3-0 Southampton
Crystal Palace 0-0 Everton
Watford 0-3 Brighton
Tottenham 3-1 Aston Villa
Leicester City - 0-0 Wolves
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal
Man United 4-0 Chelsea
Manchester City and Liverpool Pick Up Exactly Where They Left Off
What’s the most points scored in a calendar year because these two teams have to be on pace for the record, with Man City obviously having the advantage. It’s the start of a new season and I was really hoping that things would be different compared to last, but if matchweek 1 is anything to go by it’s not going to be. Liverpool got things kicked off with their Friday night game against the newly promoted Norwich. While nobody expected Norwich to beat Liverpool, we at least hoped it would be somewhat competitive. The score was 4-0 at halftime. The game would go on to finish 4-1 but the way that Liverpool outclassed them just shows the talent gap. Has their ever been a bigger talent gap that right now in the Premier League?
Then to start the show on Saturday morning, Manchester City defeated West Ham, a team that could very well be in the top half of the table, by a score of 5-0. Now while Man City didn’t put this game away in the first half like Liverpool, City did score 3 of their goals in the last 15 minutes of the games, they were clearly the dominate side throughout. City had 3 times as many shots as West Ham and created 14 more chances than West Ham did. With a fully healthy Kevin De Bruyne back, it’s hard to imagine but this City team is better than last year. Hopefully both Liverpool and Manchester City hit some bumps along the way this season and it’s more competitive but as Jose Mourinho said, there’s four teams that can win the title, Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool and Man City’s B team.
Frank Lampard Gets Worst Result Possible In First Game
4-0 loss away to Manchester United in Lampard’s first game in charge, can’t get much worse than that. The surprising thing about the result is that Chelsea were the better team for the majority of the game, granted that might be somewhat biased as I’m a Chelsea fa but I truly believe we were better. In the first half, Chelsea very well could have been up 1 or 2 goals. Chelsea finished with more shots, more chances created and more possession, but again if you look at the scoreline it looks like they were dominated. Now I’m not trying to justify this Chelsea performance because there were a few players that were absolutely dreadful.
Kurt Zouma had about as bad of a game as you could possibly have. He was wreckless (gave away the penalty to United in the 18th minutes which resulted in the 1-0 halftime deficit) and was careless with the ball on multiple occasions. I already didn’t like letting David Luiz leave for Arsenal and today’s performance only confirmed that feeling. We definitely need Rugider back, granted I don’t think he can fix all the issues we have defensively. Azpilicueta is another defender who had a horrible game. He was out of position a handful of times and attackers just blow right by him. It’s wild that Azpilicueta has been one of our best players for years now and he’s suddenly seemed to have just lost it. In two weeks he will be just 30, but it looks like the wheels have fell off quite early for him. Hopefully he can figure it out or we will be giving Reece James a go at it sooner rather than later.
Other Notes:
Congrats to Sheffield United, the team I picked to finish dead least, as they were the only newly promoted team to walk away from the opening week with any points. Sheffield were able to draw Bournemouth 1-1 thanks to a late goal from Billy Sharp. Norwich City never stood a chance in their first game and Aston Villa actually looked to pull off the upset against Tottenham but fell apart in the last 20 mins of the game.
Shocker of the week, other than Man United’s thrashing of Chelsea, Brighton beating Watford 3-0. No chance that Brighton scores 3 goals in a game again the rest of the year. I would love to be able to place a bet on that.
Big games to look forward to next weekend: Manchester City vs Tottenham (Let’s see how good this Tottenham team is against the champs), Chelsea vs Leicester City, and Manchester United vs Wolves.
Thanny