Premier League
Shocks Reign as Premiership Burst into Surprise Openings
The English Premier League, undoubtedly the most followed domestic football league in the world opened at the weekend with a flurry of shocks, but the big boys still lived up to expectations.
While defending champions, Chelsea suddenly discovered themselves being pummelled at home and taking a 0-3 dip at half time, elsewhere, the likes of Wayne Rooney at Everton and Alexandre Lacazette with Arsenal proved their worth at the summer transfer market.
Alexandre Lacazette on the opening day on Friday needed just two minutes to fire Arsenal ahead in an eventual 4-3 defeat of Leicester City. So also Rooney fired in the only goal that enabled Everton overcome Stoke City.
What is more, his goal on Saturday was the 300th Premier League goal in which he was involved.
He is thus just 24 goals behind record holder, Alan Shearer. But as both Rooney and Lacazette made individual marks, Chelsea have everything to worry about in their title defence which opened with a 2-3 loss at home to lowly rated Burnley.
They became the first defending champion to concede three goals in an opening match. They eventually finished their league opener with two man deficit.
Had it not been for Chelsea’s debacle/Burnley’s triumph, Liverpool’s draw at the hands of Watford would be the story of the day.
Miguel Britos scored a controversial goal in extra time to hand Watford a 3-3 draw with the boys from the Merseyside.
Watford are considered lightweights by Premier League standards, the match had the feeling of a heavyweight bout, as the two clubs traded blows all afternoon, with Watford landing the final punch that secured the draw.
But the hornets also landed the opening punch, with a goal from Nigerian decent, Stefano Okaka in the eighth minute.
With uncertainty over the future of Philippe Coutinho, the mantle of best player at Liverpool will fall to either Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino, both of whom scored on Saturday.
Mane sped around the Watford box and curled home a give-and-go with a couple of his teammates to the far-post in the 29th.
That lead didn’t last long, however, as Abdoulaye Doucouré brought Watford back ahead three minutes later. On the other side of the half, Firmino scored from the penalty spot following a foul on new boy Mohamed Salah to bring the score level again at 2-2.
It was Salah, a player with a bright future at Anfield, who scored two minutes after Firmino to give Liverpool its first lead of the match.
On the counter, Firmino chipped the keeper, but the shot was on trajectory to land well short of the goal line. But Salah charged onto the ball as if it were a pass and put a boot on it to score on the open net.
With two goals in quick succession, Liverpool seemed to have weathered the storm and were set to take three points from the match at Vicarage Road.
But Britos headed the match-tying goal in off the line after the Reds failed to clear a corner that ricocheted around the box and to the Watford man.
There were calls for offside, but the referee swallowed his whistle and the goal stood.
Liverpool has the right to feel aggrieved in this draw, considering both the controversy on the last goal, as well as an offside Watford player in the build-up to the Doucouré goal.
But plenty of this draw was created by their own faults. The main criticism of the Reds last season was that, while they could score with the best of them, their defence was broken down far too easily far too often, especially on set pieces.
That doesn’t seem to have changed in the offseason, as Jurgen Klopp never bought another defender to reinforce his back line.
If he doesn’t change something soon, this trend of excellent attacking and atrocious defending could continue for the next nine months.
Although it wasn’t on the same scale as Chelsea-Burnley, Huddersfield Town also secured an upset in the club’s first ever match in the Premier League, and they did it by a large margin.
The Terriers defeated Crystal Palace to open the season. A Joel Ward own goal and two from new signing Steve Mounie gave Huddersfield a 3-0 win away from home at Selhurst Park. It’s a dream start for one of the club’s favoured for relegation this season.
With three goals and a +3 goal differential, Huddersfield Town is top of the league. The beginning of the Premier League season is weird, man.
Other Premier League results
- Brighton 0-2 Manchester City
- West Brom 1-0 Bournemouth
- Southampton 0-0 Swansea City
Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 1-0 to remain top of the Premier League as Arsenal and Manchester City came from behind to win on Saturday.
City were 3-2 victors over Fulham to stay one point behind Liverpool, alongside Arsenal who saw off Southampton 3-1.
Arne Slot has now won nine of his first 10 games since succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager, but was frustrated that the visitors invited a late onslaught from the winless Eagles.
Jota prodded the Reds into the lead from Cody Gakpo’s cross on nine minutes.
The Portuguese international was then guilty of missing two big chances to extend Liverpool’s advantage.
Palace failed to make them pay, but victory came at a cost for Slot as goalkeeper Alisson Becker limped off with a hamstring injury.
“If you score the second you break them mentally,” said Slot. “All the fans kept believing in a result because it was only 1-0, even though in my opinion we were the dominant team.”
Fresh from a dominant win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Arsenal were expected to sweep aside winless Southampton.
But the Saints shocked the Emirates 10 minutes into the second half when Cameron Archer fired in his first Premier League goal since a summer move from Aston Villa.
The lead only lasted three minutes before Kai Havertz scored for the seventh consecutive home game.
Gabriel Martinelli was introduced after an hour and took just eight minutes to make his mark with a finish on the volley from Bukayo Saka’s cross.
Having set up Arsenal’s first two goals, Saka pounced on a loose ball to score the third himself.
Fulham’s outrageous opener
Rodri’s season-long absence due to a serious knee injury is expected to be a major blow to City’s chances of retaining the title for a fifth consecutive season.
But it was the Spaniard’s deputy Mateo Kovacic who scored twice to turn the game around for the champions at the Etihad.
The visitors had not lost since the opening night of the season at Manchester United and led thanks to Andreas Pereira’s finish from an outrageous backheel assist by Raul Jimenez.
Kovacic’s deflected effort quickly brought City level before a cleaner strike less than two minutes into the second half made it 2-1.
Jeremy Doku then smashed into the top corner from outside the box to give City a two-goal cushion, which they needed.
Rodrigo Muniz gave Fulham hope on 88 minutes, but City held out for a 17th consecutive win against the Cottagers.
West Ham eased the pressure on new boss Julen Lopetegui by ending a run of three home defeats to start the new season.
Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta struck for the Hammers in a 4-1 win over Ipswich, who are still waiting for their first Premier League win 22 years.
There were six goals before half-time as Brentford beat Wolves 5-3 to leave the visitors still rooted to the foot of the table.
Leicester secured their first league win of the season as Facundo Buonanotte’s strike beat Bournemouth 1-0.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag faces a huge match if he is to remain in charge when the Red Devils visit Aston Villa in the pick of Sunday’s action.
-AFP
Premier League
Premier League rejects City request to delay next season’s games after Club World Cup
The Premier League has rejected Manchester City’s request to postpone the first two games of the 2025-26 season to help the players recover after their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the U.S., the club’s manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
City and Chelsea are the two English clubs who have qualified for the expanded month-long Club World Cup set to start on June 15. The Premier League’s season will begin in August.
An increasingly packed soccer calendar has been a concern among a growing number of players and managers. A report by global players’ union FIFPRO said some players get only 12% of the year to rest.
The Premier League did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
City midfielder Rodri said in September that players could be close to strike action over the time they are required to play. A knee ligament injury has since put him out for the season.
“I don’t know if we will play more games than the treble year (2022-23)… maybe we’ll play less games,” Guardiola told reporters.
“The Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much. They don’t postpone these games so that will be the moment of, oh, what do we have to do?”
He said the Club World Cup will make it even more difficult for clubs to manage player workload.
-Reuters
Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said a decision about under-fire manager Erik ten Hag is not his call, and was reticent about whether he still has faith in the team’s boss amid their worst start to the Premier League season since 1986-87.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” Ratcliffe told the BBC. “I like Erik. I think he’s a very good coach but at the end of the day it’s not my call, it’s the management team that’s running Manchester United that have to decide how we best run the team in many different respects.
“That team that’s running Manchester United has only been together since June or July. They weren’t there in January, February, March or April — Omar (Berrada, CEO), (Sporting Director) Dan Ashworth — they only arrived in July.
“They’ve only been there . . . you can count it in weeks almost — they’ve not been there a long time so they need to take stock and make some sensible decisions.”
Ten Hag’s job was the subject of speculation for much of last season en route to the team’s lowest Premier League finish of eighth. After an FA Cup final victory over Manchester City and an end-of-season review, however, Ten Hag signed a new contract to extend his stay at Old Trafford until 2026.
“Our objective is very clear, we want to take Manchester United back to where it should be, and it’s not there yet, obviously, that’s very clear,” Ratcliffe said.
Ten Hag continues to plead for patience from fans with the team languishing 13th in the Premier League table, having lost three of their six opening games. They were headed towards defeat by Porto in the Europa League on Thursday before Harry Maguire scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a 3-3 draw.
-Reuters
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