EPL - The Season Openers!
The new EPL season has started and the top teams will not be too pleased about the performance, especially the reigning champions Chelsea. Mourinho was fuming at the way Chelsea won with just 30 seconds to go in the injury time, from a superb left-footed strike from substitute Crespo.
Wigan Athletic played its first premiership match against Chelsea and must have been proud at the way it fought Chelsea. They easily had the better chances, played much better football and defied all the 0-5 thrashing the football pundits had predicted and nearly won the game in injury time, the miss by Johansson proving to be too costly for them.
ManUtd had a tough game away at Everton. Ronaldo was left out due to an injury and Park made his debut in the left wing and played well but will be ruing his bad miss from a long cross from Neville. Ruud was once again among the goals and a defender's error presented Rooney with his first goal against his old club. ManUtd will be pleased with the result but not much with their performance. Not much creativity in the midfield and sorely missed Ronaldo in the right wing. Roy Keane, Scholes and Fletcher will have to much better if ManUtd have to beat the other top teams.
Arsenal were lucky to score the penalty in the 80th minute against Newcastle Utd who were playing with 10 men after Jenas got an undeserving send-off (it has been revoked to a yellow card after the refree admitted his error seeing the replays). Arsenal looks a pale shadow of the team that went unbeaten in the league two seasons back.
Liverpool flattered to deceive and could only manage a goalless draw away at Boro, Gerrard being the main culprit losing out on many goalscoring chances. Liverpool has to play with 2 strikers upfront if they have to create more goalscoring chances.
I feel Tottenham is the team to watch out for this season. They have a very good team with the best striking options, a good midfield which has been strengthened with the arrival of one of Europe's finest midfielders Edgar Davids.
Their defence too looks good with skipper and English defender Ledley King. Though I did not see its match against Portsmouth ( it was not telecast on ESPN), I saw the goals scored and Defoe is one of the upcoming strikers in England. He is going to start England's friendly tonight with Denmark and the next World Cup qualifier against Wales in place of Owen, who would be silently praying Defoe doesn't score goals and take his place in the England team.
Best goal: Crespo against Wigan
Wigan Athletic played its first premiership match against Chelsea and must have been proud at the way it fought Chelsea. They easily had the better chances, played much better football and defied all the 0-5 thrashing the football pundits had predicted and nearly won the game in injury time, the miss by Johansson proving to be too costly for them.
ManUtd had a tough game away at Everton. Ronaldo was left out due to an injury and Park made his debut in the left wing and played well but will be ruing his bad miss from a long cross from Neville. Ruud was once again among the goals and a defender's error presented Rooney with his first goal against his old club. ManUtd will be pleased with the result but not much with their performance. Not much creativity in the midfield and sorely missed Ronaldo in the right wing. Roy Keane, Scholes and Fletcher will have to much better if ManUtd have to beat the other top teams.
Arsenal were lucky to score the penalty in the 80th minute against Newcastle Utd who were playing with 10 men after Jenas got an undeserving send-off (it has been revoked to a yellow card after the refree admitted his error seeing the replays). Arsenal looks a pale shadow of the team that went unbeaten in the league two seasons back.
Liverpool flattered to deceive and could only manage a goalless draw away at Boro, Gerrard being the main culprit losing out on many goalscoring chances. Liverpool has to play with 2 strikers upfront if they have to create more goalscoring chances.
I feel Tottenham is the team to watch out for this season. They have a very good team with the best striking options, a good midfield which has been strengthened with the arrival of one of Europe's finest midfielders Edgar Davids.
Their defence too looks good with skipper and English defender Ledley King. Though I did not see its match against Portsmouth ( it was not telecast on ESPN), I saw the goals scored and Defoe is one of the upcoming strikers in England. He is going to start England's friendly tonight with Denmark and the next World Cup qualifier against Wales in place of Owen, who would be silently praying Defoe doesn't score goals and take his place in the England team.
Best goal: Crespo against Wigan
Best save: Van der Saar reflex blocking save Cahill's powerful header
Best match: Newcomers West Ham thrashing ex-champions Blackburn 3-1
Worst match: 0-0 draw played out by Birmingham-Fulham
Worst play: Dickov's red card for a two-footed rash challenge on a West Ham player
Worst Mistake: The referee's red card to Newcastle's Jenas
Fatal Error: Yobo gifting ManUtd's second goal and Rooney's first against his former club
posted by Lucas @ 1:25 PM
2 Comments:
Good summary of the opening days action.
For a away match, it is the usual policy these days to pack the midfield with 5 players. I guess that was the logic which Rafa used. Maybe 2 strikers as you say in the home games.
And for me, the best match was the Wigan -Chelsea game simply becasue i expected so little entertainment from that match.
Aja.
Liverpool is already behind the top three just because they drew the match. They will have to play with 2 upfront even in away games if they are to win. I am surprised Rafa still sticks to that 4-5-1 formation.
I pity Wigan and they fought bravely...good finishing might have helped their cause. Though I doubt it if they can continue their opening day heroics against other teams. Ultimately, I feel Wigan will be relegated.
I chose WestHam beating Blackburn just because a new team has been able do beat Blackburn who have some star players like Bellamy, Savage etc.
But as u said, Wigan-Chelsea was entertaining in the sense that the Champions, for all the pre-season hype, were struggling against a team making their debut in the Premiership.
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