The long anticipated English Premier League kicked off today with major highlight as the Sunderland versus Arsenal match and West Bromwich Albion versus Liverpool. Arsenal who are without mecurial captain Robin Van Persie who was sold to rivals Manchester United during the week, were handed a tricky opener against Sunderland away.
Liverpool on the other hand who had a turbulent showing last season, are away to Osaze Odemwingie’s West Brom. Liverpool who are under new manager Brendan Rodgers have signed new faces to the club in a bid to be title challengers this season.
Other fixtures played today are: Arsenal : Sunderland, Fulham : Norwich City, QPR : Swansea City, Reading : Stoke City, WBA : Liverpool, West Ham : Aston Villa and later today, Newcastle United : Tottenham Hotspur.
At the end of ninety minutes plus extra time, the results are as follows: Arsenal 0:0 Sunderland, Fulham 5:0 Norwich, QPR 0:5 Swansea, Reading 1:1 Stoke, West Brom 3:0 Liverpool and West Ham 1:0 Aston Villa.
For Liverpool new manager, he had his baptism of fire with Nigeria’s Peter Osaze Odemwingie finding the net through a spot kick in the 64 minute for West Brom with former Chelsea player Roman Lukaku adding the third goal 13 minutes later after Zera had opened scoring 43 minutes into the game.
It was a woeful outing today for former Manchester City coach, Mark Hughes as his side fell 5 nil to Swansea City; even the introduction of Shaun-Wrights Phillips in the 64th minute wasn’t enough to change the outcome. The game saw both Michu and Dyer grab a brace each with Sinclair adding a fifth in the 81st minute.
former Tottenham manager Martin Jol had a remarkable opening to the season as his Fulham tutored side saw off newly promoted clubside, Norwich City in grand style. A. Kacaniklic, S. Sidwell and D. Duff each scored a goal while M. Petric scored a brace to bring the goal tally to five against Norwich.
West Ham united pipped Aston Villa at Upton Park by a lone goal in the 40th minute via the boot of Kevin Nolan and in keeping to tradition of playing wonderfully well and holding onto possession, Arsenal were able to steal a point against Sunderland; a result which currently sees Arsenal lie in the 7th position on the table closely followed by Sunderland. Arsene Wenger’s side’s best chance of the game fell to Olivier Giroud who somehow fired an effort past the post with only Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to beat from inside the box.
As at the time of compiling this report, the Newcastle vs Tottenham game has kicked off with 15 minutes already played and no goal scored yet. More updates later.
