Hope Springs Eternal For Big Four Gatecrashers

The Gaffer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:59:15 +0000

The first weekend of the Premier League is over, and what an entertaining weekend it was. Thirty two goals and an average of 3.2 goals per match, and a few surprise results. Who said the Premier League was boring?!

Here are some of the highs and lows from this past weekend, as well as my two cents about the clubs who will hopefully gatecrash the Big Four this season:

Highlights:

Aston Villa playing a wonderful brand of football with Ashley Young, Gareth Barry and Gabriel Agbonlahor all putting in a fine performance.
Chelsea looks breathtaking and, gulp, exciting to watch, and could have even won the match 6-0 or 7-0.
Hull City made a brilliant Premier League debut against a woeful Fulham side.
Middlesbrough is the new Brazil, at least for one weekend.
Jonas Gutierrez, aka Spiderman, made one of the most impressive Premier League debuts I’ve seen in years. Simply sensational, and it’s such a delight to see a left winger with speed and dribbling ability who is willing to take on defenders.
Rodrigo Possebon played well in Manchester United’s midfield and was extremely confident.
Villa fans singing Agbonlahor’s name to the tune of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon.
Gretar Steinsson’s goal for Bolton that was absolutely delightful.
Newcastle’s defense looked solid (when was the last time we could say that?). Especially impressive was Fabricio Coloccini.

Lowlights:

The pitiful number of away Wigan fans at Upton Park.
Stoke’s defending made Derby look like Italy’s back four.
Manchester United looked unimaginative for much of their 1-1 draw against Newcastle.

Out of the Big Four, Chelsea was the only team that impressed. Arsenal was wasteful in front of goal (again). Liverpool was absolutely appalling and were only saved by the Fernando Torres wonder strike. Manchester United looked a shadow of themselves and were fortunate to come away with a draw in light of the Vidic foul on Jonas Gutierrez which should have been a penalty in the first half.

Sure, it’s early days so far and players are still a little stale after not playing competitive matches for a few months, but Man United and Liverpool will definitely have to step up their performances quite a bit despite the fact that many players are out due to injury and Olympics duty.

For those of you who are neutral fans of the Premier League, there’s already quite a lot of hope to find some quality attacking sides that will shake up the league this season and give the Big Four a run for their money. So far, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Hull City, Bolton, Newcastle United and Blackburn put in quality performances. Let’s hope this trend continues for the sake of unpredictability which is sorely missing in the Premiership.

What are your thoughts about the opening weekend of the Premier League season? What were your highs and lows? Click the comments link below and share your opinions.

EPL Talk » Upton Park

Hope Springs Eternal For Big Four Gatecrashers