Chelsea 2-1 Hull City
Aston Villa 0-2 Wigan Athletic
Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Manchester City
Bolton Wanderers 0-1 Sunderland
Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham
Stoke City 2-0 Burnley
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 West Ham United
Everton 1-6 Arsenal
Manchester United 1-0 Birmingham City
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Liverpool
Chelsea were fortunate. Very fortunate. Hull do a very good job against the Big Four and they would have pulled out a draw were it not for Didier Drogba's cross-turned-shot nestling into the corner. I though Wigan were fantastic against Villa. A lot of people have marked Wigan for relegation, as in recent months they have lost a number of their top players, but new manager Roberto Martinez seems to really know what he's doing and I think Wigan could make a real push for the top half of the table. City got off to a good start in what could have been a tricky tie away to Blackburn. Interestingly, Carlos Tevez started in a familiar spot — on the bench. Sorry Carlos, but would you rather warm the bench for United or City?
Anyways, Sunderland are potentially another team to look out for this season. The addition of Darrent Bent paid immediate dividends, and he is supported by a fairly decent cast of attacking players. Fulham were one of last season's surprise performers, and you had to favor them to beat a cash-strapped Pompey side. Stoke were up their old tricks, scoring twice off set pieces to beat newcomers Burnley. Burnley hadn't seen a Rory Delap throw-in for at least a year, but don't expect other Premier League sides to look quite so useless against the Delap missile. Gianfranco Zola did some wonderful things for West Ham towards the end of last season, and he picked up right where he left off with a solid 2-0 win over new boys Wolves. The fact that Zola still wants to add to an already impressive squad could really impact the race for a Europa League spot this season.
Arsenal were nothing short of fantastic. Many people seem to think Arsenal's place in the top four will be threatened by Man City, but if early indications are anything to go by, I would say it is Liverpool that should be looking over its shoulder. As for Everton, I would say the game was more of an exception than a rule, and I expect them to recover quite quickly. Manchester United did enough to win on the opening day, something they haven't done in ages. Birmingham, despite being marked for relegation, seem like they can play a little and I look forward to seeing more of their new record signing Christian Benitez.
Finally, we get to Spurs vs. Liverpool. Spurs were a force under Harry Redknapp during the second half of last season. They now posses a very formidable group of strikers and have the potential to do some damage again this year. Keeping in mind that Liverpool only lost two Premier League games last season, the fact that Spurs could have put 4 or 5 past them is very impressive. There was a Xabi Alonso shaped hole right in the heart of that Liverpool midfield yesterday, and we will have to wait a few months to see if his currently-injured replacement Alberto Aquilani will fit the mold. In the meantime, we can all sit and laugh at the Liverfools as they literally put their heads together trying to figure out what to do without Alonso (See here for full highlights including Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel's epic mid-air collision that resulted in the headgear seen in the picture above).
All in all a great first weekend of Premier League action, and it picks up again with a couple of games tomorrow.
