The giants of the English Premier League returned to action this week and it was business as usual.
Manchester United sneaked an unconvincing win, Chelsea failed to live up to expectations, Manchester City slaughtered inferior opposition and Liverpool flopped at home in a game they should have wrapped up in the first 30 minutes. United set the pace for the season with an early goal from Wayne Rooney) and a late winner from new signing Ashley Young, but new keeper David de Gea gave hope to those who enjoy comedy goalkeeping, stuffing up a routine save for the second game in a row to gift West Brom an equaliser.
The EPL new boys had baptisms of fire, with QPR smashed at home by Bolton and Swansea the first victims of City, the best result went to Norwich who managed a draw with Wigan. Norwich shouldn’t get too carried away though as Wigan are likely to be engaged in a season long relegation scrap long with them this year. Most likely to be at the bottom of the table at the end of the season, Blackburn began their campaign by losing, at home, to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Steve Kean will be the first manager sacked this season; it’s just a matter of time. Elsewhere, Joey Barton once again hit the headlines, taking offense at Gervinho’s dive, helping him to his feet (by the throat), then taking a dive himself after being given a light slap, then jumping on to twitter to justify his actions.
Barton is available for transfer, free to a good home, but no one seems overly interested. Arsenal concluded the longest transfer saga in football by selling Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona’s substitute bench. With Samir Nasri likely to join Mancester City in the next two weeks, Arsene Wenger will have a small fortune to spend and will no doubt bring in a few unknown French teenagers to fill the gaps in his squad.
Finally, QPR got new owners this week and manager Neil Warnock will be looking to bring in a few new faces before the end of the month having admitted that it could be a long hard season if he’s unable to improve his squad.