It has been a long and sumptuous summer for soccer. The Confederations Cup provided excitement on the field, while teams are still fighting for World Cup qualifying. Also the transfer period revealed spending sprees of unparalleled proportion by Real Madrid and Manchester City. With all of this behind us we finally have the start of the Barclay's English Premier League. Week one provided much to talk about and much excitement. So lets get to a week 1 wrap-up.
No better place to start off than with the defending champs. Much attention has been given to Manchester United with the departure of the world's best #7 Cristiano Ronaldo and the departure of Carlos Tevez. Much of the weight of those moves has fallen on the shoulders of Englishman Wayne Rooney, not to mention the preseason injury to keeper Edwin van der Sar. Rooney did not disappoint by providing the lone goal in a 1-0 win in the opening match against Birmingham. The second match of the week the Red Devils did not fair as well. New EPL call up Burnley brought down the league champs with a first half rip by Robbie Blake. To take things from embarrassing to worse Man U had a chance to equalize but Michael Carrick missed a penalty and Man U lost stud center back Rio Ferdinand for up to a month with an injury. It will be interesting to see how the Red Devils respond to this adversity in the coming matches.
Two teams that have been impressive with two first week victories are Chelsea and Tottenham. Both teams looked sharp against their opponents scoring multiple goals with ease.Chelsea handled the Black Cats of Sunderland 3-1 and Hull 2-1 with last minute heroics from Didier Drogba. Tottenham handed a early season loss to last years season long front runners Liverpool and then trounced Hull 5-1.
Liverpool followed up the disappointing showing with an absolute 4-0 stomping of Stoke City, showing that they won't curl up and quit after the exit of Xabi Alonso.
The most impressive showing of the week was put on by Arsenal. The Gunners who have had notable exits of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure came out firing. I mean firing! 6 goals before Everton scored their 1. Arsenal showed no ill effects of losing two starters to Manchester City.
Man City did their thing with a easy 2-0 victory on Saturday over Blackburn Rovers. A goal on a beautiful volley from around the 18 by Adebayor in the 2nd minute. From then on it was easy cruising until Stephen Ireland sealed the deal with a cheeky 90th minute goal. Ireland flicking the ball on to himself just toys with the keeper and defense before sliding it home near post. Showing why he is one of the most talented and prized young players in the EPL.
This weeks awards:
Best Team: Tottenham and Arsenal split this award for week on, both had the most dominate showing of any teams.
Worst Team: Everton - A team that is consistently in the top 10 got worked all over the pitch and didn't show an ounce of defensive pressure all game. Not to mention star defender Joleon Lescott was dropped from the line up due to poor attitude
Biggest Surprise: Burnley with a 1-0 win over Manchester United
Biggest Disappointment: Aston Villa - Much was made of Aston Villa coming into this season, but it failed to materialize with a 2-0 loss to Wigan Athletic.
Player of the Week : Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal) - 2 Goals and 2 Assists. This is soccer, enough said.
One week down, many more to go, check back next week for more English Premier League insight and wrap-up.
~Dirk - International Soccer Correspondent
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