The misery for Gunners fans was finally over as they kicked off their Premier League campaign – three weeks after the rest of the football league.
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They got off the line in style, beating Liverpool 2-0. More importantly it was two of the new arrivals that came to the rescue of their faltering start. Lukas Podolski slotted the ball into the back of Pepe Reina’s football goal on the 31st minute to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead, then Spanish football medals winner Santi Cazorla added a second at 68 minutes to give Arsenal their first points of the season. More importantly this also proved that the Gunners can put footballs in the back of football nets without Robin Van Persie.
Liverpool had another bad weekend at the races, with boss Brendan Rogers now in charge of Liverpool’s worst start to a season since 1962. The Reds have only managed one point in their first three games and are currently sat in the relegation zone. No doubt things will improve and it is still only early days – for Rogers as well as the season, but the question remains as to when they will be able to turn their fortunes around.
Rogers finally relented and loaned Andy Carroll to West Ham on a season-long deal with the option to buy him at the end. Carroll himself has said that the fact he knows Hammers boss Sam Allardyce from Newcastle and also some of the players was a big part in the move. He made a good start too, playing a big role in West Ham’s 3-0 win over Fulham where he set up two goals to give the Hammers their second win and leaving them sixth in the table. Not a bad debut in his West Ham football kit.
Dimitar Berbatov will have been hoping to have more of an impact in this game after his transfer to Fulham. Cottagers boss Martin Jol said he admired Berbatov’s ability to score goals and create chances for other team mates, and this was on show when he created a chance for Rodallega after coming on as a second half substitute, but Fulham simply couldn’t deal with the Hammer’s attacking prowess.
West Brom, in contrast to Liverpool’s nightmare start, have recorded their best ever start to the Premier League season with a 2-0 win over Everton. Although they won’t be contention for football trophies, the Baggies will be pleased with their start that sees them in 3rd in the table. Goals from Long and McAuley gave them the win that also ended the Toffees unbeaten start.
Everton won’t have too much to complain about though, they’re currently fifth with six points and after recording great wins against Manchester United and Aston Villa they will hope this momentary blip against West Brom will be easy to recover from. Everton are notoriously slow starters and usually wait until after the January transfer window to pick up the pace. Although at the moment they will be revelling in their Merseyside rival’s position at the foot of the table.
