Welcome back to the 128th season of top-flight English soccer. I am back to guide you through the week-to-week ups and downs of the league across the pond, so sit back and enjoy as we review who distinguished themselves in the Premier League’s opening week.
Premier League winners from Matchday 1
Sunderland
The Black Cats are back, baby! The newly promoted Wearside club celebrated their return to the Premier League with an emphatic 3-0 win over West Ham that sent the fans at the Stadium of Light into a frenzy. It was a complete performance both by the veterans who took the team up from the Championship (Eliezer Mayenda, Daniel Ballard, Wilson Isidor) and by the new faces in the squad (Granit Xhaka, Omar Alderete, Robin Roefs). The win, plus their local rivals Newcastle dropping points, makes this a sweet week for Sunderland.
The spirit of Diogo Jota
Bournemouth came close to spoiling Liverpool’s season opener, but Federico Chiesa’s 89th-minute shot had a pair of eyes on it to give the Reds the lead, and Mohamed Salah put the three points away in stoppage time. The Egyptian cried and gave thanks to Allah in front of the Kop end, and everyone remembered his teammate who died in an offseason car accident. We will all miss the Portuguese attacker.
Tottenham Hotspur
They make this section for what didn’t happen: No brain cramps by their defenders, no weird accidents that went the opponents’ way, not even a mistake that led to a late consolation goal. Just a routine 3-0 win over Burnley, with two assists by new signing Mohammed Kudus and a spectacular bicycle kick goal by Richarlison. It’s an encouraging start for new coach Thomas Frank.
First Premier League goals
With Manchester City on a 3-on-2 break, Wolves’ defense understandably concentrated on Erling Haaland, leaving Tijjani Reijnders free to receive Rico Lewis’ pass and finish for City’s second goal. It was the first Premier League goal for the new signing from AC Milan, and joining him was the new signing from Lyon, as Rayan Cherki came on as a substitute and scored off a neat give-and-go with Nico O’Reilly for the capper on City’s 4-0 victory that has their new arrivals off to a flying start.
Antoine Semenyo
The Liverpool-Bournemouth game stopped because some yahoo in the stands aimed a racial slur at the Bournemouth winger. The Ghanaian exacted a good measure of revenge by scoring two goals and tying the game, with a neat little shimmy to wrong-foot Ibrahima Konaté and open up a shooting lane for the second goal. Hope that teaches that fan to keep their racism to themselves in the future.
Rodrigo Muniz
The Fulham forward has been the subject of controversy amid interest from Atalanta and reports that he wants Champions League football at the Bergamo club, but the Brazilian didn’t let that affect him as he came off the bench and slotted home a loose ball to earn his team a 96th-minute draw at Brighton. Whether he moves or not, his work ethic is where it should be.
Nottingham Forest
They visibly ran out of gas at the end of last season, and their offseason of rest showed during their 3-1 win over Brentford, with Chris Wood bagging two to pick up where he left off as last year’s scoring leader. Let’s hope the new signings will help the Trees’ durability this year.
PREMIER LEAGUE LOSERS
James Bell
The VAR official ruled out Eberechi Eze’s free-kick goal in the first half of Crystal Palace’s otherwise flaccid goalless draw against Chelsea, saying that Palace defender Marc Guéhi had gotten too close to the wall before his teammate struck his screamer into Chelsea’s net. Yes, the ruling was correct by the letter of the rules, but it denied Palace a potential win and their fans a chance to say farewell to Eze, who looks set to join Tottenham in this transfer window. Spoilsport.
Chris Kavanagh
There was a worse officiating call in Leeds’ victory over Everton, as the referee awarded the home team at Elland Road a late penalty after a shot bounced up and hit James Tarkowski in the arm, which was perhaps 12 inches away from his side. Lukas Nmecha converted the spot kick to give the newly promoted Whites a win that they played well enough to earn, but you still hate to see the win come this way, especially if you’re an Everton fan.
Newcastle United
Neither team covered themselves in glory in their roundly underwhelming goalless draw at Aston Villa, but this feels like a loss for the Magpies, seeing as they played half an hour with a man advantage after Ezri Konsa’s red card. A team that did such good business to get to the Champions League places last season has botched it this summer. Maybe it isn’t their fault that Alexander Isak wants out, but most of their targeted signings have walked off to other clubs, and the ones they did get have signed for inflated fees.
Manchester United
The bad news: They overpaid for Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo in this transfer window. The good news: Their offense looked much livelier with the Brazilian and the Cameroonian offering counterattacking threats. More bad news: They still lost to Arsenal, and if Riccardo Calafiori hadn’t headed in the Gunners’ only goal, the ball still would have gone in and been charged as an own goal to keeper Altay Bayındır. More good news: Seeing Cunha and Mbeumo’s previous performances with Wolves and Brentford makes us think that they won’t always be as off-target as this. The worst news: United are still using Harry Maguire as a striker in the late stages. Be serious, guys.
Liverpool’s defense
Maybe they’ll shore things up by signing Marc Guéhi or somebody else before the transfer window shuts, but right now, their backline looks like it’s going to cost the team at some point. The front office has work to do before September 1st.