The most popular football league in the world kicked off last weekend, and I, like millions of other fans, was waiting with bated breath. Sunderland vs Tottenham might not have been the preferred opening game for everyone, but for die hard fans like yours truly, it really didn’t matter. And we did have a bit of drama going into the game. Spurs had several people injured- Ledley King, Michael Dawson, Gareth Bale, Benoit Assou Ekotto and Aaron Lennon. Sunderland had a thirty six year old manager in charge of his first game in the top flight- the legendary United and Nottingham Forest medio Roy Keane. Unfortunately, for his opposite number Martin Jol, it was Keane who walked out smiling after the game at the Stadium of Light.
Keane chose to start with Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy upfront, relegating 5 million pound summer signing Michael Chopra to the bench. Neither team was in complete control of the game. Etuhu and Murphy had a couple of very good chances in the first half, but both went abegging. Ivory Coast midfielder Didier Zokora became the first man to be booked in the new Premiership season. Nyron Nosworthy did his job pretty well against Spurs’ striking duo of Keane and Berbatov.
The game remained deadlocked until the very end. And eventually it needed a substitute to send the home fans into raptures. And the substitute was Michael Chopra- a man who grew up supporting and playing for Newcastle, Sunderland’s fierce local rivals. Newcastle, meanwhile, got off to a winning start by beating Bolton 3-1. Big Sam starts his league career with a win against his former club 🙂 Bad start to the season for Sammy Lee though….
A few months ago, if you had told Alan Curbishley that his opening game of the season was against Manchester City, you would have probably seen a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Sadly for him and one of my friends, a supporter who also often chooses to watch MCFC online, it was not the City of old. Sven’s boys won 2-0, with Rolando Bianchi and Geovanni scoring.
Other results :
Arsenal 2-1 Fulham
Chelsea 3-2 Birmingham
Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool.
Three of the Premiership’s top four teams got off to winning starts, but Manchester United drew 0-0 with Reading.
Derby 2-2 Portsmouth
Everton 2-1 Wigan
Boro 1-2 Blackburn Rovers