Premier League Week One Round-Up

The first week of the Premier League started with a goalkeeping masterclass from Joe Hart and ended with a vintage performance from Paul Scholes. Sandwiched in the middle were two goalkeeping clangers and Chelsea slapping six past West Brom. However the weekend belonged to Ian Holloway's Blackpool.



Marlon Harewood's brace led the Seasiders to an unexpected 3-0 half time lead against Wigan at the JJB. In truth Blackpool should have hit the back of the net as early as the first minute after Brett Ormerod missed a glaring chance. They didn't have much longer to wait as Gary Taylor-Fletcher fired them in front in the 16th minute. Before the game Holloway claimed the side chosen to play the hapless Latics was worse than last year's Playoff winners, making their performance all the more impressive. Alex Baptiste's fortunate second half strike put the icing on the cake and will leave Roberto Martinez with a lot of questions to answer. Wigan were very inconsistent last year and their opening day performance was flat to say the very least.



Chelsea and Didier Drogba were in ominous form against West Brom on Saturday evening. Scott Carson's poor handling and a complication in the basic area of forming a wall helped Chelsea to a 2-0 first half lead, with Malouda and Drogba scoring respectively. West Brom' 4-5-1 formation didn't aid them at all and any venture into Chelsea's final third came up short, mainly due to a lack of midfield runners. Chelsea have those in abundance and after Drogba scored the third Frank Lampard popped up as always to make it four. Drogba completed his hat-trick five minutes later and Malouda wrapped up the scoring in injury time.

United were equally as comfortable as the Champions, running out 3-0 winners over Newcastle. The story could have been a lot different had Andy Carroll scored a free header in the 10th minute. However the big striker headed well wide from six yards when it was much easier to score. United made Newcastle pay and Dimitar Berbatov got them off the mark just after the half hour, latching on to a Paul Scholes pass. Darren Fletcher added the second a few minutes before half time after a deflected shot from Patrice Evra found it's way through to him. The night belonged to Paul Scholes. The 35 year old's passing was sublime as always and his performance carried United to victory. The much maligned Berbatov had an excellent game too. He took his goal well and seemed livlier than last season. However he did spurn an easy chance after a wonderful build up move involving Wayne Rooney and of course Scholes. Ryan Giggs made it three with five minutes to go, cooly volleying in from a Scholes cross.

David Jones scored the pick of the weekend's goals in Wolves' 2-1 win over Stoke. The ball was rolled back to him from a free kick on the edge of the area and a quick flick allowed him to smash a volley past Thomas Sorensen. James Milner perhaps scored his final goal for Villa as they beat a poor West Ham side 3-0. Ten-man Sunderland threw away a 2-0 lead against Birmingham and Fulham and Bolton blanked each other at the Reebok. A howler from Tim Howard allowed Nikola Kalinic to fire Blackburn to a 1-0 win over Everton at Ewood Park. The American keeper dropped a routine catch to give the Croatian the easiest goal of his Blackburn career.

Howard's mistake was bad but it was nothing compared to Pepe Reina's aberration against Arsenal. After ten-man Liverpool had played very well to lead 1-0 with a minute to go at Anfield Maroaune Chamakh beat the Spaniard to a cross and headed onto the upright, as the ball bounced back Reina made an unsuccessful attempt to collect the ball. The result will be a contender for mistake of the season as the ball bounced off his chest and into the net. It finished 1-1 with debutants Joe Cole and Laurent Koscielny both sent off.

However the performance of the weekend came in the first match of the new season as Joe Hart single handedly denied Spurs from a deserved win. The England goalkeeper produced a string of fantatic saves to keep Harry Redknapp's side from scoring. Jermain Defoe was denied one-on-one and Tom Huddlestone's long ranger was a fingertip away from the top corner. Hart aside Manchester City were very poor. Spurs, especially Gareth Bale, ran them ragged in the first half. Carlos Tevez dropped far too deep far too often and Shaun Wright-Phillips still fails to live up the promise he had years ago. City kept the ball well at times but just didn't have the cutting edge to trouble Spurs. Money certainly can't buy you a guaranteed good performance. Yaya Toure was the best of the new signings as David Silva failed to cause Spurs any discomfort and Alexander Kolarov only made it to half time.

After this weekend's high Blackpool could come crashing down to earth next week at Arsenal. West Brom, Newcastle and especially Wigan and West Ham will have to improve vastly on their opening perfomances. Pick of the action is Man United's tricky trip to Fulham on Sunday and City/Liverpool at Eastland's on Monday night.