the week that was in football (Premier League 2000 - 2001)

Member Name: giksy21

Product:	Premier League 2000 - 2001
Date:	12/08/07 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: upset, surprise, great football

Disadvantages: benni mccarthy horror injury

There it was folks. The first set of weekend matches in the new premiership campaign. Imagine my review dictated by motson, and sit back, enjoy the magic of the best sport there is

Picture it now, as we start. Sun shining, warm and dry, eleven men walk out onto the pitch, and realise they have actually gone to spain. They should have realised, when the trip in the team bus takes 47hrs, but they were drunk on the sport they love.
Back in England, they take (the correct) field, with the 55000 capacity stadium of light the scene. This is a stadium fit for the premiership, and no mistake. Hard to believe that it was home to a championship side last year. Sunderland, steered along by the animal that is known as roy keane, are thought to be the whipping boys of the new season, and have it all to do, with a first match against spurs, hotly tipped to be pushing for champions league places at the end of the season.
The whistle blows, and their off. The multi-million pound spurs, with their big name stars, against the minnows, who look wide eyed, and amazed that they are actually there. Spurs take the match to them, and sunderland know they are in the premiership now. But after twenty minutes, the sunderland boys stop pestering the spurs lads for autographs, and in answer to a growl from their manager start to take the game to spurs. Terriers they were, obviously keanes lessons in the crunching tackle have gone down well.
Half time comes, and for all the huffing and puffing of the giants, the little pigs house just wont blow in. With Paul mcshane immpressive for sunderland, alongside dickson etuhu, and little wallace, they had the better chances in the second half. Spurs look rattled, and sunderland exstatic with the near certainty of a precious point in their first game of the season. Final whistle approaches, and chopra nips in at the back stick, and the old onion bag bulges! sunderland pinch it at the death. The fans blinded by the glint of niall Quinns pearly whites, as he tries to beat the cheshire cat in a smiling contest!!
Where else could you get it? So much emotion, so much skill. And to cap it all, the supposed underdogs won!! For the neutral, this was the start of the season that was wanted. The headlines for sunday already written, with a great big picture of roy keane picked out, and a caption like ' irish eyes are smiling', or 'all i had to do was threaten to break jols legs' ready to press. All this, and only one game played.

Time ticked slowly on, and as three o'clock approached on that dreary saturday, sunshine once again peered through in the form of the premier league. So now we go around the grounds and see what other gems there are on this opening day.

West ham v man city

Sven back in England, and this time its not to show some posh bit his diamond formation. £40 million was spent to reshape this fallen giant of the league. He bought all his players, having seen them on videos only, and much of england wanted to see him fall flat on his face. The opposite was the case, and his thrown together side looked a good outfit. And after eigteen minutes, and 462 off target shots by petrov, mancity went 1-0 up. Bianchi on his debut!! Man city in control, and west ham looking a shambles. Although the score stayed this way right up to 87th minute, when geovanni doubled the lead, the result was never in doubt. Svens back, and pretty soon he will be linked to the england job again - womens team of course, he might even do it for free!!

Bolton v newcastle

When all is said and done, this game was over in half an hour, with newcastle looking as immpressive, as bolton looked ordinary. With goals from n-zogbia, and two for the impressive martins, newcastle are stronger than i have seen them in years. Geremi held the midfield with ease, and could prove to be the buy of the season. Half time brought an improved performance by bolton, with 'le sulk' anelka bagging a neat finish, but by this stage newcastle had fashioned a half barrel bbq, and strung a few hammocks up in the goal mouth, their work done. Could this be a good year for the magpies at last? Quite possibly if the keep this up.

derby v portsmouth

Derby have made it. Generally the team that come up via the playoffs cannot cut it with the big boys, so the greatly improved portsmouth team rubbed their hands with glee as the whistle blew. Many of their lower mandibles were green, however, as their jaws hit the floor when derby took the lead after 5mins. Oakleys goal was cancelled out after 27 mins, when mwaruwari, or 'the big guy up front' as he has become known. order restored, surely the premiership regulars would go on and win now? Looked like it when utaka scored on 83. But try telling that to the rams, who equalised 1 minute later through todd, who was excellent throughout. 2-2 it finished, and another good result for a newby

Everton v wigan

Much improved over the summer, everton looked good from the off, and dominated this game from the off. Back to the good old days for the supposed lesser team in liverpool. Goals from osman, and anichebe left everton in the ascendancy, and a goal for wigan from sibeirski was little more than cosolation. A very complete team, everton looked great, though i would fear for them if they suffered an injury to the fantastic arteta, who pulled all the strings from midfield. Top six, could be on the cards.

Middlesborough v blackburn

Marred by a hooror injury to benni mccarthy, which halted the action by at least 5 minutes after a clash of heads, this game was not high on quality. However for sheer passion on opening day, it was not lacking. With middlesborough taking the lead via the cultured feet of downing, rovers looked unimpressive, but the injury to mccarthy sparked (sorry hughsy) them into life. Mccarthies sub santa cruz scoring having only been on the field a few minutes, and derbyshire getting the winner. Some may call blackburns win deserved, but for me the jury is still out on both these teams. Languishing in mid table may be all they can hope for.

aston villa v liverpool

Liverpool showing off their star buy, torres, they took the game to villa. Never stamping outright control on the game, they did have the upper hand. This pressure paid off when the took the lead with a calamitous laursen og. So it stayed, though you always worried that one goal woul not be enough. So it proved, when villa were awarded an 85th minute penalty, which barry cooly slotted home. However, the best midfielder in england, gerrard scored quite possibly the best goal of the day with a free kick on 87, to give the pool a somewhat shaky first win

So that was it for saturday, but still we had the top two to play on sunday. Oh joy!!

Arsenal v fulham

Wengers young guns, take on a confident looking fulham, with all experts expecting the gooners to take this quite comfortably. but as the arsenal were still looking through their phrase books to try and communicate with eachother, healy pooped up after 50 seconds to score. Arsenal lookes the more complete team here, but did not gel all that well. I took a penalty on 84 knocked home by van persie to get them going, and alexander hleb (the welsh like saying his name) pooped up in the dying seconds to bag a winner. Not a great performance, but three points nonetheless.

chelsea v birmingham

An easy victory for chelsea this was not. Stunned as they were by a goal early for forsell, the need not have been too worried, when debutant pizarro grabbed and equaliser 2 minutes later. Fellow debutant malouda scored again, and they looked fairly impressive, though they showed unusual defensive frailty. Birmingham gave them a game, when kapo equalised on 36, with a stunner. Half time came and went, and essien got the blues of chelsea back in front. So it stayed, and chelsea scraped a win by the odd goal in a five goal thriller. Not the confident chelsea of last season, but still formibable in attack.

Finnaly to old trafford

man utd v reading

Again, a game that was thought to be in the bag. Largely uneventful, utd looked ok, but failed to play well in the final third. The highlight was the flame haired kitson coming off the bench, only to be sent for an earlt bath for a horror tackle a minute later. However man utd were not able to capitalise. A worrying injury to rooney spoiled there day further still.

All in all, this was a neutrals dream come true. Full of event, and upset, it gives us hope that this season may well be one of the most open seasons so far. None of the so called top teams performed well, and neither did any of the newly promoted teams embarrass themselves. Who will win? Hard to tell on this showing, but hopefully we can throw a few more teams in the mix, rather than the boring two horse race that we have become used to.

Still coming down from the euphora felt by a nation, i am well satisfied by the opening weekend. What do you think will happen? Thanks for your time. G

Summary: opening week in the premiership.