The Premier League IS BACK
Hull City 2-1 Leicester City
Okay hands up who saw this coming. Yes there were cracks in Leicester's team, mostly the lack of cohesion in the central midfield, as Andy King was a poor replacement of N'golo Kante, and Hernandez in central defence struggled in a way that Huth would not have. But this was a Hull side that were fancied to go down, that struggled to put a bench together and that were given no hope and everyone expected Leicester's problems to be glossed over by a thumping win. But in amongst all the problems that Hull have had, there's an odd sense of continuity that has been overlooked, as eight of their starting eleven yesterday also started the play-off final.
And a lot is going to be made of this defeat from Leicester's point of view. And rightly so to be honest, they are the Champions and they've lost to a newly promoted side who couldn't fill their bench and didn't have a manager. There has to be an inquest. And Leicester were toothless. Vardy had a poor game, Mahrez was nowhere near his best and Gray would have been good if he hadn't adopted a shoot on sight policy in the opponent's half. They were missing tempo, they were missing fluidity and whilst that has been Leicester's problem multiple times last season, they always found a way to counter-attack hard. And defensively, Leicester were a mess. Morgan did not look comfortable with his new partner, and Andy King offered nowhere near the level of protection that Kante would have. Moreover, Kasper Schmeichel had one of the worst games he's had in a Leicester shirt, exposed horribly for Leicester's second goal.
That's not to say that there were no positives for Leicester. New signing Musa looks like a real player, with pace and power and skill. They've got an incredibly fast and dangerous attacking line, and there's no way that players of the quality of Vardy and Mahrez can play this badly consistently. They also have options now, and Okazaki made a real difference when he came off the bench. They also did create a hat-full of good chances, and Vardy should have scored at least once, if not twice, and on another day more goals would have gone in.
But a lot of credit has to go to Hull. They were well and truly written off before the game, and not without justification, but they absolutely played out of their skins. Although the entire team deserves a lot of credit for their performances, special credit has to go to Jake Livermore, Sam Clucas and Adama Diomande. Livermore was absolutely exceptional filling in at centre back and made a stunning block to deny Vardy late in the first half. And moreover, Diomande was brilliant, causing problems and offering relief on the counter-attack, and scoring the first goal (I think, nobody's really sure but it's gone down as his).
But the man of the match was Clucas, who played as the deepest of the three in the Hull midfield and absolutely ran the show for Hull. His organisation, tackling, interceptions and general defensive play reminded me of...well Kante. Moreover, Clucas was exactly what Leicester were missing, someone to anchor the team. But make no mistake, Hull were absolutely exceptional, and they thoroughly deserved this win.
Everton 1-1 Spurs
This was very much a game of two halves. In the first half Spurs were absolutely awful, a shadow of the side that we saw in action last season. They had no steel or control in the middle of the park and Victor Wanyama was a poor replacement for the suspended Moussa Dembele. There was no cohesion in the Spurs midfield and defensively they were a bit of a shambles and very lucky to only concede from a brilliant Barkley free kick that probably wasn't meant to be a shot but bypassed everyone and beat Hugo Lloris, who later came off with an injury.
Luckily for Spurs, his replacement Michel Vorm pulled off a stunning save to keep Spurs in the game at 1-0 just before half time, and in the second half Spurs were vastly superior to their own first half, they looked like well, the Spurs of last season. They did grab an excellent equaliser through a brilliant header from Eric Lamela, and then they created a slew of brilliant chances to win the game, as they introduced new striker Jansson, who was denied brilliantly by new Everton keeper Stekelenburg, who made two or three world class saves to prevent Spurs from winning the game.
Overall, 1-1 is on reflection a fair result. Everton were excellent in the first half, but Spurs much improved after the break. Everton could easily have scored twice in the first half, Spurs twice in the second. I think both sides will also be reasonably happy with a point, it's a decent start for both of these sides and you have to say that neither of them can really dispute the result.
Manchester City 2-1 Sunderland
Well this game was interesting. Funnily enough, Pep's first game was not a complete and utter overhaul of English football. Yet. But there were plenty of signs that Pep is starting to yield his influence over this Man City team. Stones in defence playing it out from the back, Hart dropped, and the full backs tucking in, leaving Nolito and Sterling to provide the width. And it has to be said, there were a lot of positive signs from City. Sterling was excellent, Silva and De Bruyne playing in largely the same positions as Liverpool will play Lallana and Wijnaldum demonstrated complete control of the game. But of course, this was far from a vintage City performance. There was a lot of slow, lethargic football and after scoring their first inside five minutes from the penalty spot, after Sterling was felled, they never really looked like kicking on and scoring three or four goals. Sunderland found their way back into the game and although they rarely tested City defensively, their goal wasn't exactly a bolt out of the blue either, as Defoe was able to find space in the box and fire low under Caballero.
But City came again and Iheanacho was in the right place to put Paddy McNair under pressure, and the ex-United defender buckled under pressure, heading into his own net. Overall, I would say that looking at this game, we can learn a lot about what Pep is trying to do, but it's far too early to say he's integrated his system properly into his side. As I've said before, it will take time for the likes of Pep, Mourinho and Conte to make their teams play their way. And this was very much the case here, as City looked very much like a work in progress.
The Best of the Rest
Elsewhere in the rest of the 3pm KOs (since I can't watch five games at once), there was heartbreak for newly promoted Burnley, as a late goal from Leroy Fer got Swansea off to the perfect start with a 1-0 win at Turf Moor. But the other newly promoted club Boro made it the hat-trick of results with a draw against Stoke, despite winning for large periods of the game after a debut goal for Alvaro Negredo. It was Shaqiri who continued to only score brilliant goals with a stunning free kick to equalise for Stoke. And the third 1-1 draw of the day was secured at St Mary's where Nathan Redmond scored his first Premier League goal for Southampton to snatch a point against a various impressive Watford side, who scored early through Etienne Capoue. And of course, there's the Pulis derby, where an awful Crystal Palace side lost 1-0 to West Brom through Solomon Rondon's goal.
Olympic Watch
- Super Saturday it ended up being, as Team GB took three golds, four silvers and a bronze.
- There was joy first in the rowing, where our men's eights took gold and our women's eights took silver, both seriously impressive results.
- And from the water to the track, where GB's pursuit women looked like they were in for a real battle with the US team, only to pull away from them with extreme ease to smash the world record and take gold. There was also joy for the amazing Becky James, who secured a hard earned silver in the Kierin with a brilliant ride around the outside.
- There was both joy and heartbreak in the pool, where Fran Halsall missed gold by 0.06s and somehow failed to win a medal, but there was a silver for our men's 4 x 100 medley team.
- But the real story of Super Saturday was in the athletics. Our three big names all won medals, Mo Farah producing a stunning race to win a deserved gold, Jess Ennis-Hill giving everything she had and being beaten by the phenomenal Thiam, leaving Jess with silver, and one of the best long jump competitions in living memory, in which Greg Rutherford came out with a phenomenal jump to take bronze.
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