Premier League football is now well underway with the second round of fixtures taking place over the weekend.
The action began in Saturday’s early kick off when Stoke City entertained Manchester City at the Britania Stadium. Pep Guardiola’s side blew away the Potters in emphatic style, with Sergio Aguero and summer signing Nolito both scoring braces in a 4-1 win.
Prior to the season, questions were raised over whether Guardiola would need time to adapt to the English top flight, having previously coached in leagues that are of stark contrast. However, he seems to have settled in well and his players are already appearing to thrive under his regime, winning all three competitive games so far. Maybe it’s the Premier League that will need to adapt to the Spaniard’s tactical methods?
City’s Manchester rivals, United, also continued their winning start to the season. A Zlatan Ibrahimovic double earned Jose Mourinho his first victory as the home manager at Old Trafford as his side beat Southampton 2-0 in the first Friday evening game.
There were several local derbies over the weekend, some more important than others. Middlesbrough won the first Wear-Tees derby of the season, defeating Sunderland 2-1. Cristhian Stuani bagged a first-half brace for Aitor Karanka’s recently promoted side, although Black Cats full-back Patrick van Aanholt halved the deficit when he latched onto a poor piece of goalkeeping by Brad Guzan.
Two London derbies took place on Saturday. Chelsea travelled to Watford and were able to keep up their winning start to the season as goals from Michy Batshuayi and Diego Costa cancelled out Etienne Capoue’s opener. This is the second time in a week that the Blues have come back from a goal down to win 2-1, which is something that new boss Antonio Conte will be delighted about as his side have shown lots of resilience to fight back. However, it’s not a route that they will look to be taking to win games in future so will need to stop going behind early in matches.
The second London derby took place at White Hart Lane where Tottenham Hotspur hosted Crystal Palace. The Eagles won at Spurs on route to their FA Cup final appearance last season, but were not lucky enough to come away with a victory again. In fact, the score line was reversed as Victor Wanyama headed in the only goal of the game late on to give the Lillywhites their first victory of the season.
Alan Pardew is now under pressure at Selhurst Park, having one just twice in the league in 2016, the worst record in the division. However, the arrival of Christian Benteke will add some much needed fire power up front and the Eagles boss will hope that he can be the man to finally add goals to a side that fails to regularly hit the back of the net.
Former Palace winger Yannick Bolasie started with a win at new club Everton. He became just the second player to feature for different clubs against the same team in consecutive weeks, an interesting statistic also held by Gaston Ramirez. The Toffees came from a goal down to beat West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns, a week after the Baggies beat Palace at Selhurst Park.
The shock of the weekend came at Turf Moor where Liverpool were expected to blow away a seemingly poor Burnley side. However, first half goals from Sam Vokes and Andre Gray earned Sean Dyche’s side a 2-0 win. It seems Reds boss Jurgen Klopp still has plenty of work to do in the transfer window, with an over-reliance on injury-prone striker Daniel Sturridge to score goals, along with a lack of presence in central midfield and at centre-back.
Fellow new boys Hull City kept up their superb, yet shock, start to the season as they beat Swansea City 2-0 away from home. This comes after the Tigers, who lost manager Steve Bruce in the summer after an altercation with the board, beat current champions Leicester City on the opening day of the season.
The London Stadium made its Premier League debut on Sunday as West Ham United hosted Bournemouth. The game itself certainly won’t go down in the history books. A hapless first half, in which neither side played well, was short of meaningful action. Harry Arter’s red card paved a way for West Ham to eventually win the game as Michail Antonio headed home with just five minutes left to give the Hammers their first win of the new season.
