The second weekend of the Premier League is over; let’s have a look at some of the best and worst from the weekend’s action.
Winners
Burnley
After a first day defeat at home to Swansea, Sean Dyche’s men pulled out one of the most surprising results from the weekend, defeating a Liverpool team who’d mustered up 81% possession. Unfortunately the Reds weren’t able to make their possession count, whilst Burnley managed to score twice from their two attacks. A good result for Dyche, but it promises to be a long season ahead.
Hull
Hull followed up their opening day win over Leicester, with another over Swansea. Robert Snodgrass put in an excellent performance against the Swans, but the off-field issues still linger at Hull. They’ve still only got 13 players and it’s simply not sustainable for a whole season. A couple of injuries and they’ll be in turmoil. Having said that, they’re currently sat in third in the table after two games.
Christhian Stuani
The Uruguayan striker didn’t feature in their first match, but was devastating against Sunderland. He scored twice, the first being a 30-yard thunder blast into the back of the net, whilst the second was a good finish for a well-worked team goal. If he continues like he did against Sunderland, and Negredo keeps firing, ‘Boro should have no problem in surviving.
Diego Costa
For the second time in six days, everyone’s favourite pantomime villain scored a late winner, when he should have been sent off earlier in the game. People moan about wanting to see Costa play to his best, but his best involves him being an irritant to defenders and winding them up. He’s still scored twice in two games though.
Golden Boot
It may only be the second week of the season, but it looks as if this year’s Golden Boot will be contested between Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Aguero looks revitalised under Guardiola and more importantly fit, whilst Zlatan is in incredible condition for a man who turns 35 later on this year. More importantly though, is that Ibrahimovic has taken over as the penalty taker at Old Trafford.
Paul Pogba
Pogba’s long awaited second United debut was on Friday night and he put in a good performance. He was nervous early on but grew into the game, with a neat flick almost setting up Ibrahimovic. He’ll be judged as value for money over the course of the season, not on the basis of one performance against Southampton on a Friday night in August.
Friday Night Football
Sky’s newest football offering began for the first time on Friday night and there’ll be another 9 games this season. Hearing Jamie Redknapp describe something as “epic banter” was interesting, whilst Rachel Riley and Ryan Giggs had a brief moment of awkwardness. All in all it was reasonably entertaining.
Losers
Bournemouth
It’s two defeats from two games for Eddie Howe’s team and they desperately need to get a result against Crystal Palace next weekend. They freshened up the Premier League last season, but they’ve stunk out the place so far this year. They’ve offered little in terms of attack in either of their matches and they looked very open in defence against West Ham. They can count themselves lucky that Dimitri Payet wasn’t playing.
David Moyes
Moyes’ first game at the Stadium of Light as Sunderland manager ended in a 2-0 defeat against Middlesbrough. He has issues in defence and they still look mentally frail. They’re still yet to win a League match in August for 6 years, but you sense that Sunderland will still get out of the mess that they’re in.
Arsene Wenger
You sense that he might get a regular mention in our weekly “losers” column. As a sole result, getting a draw away at the Premier League champions is not bad at all. Unfortunately when taking everything else into account, it’s a catastrophic start for Arsenal and they’re already 5 points behind the leaders on week 2. They have to win against Watford next week; it’s already at that stage for Wenger.
Liverpool
After a good victory over Arsenal on the opening day, Liverpool showed that they’re still inconsistent from week to week. Defeat to Burnley was unexpected, but with Anfield set to reopen at the beginning of September, you’d still back them to have a good season.
Joe Hart
Enthusiastic tunnel-shouter Hart was again named on the bench at the weekend. A deal has been agreed with Barcelona for Claudio Bravo, meaning that Hart will drop even further down the pecking order. He could prove to be a problem for Guardiola if he’s still there when the transfer window closes.
Romelu Lukaku
Lukaku has been angling for a move all summer, but withdrew his transfer request on Saturday afternoon. A possible reason for that is because Chelsea’s Diego Costa is firing, as is Michy Batshuayi. It looks as if Lukaku will sit it out for another year at Goodison Park before kicking up a fuss again next summer.
Words by @DominicTrant
