Premier League Picks Of The Week 1

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 1

In the first week of the Premier League action we saw:

31 goals - most by Arsenal & Man United = 4 each
257 shots - most by Southampton = 29!!!
80 on target - most by Arsenal = 10
126 corners - most by Palace = 12
217 fouls - most by Huddersfield & Man United = 19 each
33 yellow cards - most by Chelsea = 4
3 red cards - 2 for Chelsea (Cahill & Fábregas) & Shelvey for Newcastle
1 penalty - 1 scored (Roberto Firmino for Liverpool, see my match report for more details)

What a game! Wow! It certainly returned with a bang! Welcome back to the Premier League! Yeah! We saw 13 goals in the opening two games alone, Arsenal coming back 4-3 against Leicester and Liverpool dropping points 3-3 at Watford! But another game gets my vote: Champions Chelsea shattered down to nine men after two red cards and shocked 2-3 at home by Burnley on Saturday! MOTD was just cracking, goals and action galore! MOTD2 less so but hey, you can't have everything! ⚽👊😜👊⚽

What a team! Newly promoted Huddersfield had a dream start thrashing Crystal Palace 0-3 at Selhurst Park! It was a miserable first game for Frank de Boer, seeing Danish centre-back Mathias Jørgensen's header fly in off his own player Joel Ward before Steve Mounie's double condemned his side to an opening day defeat. David Wagner and his side were celebrated and very happy after their first success on their return to the top flight after an absence of 45 years. But the pundits were quickly distracted and already hailing and crowning the Red Devils as the champs-to-be after their 0-4 thrashing of West Ham on Sunday. It was United's 17th opening day win in the Premier League era, a record. The Hammers have suffered most defeats on the first day = 11. But hold your horses and calm down! It was only day one!

What a man! It was certainly the debutants' day! New Gunner Alexandre Lacazette and Blue striker Alvaro Morata, Red Mohamed Salah, and Red Devil Romelu Lukaku were all on the scoreboard, the last one twice. Super subs Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud made the difference for Arsenal on Friday night with two goals in two minutes, 83' and 85' respectively! And good old Wayne Rooney of course was back on the scoreboard for Everton after 13 years away. He had to! On the other hand, all the red cards = red faces! Shame on Gary Cahill and Cesc Fábregas for Chelsea and Jonjo Shelvey for Newcastle! Needless, unprofessional, you would have thought they know better and it's only day one!!!

What a goal! There were so many of them to choose from, I'll go for the earliest smacker = Lacazette's header after just 100 seconds for Arsenal. Sadio Mané's opener and leveller for Liverpool was a fantastic finish! And Jamie Vardy impressed with a confident and strong double. Eventhough they ended up losers at the Emirates, they resembled the classy, flashy, entertaining Foxes we so loved to watch in the season before last.

What the hell?! Do the officials remember and understand the offside rule?!?!?! Although teams seem to have forgotten how to defend set pieces, Arsenal and Liverpool especially! But come on! It's only day one and the referees are already doing their best/worst to drive everyone mad! Giving or denying or ignoring decisions that look clear to everyone else! See my match report for details... Argh!

My Predictions - Actual Results
Arsenal 2:1 Leicester - 4:3
Watford 2:1 Liverpool - 3:3 or my match report
Chelsea 3:1 Burnley - 2:3
Crystal Palace 1:1 Huddersfield - 0:3
Everton 4:2 Stoke City - 1:0
Southampton 3:1 Swansea - 0:0
West Brom 1:2 Bournemouth - 1:0
Brighton 1:2 Man City - 0:2
Newcastle 2:2 Tottenham - 0:2
Man United 2:1 West Ham - 4:0

Click here for my previous Premier League Picks blog.

All stats, facts and pictures were taken from live SFR match coverage, MOTD and the BBC match reports.