Premier League Notes - Week 1

Sports - Football - Premier League - Week 1 

The opening week of the 2019-2020 Premier League season saw:

27 goals - most by Man City = 5
228 shots - most by Tottenham = 31
78 on target - most by Man City = 9
91 corners - most by Tottenham = 14
34 offsides - most by Norwich/Burnley = 5 each
359 tackles - most by Aston Villa = 29
225 fouls - most by Sheff Utd = 19
28 bookings - most by Chelsea = 4
1 red card - Schneiderlin for Everton
2 penalties - 2 scored (Agüero for City, Rashford for United) 

VAR Stats 
Average of 7 checks per game 
3 overturned decisions: 
2 disallowed goals (City and Wolves) and Agüero’s penalty retake

The first game of the season was Liverpool's convincing win against Norwich on Friday night, thrashing the newly promoted side in the first half, and keeping them at bay after the break. An injury to Red keeper Alisson didn't help Jürgen Klopp's men, his replacement and LFC debutante Adrián did a good job under the circumstances. VAR went totally unnoticed, surprisingly. Click here for my ByTheMin Twitter live match coverage. 

Manchester United thrashed Chelsea in the Super Sunday clash. But the scoreline is very harsh and doesn’t reflect the game at all. It was much more competitive, cagey and close in the first hour, just fell to bits with two quick goals. Same with Tottenham against newly promoted Aston Villa, Harry Kane making the crucial difference with two goals in the final four minutes (86', 90').

Manchester City took West Ham apart, making my prediction look more ridiculous with every goal. I honestly thought the Hammers could surprise us after having a very active and positive summer. Pf. Fool me. Dream starts for Burnley and Brighton went pretty unnoticed with all the focus just on the top teams, both sides recording convincing 3-0 wins against Southampton and at Watford respectively.

Raheem Sterling starred for the champions with a hat-trick (51', 75', 90'+1'), Kane and Marcus Rashford (18' pen, 67'), as mentioned above, helped their sides to opening wins with a brace each. Mohamed Salah scored and provided (19', 28') in an explosive first half at Anfield. Same old names at the top, ey?
Billy Sharp’s last-minute equaliser for Sheffield United broke Bournemouth hearts (88'). In only his third PL appearance, the local lad scored with his first top-flight shot. One to remember. Tanguy Ndombele’s leveller for Spurs against Villa was a cracker as well.

As mentioned above, it has been confirmed and was quite clear from the offset, Alisson went down and will be out for a while! It looked like the Brazilian stopper was hit by a ghost?! He looked and searched for the culprit behind him  But it was obvious, he had pulled something. Worrying for Klopp and co. The Schadenfreude of the opposition fans was all over the social media afterwards.

And last but definitely not least, the beloved, VAR! See stats above. It has finally arrived in the Premier League and of course still needs getting used to. But I expected worse to be honest. The interruptions weren't half as long and bad as in the trials. And the reviews and overturned decisions were clear. I am sure especially Wolves boss Nuno Espírito Santo and also City manager Pep Guardiola see it differently, the prior's disallowed goal costing his side two points. It is just impossible to get everything right, but everything can at least be double-checked now. In the end, there is still human beings sitting in front of the screens, so, the decisions are, though more objective, still subjective. So we can and will still curse the officials. Same old. Even with the new technology.

My Predictions - Actual Results
Liverpool 5:1 Norwich - 4:1
West Ham 2:1 Man City - 0:5
Bournemouth 2:1 Sheff Utd - 1:1
Burnley 1:0 Southampton - 3:0
Crystal Palace 0:1 Everton - 0:0
Watford 0:0 Brighton - 0:3
Tottenham 3:1 Aston Villa - 3:1
Leicester 2:1 Wolves - 0:0
Newcastle 0:1 Arsenal - 0:1
Man United 1:1 Chelsea - 4:0

Click here for my previous Premier League Picks Of The Week.

All pictures, facts and stats were taken from the BBC match reports, PL app, Sky Sports News and RMC Sport live coverage.