Tottenham line-up: Gomes, Bale, Dawson, Corluka, King, Assou-Ekotto, Huddlestone, Lennon (Giovani, 77'), Modric, Crouch (Keane, 68'), Defoe (Pavlyuchenko, 68')
Manchester City line-up: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Kolarov (Zabaleta, HT), K.Toure, Wright-Phllips (Johnson, 67'), Barry, Silva, De Jong, Y.Toure, Tevez (Adebayor, 83')
The Premiership kicked off today at White Hart Lane for the new campaign, with two potential title contenders or at least Champions League contenders. Unfortunately from a goals point of view there were none but it was a very intriguing 0-0 affair. The first half was all Tottenham and if it wasn't for Joe Hart City could have been behind by any number at half time. After 30 minutes the statistics read: Tottenham shots on target, 8, City shots on target, 0. Which tells you it all doesn't it really. Hart pulled off some magnificent saves to perhaps cement a number one place in Mancini's and the watching Capello's team. Gareth Bale had a personal battle with Hart after tearing Richards to shreds down the left hand side and putting in teasing crosses and even more teasing shots, one of which did manage to beat Hart but City were saved by the post. The best save probably came from a dipping shot from Assou-Ekotto whom if he had scored would surely already be putting a case forward for goal of the season.
However Tottenham failed to break City and the second half was a complete contrast to the first. City could have taken the lead right from the whistle when Wright-Phillips found himself one-on-one with Gomes only for Wright-Phillips to dawdle and allow Assou-Ekotto to recover and tackle the ball away. Despite City coming back into the game they didn't really create any clear cut opportunities and Gomes wasn't forced into any amazing saves unlike his counterpart. With the pace of Bale, Lennon and Defoe, also Giovani when he arrived, City were always likely to be caught on the break and were quite a few times but up stepped Kompany, De Jong and Co. to pull off some goal saving tackles with Hart still making sure he wasn't going to be beaten. Out of the two managers, Mancini will be happier to take the point which was earned by man of the match Hart, whereas Redknapp will be a little disappointed that for all their attacking couldn't break City down but he'll be glad of a point against their biggest rival for fourth place.
With the first Saturday lunch time kick-off over with it was all eyes on the three o'clock kick-offs and they didn't disappoint either; Aston Villa started life without Martin O'Neill fantastically well brushing West Ham aside at Villa Park. First half goals from Downing and Petrov finished the game off early as a nervy Green hadn't looked to have shaken off his World Cup blunder, a possible final send off from Milner secured all three points around the hour mark leaving West Ham with work to do already and Villa showing they will still compete for fourth despite not having O'Neill. Although if Milner leaves it's not all bad for Villa because Stephen Ireland will be coming as part of the deal and he's a pretty good player as well.
Everton started their season in the same fashion as last season with a defeat away to Balckburn, a horrible mistake from Howard saw him almost throw the ball into his own net before Kalinic stepped in to tap the ball home to give Sam Allardyce the best possible start to the new season, although Howard's mistake was almost as bad as Everton's shirts which were a shocking bright pink! Bolton and Fulham toughed it out at the Reebok with no real magic in either team and it therefore finished 0-0 giving Mark Hughes a point in his first competitive game in charge of Fulham.
Birmingham came from 2-0 behind to nick a point against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. This game saw the first penalty (and the first dubious penalty award) as Darren Bent netted from twelve yards against debutant Ben Foster. This game also witnessed the first sending off of the season when Lee Cattermole was given to first half yellow cards but it didn't seem to have any effect, as it got worse for Alex McLeish when Stephen Carr scored the first own goal of the season. Scott Dann pulled one back with just under fifteen minutes after poor defending from a corner and captain Ridgewell secured the comeback and the point with two minutes remaining of normal time.
The shock of the day came from the DW Stadium as sorry Wigan were thrashed 4-0 by new boys Blackpool. The favourites to finish bottom this season wiped the floor with Roberto Martinez's team and no newly promoted team has been relegated from the Premiership when they won their first game, for thirteen years. Even with four goals Blackpool should have had a fifth and Wigan also should have scored but poor decisions from the linesman meant we were stuck with four. It was all over at half-time as Taylor-Fletcher and a brace from new striker Harewood meant they led 3-0 at the break. Baptiste added Blackpool's fourth with fifteen to go meaning that Blackpool were top of the Premiership at five o'clock.
The final three o'clock game saw Wolves beat Stoke 2-1 at Molineux; two goals in two minutes from a wonder free-kick dispatched by David Jones and new signing Steven Fletcher secured their advantage at half-time. Faye looked to put Stoke back in it with a goal ten minutes into the second half but Wolves held on. Blackpool were denied to finish the night on top of the Premiership by champions Chelsea who slaughtered West Brom 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in the half five kick-off. Malouda scored the first within six minutes before Drogba made it two-nil in first half stoppage time. Drogba got his second ten minutes into the second half before Lampard made it four on 7 minutes. Drogba got his hat-trick just two minutes later to already stake his claim for this season's Golden Boot, Malouda started and ended the scoring with his second in second half injury time.
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