It was an action packed Super-Sunday in the English Premier League as the big guns Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United played their first matches of the season.
Arsenal’s was the first match of the day and they couldn’t have imagined a more worse start to the season than what happened. They conceded a goal to Fulham’s David Healy even before a minute had passed since the start of play. This was courtesy the antics of its German international goalkeeper Jens Lehmann who tried to play the ball with his foot rather than hold it in his hands. It looked like an indicator to what their performance would be for the rest of the season. However, Robbie van Persie converted a controversial penalty in the 84th minute to level things up and Alexander Hleb scored a dramatic late winner to win the match for Arsenal 2-1.
Chelsea started off promising much more than Arsenal but they too went a goal down to newly promoted Birmingham City whose Mikael Forsell scored the first goal of the match..>
However Premier League debutants Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda retaliated quickly to put Chelsea in the lead. However, in the 36th minute Kapo scored a scorcher for Birmingham City to level things up. Chelsea came out all guns blazing in the second half and Michael Essien scored in the 56th minute to win the match for Chelsea 3-2. This helped Chelsea break Liverpool’s record of going undefeated for 63 consecutive matches at home. It also was the 99th consecutive undefeated home match for Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho who was earlier with FC Porto.
However, Manchester United could not match their rivals’ feats and ended up having a goalless home game to Reading who are looking increasingly stronger by the day. These results have certainly livened up the Premiership and promise an exciting season ahead with Liverpool also winning their first round match.
Images: Alexander Hleb,Michael Essien
