Leicester City became the first defending champions to lose their opening game since 1989 after newly promoted Hull City prevailed at the KC Stadium on the first day of the new Premier League season.
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Riyad Mahrez gave Leicester hope when he cancelled out Adama Diomande’s opener, but Robert Snodgrass netted the victor to send the champions back home empty handed. “We showed a lot of rust and I felt we were second best throughout”, he said.
“We tried to win but sometimes it’s not possible”, Ranieri added.
Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, we know Pep needs time to implement the kind of football he wants to play but with so much competition in the Premier League this season, he will need to make sure he doesn’t give up easy points early on when there are far bigger challenges that lay ahead.
City dominated possession but were short on the incisive attacking play that was a hallmark of Guardiola’s Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams.
Vardy, who scored 24 league goals last season, mis-kicked horribly after new signing Ahmed Musa had darted down the left to roll the ball back to him 16 yards from goal. At Wembley against Manchester United we played as a team – but we weren’t together today. We were going to draw the match and we made a little mistake when we lost the ball on the halfway line. On that same day, Leicester will host Arsenal at the King Power Stadium.
“The first games are always hard”, said former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager Guardiola.
As a Hull City fan of 16 years, as well as an aspiring sports journalist, I am embarrassed to admit that for the first time in my life I arrived at Saturday’s game against Leicester City thinking my beloved Tigers had no hope what-so-ever of picking up a positive result.
What the Chinese delegation thought of the pre-match demo Saturday is anybody’s guess, but they can not fail to have been impressed by the action on the pitch, watching Adama Diomande take the lead for Hull City just before the half time break. Lloris didn’t last until the half, though, as Michel Vorm came on to replace the goalkeeper, who suffered a hamstring injury while chasing down the ball. “It’s important we get some answers”. I think this was the key of the match.
Striker Salomon Rondon nodded the only goal to give West Bromwich Albion a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace in their opening Premier League match of the season.
Other than a poor miss by Jamie Vardy in the first half, the Champions were comfortably contained by the Tigers, with Curtis Davies and stand-in centre-half Jake Livermore contributing outstanding performances.
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Ben Watson was then sent off just 11 minutes after coming on as he brought down Shane Long as the Irishman bore down on goal.
