The Premier League is back in all its attractive unpredictability and last season’s champions, Leicester City were the first to break the ice.
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A little over three months since arguably the most improbable run to a championship in sports history, Leicester City will begin it’s defence of their English Premier League title on Saturday morning when they take on Hull City.
Riyad Mahrez’s second-half penalty cancelled out Adama Diomande’s acrobatic overhead kick for the hosts before Snodgrass slammed the ball home from inside the box.
Also giving his thoughts on this season’s opener, Hull City caretaker boss, Mike Phelan, has said that he is “looking forward” to the game despite all the off-field turmoil this summer. The PFA player of the year made no mistake to make things all square.
“For this reason I told [the players] we must be very, very strong together because we showed [we are] a very good team last season and we have to repeat”.
The reigning Premier League champions have never lost the opening game of their title defence in the competition’s history (W19 D4). Premier League clubs have invested so much money on transfers that it’s just impossible to predict who is going to win the title.
Koeman added: “I think it’s a fair result”.
“We made a lot of effort but not as a team”.
But Snodgrass drove Hull back into the lead from 20 yards when Danny Simpson cleared Ahmed Elmohamady’s right-wing cross into his path. Mahrez then pounced on the loose ball but the Leicester playmaker could only send a rising shot into the side netting.
The chances kept coming for the champions, who missed yet another chance two minutes before the break.
– Hull City became the first newly-promoted team to win on the opening weekend of a Premier League campaign since August 2012 when West Ham beat Aston Villa (1-0).
The side were beaten 2-1 by Manchester Utd in the Community Shield, however the side can take great heart in the way it performed and deserved something from the game, and in reality the side should have far more quality than their opponents today.
The excellent Robert Snodgrass restored Hull’s lead before the hour-mark, and the profligate visitors were unable to find a way back into the match for a second time.
Kasper Schmeichel clawed out Davies’ near-post header from a Snodgrass corner, but Diomande’s overhead kick flew into the net.
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Leicester’s reply came immediately after the restart, just 14 seconds having been played when Tom Huddlestone was adjudged to have tripped Demarai Gray and referee Mike Dean pointed to the spot.
