Hull City’s Robert Snodgrass (right) celebrates his match-winning goal against Leicester City.
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Snodgrass’s second-half strike sealed the points for City after Riyad Mahrez’s controversial penalty had cancelled out Adama Diomande’s opening goal.
Manchester City welcomed Sunderland to the Etihad in what was the beginning of both Pep Guardiola’s and David Moyes’ reigns at their new clubs.
Ross Barkley gave Everton a fifth-minute lead at Goodison Park with a free-kick from wide on the left that eluded everyone and curled into the net.
“The first games are always hard”. “Last season we showed ourselves as a very good team and we need to repeat that”.
It is the first time the reigning English champions have started the season with a defeat since 1989, when Arsenal lost at Manchester United. We made a huge effort – but we are not like a team.
“I thought the players had it in them to produce something but all credit to the football players because they showed a lot of the determination, ” Phelan told Sky Sports.
But Snodgrass drove Hull back into the lead from 20 yards when Danny Simpson cleared Ahmed Elmohamady’s right-wing cross into his path.
Phelan – caretaking in the wake of Steve Bruce’s resignation last month – had only 13 fit senior players (including two goalkeepers) at his disposal.
Please see our terms of service for more information. And they were made to pay as Xherdan Shaqiri curled a wonderful free kick into the bottom corner to equalise in the 68th minute. In the 71st, Jermaine Defoe was played in on a through ball and slotted past Wilfredo Caballero – surprisingly starting in place of Joe Hart – to level the score at 1-1.
Former Manchester United defender Paddy McNair’s own goal in the 87th minute sealed the victory for City.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Erik Lamela put away an excellent header just before the hour mark to rescue a 1-1 draw for at Everton.
Lloris limped off with a hamstring injury in the 36th minute and his replacement Michel Vorm kept the visitors afloat with a fine save on the stroke of halftime, denying Gerard Deulofeu who was sent clear by an bad back pass from Danny Rose.
But Lamela equalised in the 59th minute with a header from Kyle Walker’s cross. “It was just a case of the players galvanising each other today against the champions”, he said.
It was Robert Snodgrass’ second half goal that effectively condemned Musa and his Leicester teammates to defeat.
Koeman added: “I think it’s a fair result”. Because we only had a small number of players available, they knew exactly what their roles were and how to go about it because we’ve worked with them all week.
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There were 1-1 draws too for Southampton against Watford, and Stoke at newly-promoted Middlesbrough, along with 1-0 wins for Swansea against Burnley and West Bromwich Albion at Crystal Palace.
