With Raheem Sterling the only new face in action, the old guard of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany proved they still have the quality and hunger to make up for last season’s disappointment.
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The biggest game of this matchday, however, is undoubtedly the Sunday afternoon meeting of Premier League heavyweights Manchester City and Chelsea. But that’s where things are heading – from 2016/17, around 10 games a season will be played on Friday nights, and there are continued hints that overseas Premier League games might not be far behind.
In the five seasons since then, Villa have taken just two Premier League points from a possible 30 against United, scoring eight goals and conceding 27.
Romelu Lukaku (2) and Ross Barkley scored their goals at St Mary’s Stadium, with Lukaku showing his softer side before kick-off as he rushed into the stands to comfort a fan he hit with a ball during the warm up (see below). West Brom looked completely lost against Manchester City, but in fairness to the Baggies City might be the best team in the league.
West Ham and Leicester, the two surprise packages of last weekend, meet at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday and, with the tension lifted by their respective victories, both will be confident of earning a positive result.
West Ham pulled one back through Dimitri Payet, but Leicester held on for the win.
He said: “It’s clear from the figures that there needs to be more investment in facilities for disabled supporters by Premier League clubs, especially to increase the number of spaces for people in wheelchairs”.
Meanwhile, the alarm bells are ringing once again for the two faltering giants from the North East of England, with Newcastle going down to a 2-0 defeat at Swansea and Sunderland handed a drubbing by newly promoted Norwich at the Stadium of Light.
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Watford and West Brom has Nil-Nil written all over it. Watford knows for them to stay up in the Premier League in their first season, they have to play tight and calculated, in other words they want 1-0, 1-1 type games. Saido Berhaino started for Tony Pulis’ side but they failed to muster a shot on target as the Hornets were frustrated at Vicarage Road. This lead was doubled in the injury time of the first half after Nacer Chadli volleyed a Davies cross into the bottom left corner. It is expected that this game will bring us a couple of goals. New signing Andre Ayew joined in and scored his second goal of the season angling a brilliant header past Tim Krul after receiving a cross from Jefferson Montero in the 52nd minute.
