First weekend in Premiership-How did everyone fair?

Premiership weekend kicked off last weekend and Sunday had the top 3 playing on Sunday and Liverpool playing at Aston Villa on Saturday.

Saturday:

Rafa Benitez started with Torres and Kyut in attack. Liverpool went into the lead with a Martin Laursen own goal, but to Aston Villa's joy they were awarded a penalty for a hand ball in the box from Liverpool old boy Carragher. Gareth Barry obliged with a sweet Penalty. As in the past so many years Liverpool needs some real inspiration from their Captain fantastic and this season does not look any different. A superlative free kick from the Captain to send Liverpool ahead. The cam shot from behind Gerrard when he takes the kick is amazing. The ball starts off wide of the post on the right side, sverves and dips precicely into the top corner. Well not a bad start for Rafa and Liverpool but debut of their big signing was not so impressive but their new # 10 Andrei Voronin was impressive for the 11 mins he played. The first signs of the Ukranian were pretty good.

The other big game on Saturday was Newcastle new boss Big Sam taking his new team to the Reebok stadium that of his old team. Sam came up with a really attacking line up considering it was an away fixture, including the likes of new boys Viduka and Smith along with Martins and Milner. Happy return for Big Sam as his team defeated other Sams' Bolton 3-1 with two goals from Martins. He had an amazing season last year and looks like he is continuing where he left off.

Yet another new manager Sven Goran Ericksson led Man City to West Ham. He again started with two goals from two new boys. One from Rolando Bianchi and the other from the Brazilian Geovanni who scored late after coming in as a late sub.

Newly promoted Sunderland under the ex-Man U player Keane as their boss had to sweat for their victory on their return to the Premiership. Michael Chopra scored a 94th minute to make it a happy return for Keane and for Sunderland.

The match between Derby on their return to the premiership and Portsmouth was a 4 goal cracker. Derby new boy Steve Howard made Campbell and Distin struggle all through the game. His neat lay off header from a Goal kick to captain Mat Oakley resulted in a stunning half volley at full pace. Portsmouth also had new boy England striker David Nugent playing alongside Benjani. Nugent had an impressive begininng with the Pompeys but though he got into some terrific positions, his finishing was woeful. It required some good passing from Nugent to Benjani, which resulted in a normal shot on Goal and and some poor goal keeping let it in. Derby thought they will have to start with a loss in Premiership when Portsmouth new boy Utaka stunned the home fans with a goal on 83 minutes. Derby rallied back and immediately after kick off, Andy Todd. The defensive midfielder got into the penalty box at the right time and finished off to earn a point for the premiership return.

Sunday:

Arsenal again started off the season un-impressive and struggled at home against Fulham. To start off there was a howler of a mistake from Jens Lehmann the Arsenal keeper after a minute from kick off when he kicked a back pass from Clichy right back to David Healy as though he was on roller blades. Lehmann would not be pleased when he sees the replay. Arsenal with the new team of youngsters, playing with just Van Persie as a striker. Rosicky and Hleb to support him as the feeding players, well it looked as though Fabregas was missing a lot of space because of Hleb. His screaming break through into the Fulham box was thwarted by the keeper. It required an 84th minute penalty from Van Persie and an injury time winner from Hleb for Arsenal. The different thing to see was Eboue playing in right midfield, which could be useful in the defensive factor when Arsenal play away games. Wenger have been missing that kind of a player since Parlour left.

Credit to Reading, i was impressed with this team last term and they looked good against the attacking flair of Man U. Sir Alex started with just Rooney upfront and Giggs and Ronaldo supporting him. The real problem for him came up when Rooney was injured and had to be replace at half time. He did not have a striker option. He brought in new signing Nani, and he did reasonably well. Except for the sending off of Dave Kitson with a straight red for a horrendous tackle on Evra, Reading would be happy from their first outing against the champions. New confirmed signings Tevez and Andersson should see some playing time as early as next week.

I missed Chelsea match but saw the scoreline which had both new boys Malouda and Pizzaro on the score sheet in the 3-2 win over Birmingham City. With Terry out injure new signing Tal Ben Haim partnered Carvalho in center of defense.