Its mid-August in England and that only means one thing, the start of another Barclays Premier League season. This year is the 20^th season of said Premier League and it promises to be an exciting season yet again. Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City are the favorites with Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham the most likely to be nipping at their heels. We know who has gone where and what managers need to do what so let’s just get to the first weekend of matches.

Tottenham v. Everton-postponed

This game unfortunately wasn’t played due to the riots in London last week. We will look forward to this fixture when it is actually played.

Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland

It is a new year at Anfield and one full of big expectations. The historic club started brightly in their opener with plenty of new signings on display. Luis Suarez drew a penalty, which he missed, inside the first ten minutes. Suarez would make up for that miss with a goal that skimmed off his head from a perfect Charlie Adam free kick. Liverpool looked likely to score again but that goal never came and in fact they were scored against. After a break neck first half it was a wonder strike from new signing Seb Larrson that would level the match for Sunderland in the second half. Both teams had decent chances but the Reds would have to settle for a draw on opening day.

QPR 0-4 Bolton

Welcome back to the Prem, QPR. Bolton hammered new guys on Saturday with the first goal coming from defender Gary Cahill’s brilliant strike into the top left corner. It was all downhill from there in the second half as Bolton would add three more thanks to a QPR own goal, Ivan Klasnic, and Fabrice Muamba.

Fulham 0-0 Aston Villa

Both clubs came in with new managers making their debut and both clubs left with a point. It wasn’t a bad game but the lack of finishing and early season rust showed. Shay Given, Villa’s new keeper via Man City, came off as probably the man of the match.

Blackburn 1-2 Wolves

Two teams that will surely battle relegation all season long faced off on opening day. Blackburn started well and got the opener through new signing Mauro Formica. Wolves came right back with Steven Fletcher leveling the score. Later in the match Kevin Doyle missed a penalty for Wolves but in the ensuing madness the ball fell to Stephen Ward who won it for Wolves.

Wigan 1-1 Norwich

This was probably the least glamorous match of a not so glamorous first weekend in the Premier League season. Goals from Ben Watson for Wigan (penalty) and Wes Hoolahan for Norwich sealed a share of the points.

Newcastle 0-0 Arsenal

In the wake of two of their best players, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, leaving the club, Arsenal looked pretty sluggish in their opener. New signing, Gervinho, started well and showed his speed will be an asset for the Gunners. But, later in the match, it was Gervinho along with Newcastle bad boy, Joey Barton, who would get involved. A weak slap to the face would see Gervinho sent off and Barton, who started the whole thing, see just a yellow card. It was an ugly end to an ugly game.

Stoke 0-0 Chelsea

New Chelsea boss, Andre Villas-Boas, decided to go with a 4-3-3 formation with three strikers up front. It was Didier Drogba who would be left out and Fernando Torres almost justified that move. Torres looked up for it and much quicker than last year but his play never amounted to a goal. Chelsea had plenty of chances but a lack of calls from the ref and a superb game from Stoke goalkeeper, Asmir Begovich, kept the match at 0-0 for good. 

West Brom 1-2 Manchester United

The defending champions got their season under way at the Hawthorns against Roy Hodgson’s side. United looked great to start the game with Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley getting surprise starts. It was Wayne Rooney who would open the scoring for the Red Devils but West Brom fought back well. Their equalizer came on a low shot into the right corner by Shane Long, a shot that should’ve been saved by new, and young, United keeper, David de Gea. But, we have seen this story before. It would only be fitting that a newcomer for Man Utd. would be the key part in the winning goal. His shot went down as an own goal but Ashley Young deserves all the credit for the winner.

Manchester City 4-0 Swansea

It was another off season of big spending at City and the highest expectations, maybe ever, have been placed on the club. They started the season brilliantly against one of the new additions to the league, Swansea. Chance after chance came and Swansea keeper Michel Vorm, who had a great game, kept City out in the first half. The goals would come though and come fast. Edin Dzeko got the first on a rebound from an Adam Johnson shot. Sergio Aguero was then introduced for the first time in a Man City shirt and he was phenomenal. He scored his first goal for the club just eight minutes after coming on. Aguero then set up David Silva on a sublime piece of determination and skill. But the new guy wasn’t done yet.

It was great to see Premier League players running across my TV screen this weekend and while the nine games on display didn’t produce any classics, it was still high quality stuff. This year, at the end of each recap I will give out a team and player of the week award and this weekend’s team of the week has to be Manchester City. They bounced back very well from last week’s Community Shield loss and looked fantastic in front of the home crowd. Their two stars of the day, David Silva and Sergio Aguero, will get this week’s joint player of the week award.