A look at who were the winners and losers in the first week of the English Premier League.
Winners
Chelsea
Chelsea set down an early marker with a 4-0 demolition of Portsmouth. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea looked really good with Deco pulling the strings behind Anelka. The ease of the victory will cause some sleepless nights at Anfield and Old Trafford.
Hull City
Hull have already tied Derby County for wins in the Premiership. The city of Hull is rocking and Hull fans should enjoy the feeing. It will be a long season for them!
Alan Curbishley
Curbs is the firm favorite of the British bookies to be the first manager fired this season. The pressure would have really mounted if West Ham had stumbled at home to Wigan. With the win Curbs released the pressure, at least for one week.
Paul Ince’s Blackburn Rovers
What player unrest? There is nothing like a win to get shut everyone up. Blackburn were impressive in winning at Goodison Park pitch and with a home game against Hull City coming up, Ince should have Rovers in the top four by the end of next weekend. Losers
Losers
Manchester United
This was a really bad result for United with next Monday’s trip to Portsmouth followed by back-to-back visits to Anfield and Stamford Bridge. It is very realistic to expect that United will be 11 points behind Chelsea when they travel to Stamford Bridge next month.
By the time Ronaldo appears in the first team, Manchester United Championship hopes could be over.
Spurs
Spurs fans have high expectations for Juande Ramos team this year and the 2-1 loss at Middlesbrough will make a few of them a little nervous. Ramos has been extremely busy in the transfer market this summer, but somehow he has still managed to fix Spur’s two glaring holes from last season; a center-half and a defensive midfielder.
Everton
Somehow Everton have not signed anyone in this transfer window and the lack of depth and quality was apparent against Blackburn. Starting a 17-year-old in midfield and having to hope that a 16-year-old on the bench can save the game is not a recipe for success. Moyes is upset at the lack of action in the transfer market and it will be interesting to see what will happen if Everton don’t sign anyone this month.
