Analysis: First Round of English Premier League

The English Premiership kicked off superbly at 5:30am PST on Saturday and nine of the first round of matches has been settled.

New players and coaches have settled into the Premiership perfectly with games played at a very high tempo.

Many teams started the season well and others exhibited sub-par performances, here we analyze the winners and losers of the first round of matches.

Winners of the First Round of the English Premier League

Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp are the winners of the first round of the Premier ship.

At Emirates, Klopp’s men showed class by coming from behind to lead by three goals before Arsenal pull two back settling the score at 4-3 to Liverpool.

Liverpool’s fast attacking play and the team’s ability to utilize all their goal scoring opportunities would make them title contenders this season.

Manchester United follows suit as Jose Mourinho faced the fear and anxiety of starting his Manchester United journey on a bad note amid his start for Chelsea last season.

Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic came to the party and Manchester United were deserving of their 3-1 win.

Hull City climaxed the winners of the week. Back from the English Football League Championship, Hull made a bold step by defeating defending Champions Leicester City by 2-1 with a performance that would have seen them score more had the team taken most of its chances.

Points would be very difficult to come by this season and a promoted team like Hull City has made a bold step in their quest to stay in the top flight of English Football.

Losers of the First Round of the English Premier League

The biggest losers of the campaign are Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. Arsene Wenger is either being complacent or he is playing with the feelings of the Arsenal faithful and the intensity of the Premiership. After Liverpool fielded such a strong squad with Sadio Mane looking to cement his place in the team which he did, Wenger opted to rest Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil and Laurent Koscielny in the name of resting them after the Euro.

Wenger has been in the business for a very long time and knew what he was doing but a season’s opener against a team looking to win its first major league title in 26 years should have been treated with great preference and respect.

Liverpool won 4-3 and Klopp deserved the victory because he is not taken anything for granted this season and aims to take Liverpool back to its former days.

Leicester City was the other losers of the weekend after they were stunned by Hull City. Two seasons ago, it would have been a clash of two promoted teams but Leicester’s title win has brought much glamour to the season’s opener. Leicester City played a great game and would be suffering from the tag of being defending Champions.

The losers of the first match day face off on Saturday, August 20 at the King Power Stadium where the defending Champions and Runner-up from last season all aim to make a statement in the league and get their first points of the campaign.

The quality of play has been exceptional and the tempo of the game has been on another level.

The second round of matches would see greater performances by teams and football fans would get the chance to see the most expensive footballer of all-time Paul Pogba make his league debut against Southampton this coming weekend.

Chelsea plays West Ham to crown off the first round of matches on Monday.