Five quick fire points about the weekend’s Premier League action
1. Spanish Settle Swiftly...
Some have questioned before how players coming over from La Liga can sometimes struggle to bed in quickly. Yet the performances of Michu and Chico Flores for Swansea ate away at that theory. Michu in particular was superb with two goals and two assists at Loftus Road as he showed why he was the top scoring midfielder last season. “Nice to Michu” cracked Alan Shearer on the Match of the Day sofa! Moving on...
2. 2012 – The year of the Bundesliga Attacker
So in January, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Papiss Demba Cissé and Gylfi Sigurdsson (Strictly Sigurdsson’s an attacking midfielder but come come) all arrived in the Premier League from the Bundesliga. Yet did anyone anticipate the level of success the three would have in front of goal. On Saturday, ex-Hamburg striker Mladen Petric continued the trend by netting a double for Fulham and Shinji Kagawa hasn’t even taken to the field yet – it’s going to get better...
3. Promotion Pride
Well done to West Ham, Reading and Southampton – the three promoted sides all turned in showings which suggested they’d taken confidence from the performances of last year’s batch in the Premier League. Southampton especially played with a verve you’d scarcely expect from a promoted side on the first day at the Champions. Now the hard part – continuing it...
4. Parallel Paradise
Sky Sports were loving the amount of parallels with Manchester City’s victory on the final day last season this weekend. There were others to be drawn though. Liverpool were underwhelming and wasteful – just like last season. QPR got thrashed mercilessly on the opening day – just like last season. If we want to go slightly more farfetched, then there's Fulham. 10 years ago, they beat Bolton 4-1 on the opening day of the season to go top of the Premier League. A decade on and they repeated the feat against Norwich. Won’t last mind...
5. And Finally
How about a bit of irony to finish? There was controversy at Upton Park on Saturday when the assistant referee ruled West Ham’s winner offside. Mike Dean correctly decided that it was indeed onside. So what was the advert on West Ham’s big video screen as the cross for the goal was coming in though?*
For more Premier League musings on Twitter, Follow @archiert1
Article originally written on Gone With The Rhind
*Image used - screenshot taken from Match of the Day
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