After a long 3/4 months without Premier League football to fill up our otherwise boring and monotonous weekends, the competition has finally made it’s return.
It all kicked off on Friday night with Liverpool giving Norwich a harsh welcome to the premier league, beating the newcomers by 4 goals to 1 with all the Liverpool goals coming in the first half, firstly from a Grant Hanley own goal before before goals from Salah, Van Dijk and Origi pretty much ended the contest before it had even begun. A consolation goal from Finnish striker Teemu Pukki gave the travelling Norwich fans something to celebrate on the 64th minute.
On Saturday Manchester City barely had to enter second gear to put 5 past a hapless West Ham while there was also wins for Burnley at home to Southampton and Spurs at home to newly promoted Aston Villa with Pochettino’s side coming from behind to win. Graham Potters Brighton career got of to the perfect start with a 3-0 win away to Watford. Crystal Palace and Everton finished goalless while Sheffield United snatched a late point away to Bournemouth thanks to an 88th minute goal from Billy Sharpe.
On Sunday, a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goal was enough to see off Newcastle with new singing Nicolas Pepe making his debut of the bench along with fellow debutants Dani Ceballos and Gabrielle Martinelli. Leicester and Wolves played out a 0-0 draw with a Dendonker goal being controversially ruled out for handball by VAR.
The game of the weekend saw Manchester United smashing Chelsea by 4 goals to nil thanks to a double from Marcus Rashford and goals from Anthony Martial and Daniel James. It really couldn’t have been a much worse start for poor Frank Lampard.
In Rugby, Ireland beat Italy by 29 points to 10 in a pre-world cup test match with tries from Kieran Marmion, Dave Kearney, Andrew Conway, Jordi Murphy and Joey Carbery with Maxime Mbanda and Carlo Canna scoring the Italians tries. It was a decent, although not spectacular performance, from the Irish. It will be a nervous wait on Joey Carbery injury but the good news is that it’s not a fracture.
In GAA, it was Dublin and Kerry who progressed to the All Ireland Football Championship Final with the Dubs beating Mayo by 3 goals and 14 points to 1 goal and 10 points while Kerry overcame Tyrone by a goal and 18 points to 18 points. Dublin and Kerry will fight it out for the Sam Maguire on the 1st of September.
In the Ladies Senior Football Championship quarter-finals Mayo beat Armagh by 2 goals and 12 points to a goal and 12 points while Galway edged out Waterford by a goal and 12 points to 2 goals and 4 points.