Maybe it was because it looked and felt like Autumn had truly arrived in England (i.e. blame it on the weather), but Saturday’s Premier League matches were the first boring day of the season thus far in my opinion. Let’s hope Sunday’s crop of games will raise the bar a little because Saturday’s matches left an unsatisfying taste.

Here are my observations from the three games I watched (I still have Tottenham against Stoke queued up to watch later):

  • The new matchday kicked off with the Birmingham derby between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa. As with most derbies, there was plenty of blood and thunder, but the game wasn’t as open as I would have liked.
  • I had to chuckle when the TV cameras panned across the crowd near the beginning of the game, where I saw a couple of Wolves supporters in their fifties making obscene gestures at the away fans. It’s one thing to see young kids do that, but it looked a bit childish to see older men do the same.
  • Two other humorous moments from the game for me were John Carew‘s shot near the goal which he sliced and the ball ended up near the halfway line. In my 32 years of watching football matches, I have never seen a worse shot than that. The other laugh-out incident was seeing Richard Dunne‘s ass block a sure goal from Steve Sidwell. I don’t rate Sidwell at all. He’s useless. And to make matters worse, he fouled the Wolves player to give the Wanderers the penalty and resulting goal.
  • Aston Villa‘s goal from Gabriel Agbonlahor was pure class. My favorite part of the build-up to the goal was seeing Ashley Young‘s bicycle kick on the touchline. Genius.
  • Birmingham City supporters should be ashamed at the large number of empty seats at St. Andrews in the match against Sunderland. The empty blue and white seats were an eyesore. Sunderland is an entertaining club, but if the Birmingham fans don’t want their club to stay in the top flight this season, they’re definitely sending the right message by not going to the ground. Luckily, the club played quite well today and were definitely more gutsy than Sunderland.
  • Just as Ashley Young was pivotal in assisting with the goal for Villa, Cameron Jerome‘s beautiful flick to James McFadden was sensational as was the Scot’s turn and goal.
  • Sorry Chelsea fans, but the 5-0 drubbing against Blackburn Rovers was as boring as watching paint dry. Rovers were absolutely awful and played like they knew they were going to lose and didn’t have a hope in hell. Their defending was abysmal. Congratulations to Chelsea, but this was way too much of a one-sided competition for me.
  • I didn’t get a chance to watch the Portsmouth versus Hull City match, but by all accounts, it was one of the most boring matches of the season. Seems that the only noteworthy incident from the game was one that didn’t even happen on the pitch. Jozy Altidore showed up late for the game and, as a result, didn’t even make it on the bench and will be fined by manager Phil Brown. Let’s hope this isn’t the start of a downward spiral for Altidore.