Premier League Saturday, Gameweek One: Open Thread
We finally made it to the opening of the 2010-11 Premier League. With the early match between Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City to kick things off, today should be an exciting day with what we hope will be plenty of goals during the opening weekend.
Feel free to share your observations before, during and after the Premier League games in the comments section below.
98 Responses to Premier League Saturday, Gameweek One: Open Thread
the wait is over..
Some decent chances for Spurs early on. Great pace.
Joe Hart justified his selection
no doubt, that save was superb.
looks like ManCity left back hasn’t adopted to the premier league pace
ESPN seem to be having a few technical difficulties. There is a constant clicking sound, anyone else getting that?
yup, I’m getting it too (in New Mexico on Comcast, if it makes any difference).
Hart is everywhere, but how long can it hold?
Hart has been amazing so far!
Two things…1) is anyone else getting staticy sound? 2) how do you guys get an avatar on your posts?
The sound for me has been great the last 10-15 minutes.
And I registered in the forums, adding an avatar there. I think.
hmm, I’ll try that…thought I had tried it before… no biggie though, thanks.
thanks, I’ll try that..I’m still getting static though
My picture just went crazy for 5-10 seconds. Less than impressive from ESPN to start.
That’s happened to me a couple of times now. Mildly frustrating would be an understatement.
For an avatar on EPLTalk go to gravatar.com and register. It will start showing up soon thereafter.
Thank you sir!
God do I loathe Joe Hart right now.
What the hell does Spurs have to do to get a god damn goal?
No kidding. It could easily be 3-0.
The real thing is back!
What a great half of soccer. The Premier League rules!
I’m happy not to see ESPNs dreaded ‘bottom line’
But after suffering through FSC’s triple wide ticker that squishes the picture while it’s on, ESPN’s ticker all of sudden doesn’t seem as bad as it used to.
I don’t understand the bottom line at all, all the scores are from last night, there is no breaking news at all. It seems pointless info to disrupt the game for. With Espn having sportscenter and espnnews there is no need for it. At halftime I will give them a pass but otherwise its almost as bad as the out of date FSC crawl. Great game to start the season with. COYS!
That’s a good point. When you include the internet and everything associated with it (twitter, blogs, etc) the scroll line laughably outdated the majority of the time (It’s still awfully nice to have when multiple games are being played at the same time).
Manchester City look dreadful in the midfield. How far back is Tevez going to go to pick up the ball? Richards looks slow, De Jong is still on holiday, and SWP and Barry are invisible. Hart is obviously playing well and Silva has looked sharp exchanging passes with Tevez, but other than that they look flat. Watch they still win on a Tevez breakaway
“Manchester City look dreadful in the midfield.”
My thoughts exactly. I think that’s why Mancini looked disgusted and had his hands on his head.
“Watch they still win on a Tevez breakaway”
With Hart playing the way he has, that is very likely to happen.
City just got their 1st corner kick 54 minutes into the match. That says it all, but they still could get it going after an awful 1st half. Tottenham has looked good.
City have no MF what’s so ever. They look really poor. I think SWP needs to go off for another striker.
And this ESPN2 feed looks great! However, they need to work out their sound. It’s a crackling mess right now……
Modric has a box to box motor and teeth I didn’t know he had. Lennon and Bale have looked as sharp as Joe Hart today. COYS!
Luka Modric has a ridiculously high work ethic. He’s still very young also with loads of experience.
Robbie Keane is in the shop window for Fulham.
After much thought and finally seeing a shot that shows it, I can safely say that the crackling sound everyone is complaining about, is from all the fucking rain coming down. Not a technical problem.
I don’t care about the crackling. I’m just ecstatic to hear the crowd again instead of vuvuzelas.
SPLENDID run by Modric, and Pavy is testing Hart some more. I like.
Pavyluchenko with two shots on target right after coming off the bench. Seemed like he could’ve taken another stride before striking the ball on the first one.
All 3 Spurs subs are attacking. Its good to have the EPL back!
How the heck are Spurs not leading?! COYS!!
Bale just missed an absolute sitter. Holy shit.
Oh, Gareth… *hangs head*
I’d be more pissed if we shouldn’t already be leading at this point anyways.
A really solid game for Spurs. But they’ll be disappointed if they can’t pick one up in the last few minutes. They dominated this game.
What match are you guys watching next? I think I’m going with Rovers/Toffees.
I had an enjoyable nil nil viewing experience. Great Tottenham crowd, no vuvuzellas, pretty good commentary, and then….THEN…. LALAS!
Come on ESPN. He’s absolutely horrific. ESPN needs to invest in finding some good young American soccer correspondents. They exist. You’d think the only people who know about soccer in this country are Bretos, Harkes, and Lalas. Pathetic.
Lalas actually thinks Man City look more promising than Tottenham after that match….
I agree about Lalas. When I heard Bretos was going to be on the studio team, I was hoping he would replace Lalas. No such luck.
Never watch pre match post match or halftime during games except at the world cup. I would much rather listen to the twice weekly espn soccernet podcast for my analysis. If you guys haven’t checked it out it’s absolutely brilliant. No need to waste any time with match commentary during matchdays.
Agreed. I thought if I avoided MLS coverage, I’d avoid Lalas, too. He needs to get a clue.
Ya, I am tired of Lalas as well. His arrogance and smugness are very offputting.
In my home Lalas is known as “formerly big fish in small pond.” He has, I suppose, great expertise in the names of all former US soccer leagues and teams. I grabbed the remote so fast when I saw his face that I missed that brilliant remark about Man City.
Dog wanted to go out at 6:45 C.T. Let dog out, turned on tv and what do I see? Bretos AND Lalas. Let dog in, set dvr, went back to bed. Woke up, turned on tv, skipped pregame, watched 1st half, skipped halftime, watched 2nd half, skipped postmatch. Very enjoyable.
Fun game to watch.
Yaya Toure looked great in MF in the 2nd half….especially with 3 sublime deliveries.
Spurs will rue the bad finishing today. Bale deserved a goal in the end but his touch was the worst of his day.
Alexi Lalas is insufferable as a commentator.
Spurs suck. how the f*** did they miss so many chances…
i will take ESPN over FSC any day. FSC production is very bad..
Fabio Capello…
I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!!!!
GAH!!! switched over to FSC and I’m already pissed at the quality!!!
But, I’m thankful that I can watch the footy.
Well, first weekend of EPL, FS+’s HD channel is inactive. Ain’t that great?
AARGH! Just lost 10 minutes of match resetting per on-screen instructions to get the FS+ HD channel. Come on dear Direct TV. Live up to all the nice things I say.
Spurs fan here, but wasn’t Joe Hart fantastic!
Robert Greene=long season for West Ham, and wow for Blackpool early!
I think Directv used to have three games at ten eastrn. We used to get a second Setanta feed. Just remembered that. Does anyone else remember that?
Dish offered it not Time Warner. I liked choices. Plus the alternate game was unedited
Random thoughts from a new fan. Downing scores the first meaningful EPL goal that I have ever seen. Why does every team need to incorporate light blue, powder blue, sky blue into their kits? Is it always this fast paced? What have I been missing all these years ?!?!? This is AWESOME!!!
hahaha…welcome to the party!
I am on the phone with Direct TV right now bitching at them about FSC+HD not working. They are f’in clueless. After 25 minutes on the phone they finally told me they are having trouble with the HD feed.
i have the same problem but 621-1 is telling me i’m not subscribed
but i am is that the same message your getting?
thanks for getting on the phone and blasting them
Is the inconsistency of the foxsoccertv feeds on my end, or theirs? Anyone else having the same issues? It has very beautiful moments, but overall it isn’t any better than a pirated stream. Right now, I’m very jealous of NFL fanatics.
I’m thinking it’s on their end because I have high quality internet, and the feed is just so-so. It looks really good one minute, and then, really sucky the next.
Regardless of the quality of the streams, Blackpool are fun. Hooray offense!
I am watching the Fulham v Bolton game on fsc.tv right now and I have been pretty happy with the quality so far, and I am on 1.5 DSL.
focsoccertv 4 the fulham bolton match was acting like a drunk for the 1st 20 mins.
foxsoccer.tv feeds are great for me. Much better quality than I’m used to with FSC in SD. I have 2 streams running side by side, no problems in quality, and looks great in full screen on 22″ monitor. Should look ok on larger screen too. Tried the site on an old laptop, but the computer’s spec isn’t high enough for the video to run smoothly.
First try with foxsoccer.tv today and just wanted to comment on the great quality of the stream. Took a few minutes to get going perhaps with everyone hitting the site at the same time for match starts. Looked great full screen at 42″ on my tv and fewer hitches in the broadcast than FSC by miles. Black Cats looked like title contenders for 45 mins.
Blackpool is winning 3-0 against Wigan.
Haters gonna hate.
Blackpool up 3-0 at the half.
Let the eating of the crow commence.
The FSC+ feed has sound breaking up now and again on Dish. I hate the way it says HD and it isn’t in HD. Everton seem to be getting a grip on things after silly goal Timmy gave Blackburn.
Same here. FSC sound is going in and out all throughout the game. In fairness, there seems to be a lot of technical glitches on the first day that I’ve seen in each game I’ve watched today. I have a feeling the issue is more on IMG’s side in London where they’re beaming the satellite signals from.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Besides video/audio issues on ESPN2, nothing much.
The video has gone wonky twice and the commentators sound like they’re reporting over Skype.
Anybody else thing Friedel looks like a giant bald bee?
Does anyone NOT mute/ignore the HT show on FSC?
I am flipping between the Villa and Everton games, both in glorious HD on Direct TV.
Besides West Ham having a really bad first half (relegation candidates? hope not), it is now official: Everton’s away kit is the worst kit EVER created in human history!!!Is this color pink???Really??? Is their nickname the toffees, or the fairies? What were they thinking?!?!
My god, terrible technical issues from FSC during their halftime show. Their touchscreen thing definitely didn’t work, and some awkward camera shots where they should have cut away but didn’t. Anyone else notice that the VW logo on the screen behind the table was only half lit most of the time. Sure their sponsor loved that.
In game, though, absolutely dreadful first half as a Hammers fan. Villa could’ve been up 4-0 at the half easily.
I agree John. The idea of having Warren Barton analyze the tactics of the first half was a decent one. But the execution was awful. They should have zoomed in rather than panning out. Hopefully they’ll work on improving that.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
It was mentioned earlier in the week about FSC improving their coverage, but they did not listen. The Villa-West Ham game appeared on the screen right out of commercial with half a minute played already. It’s amateur-type stuff; instead of the build-up to the game, players walking out of the tunnel, starting lineups, etc. we get thrown right into a game already in progress.
FSC…you only have to show two games live on Saturdays. How about being more prepared for that?
just finished watching fullham on the new foxsoccer.tv product. pretty decent! much better than last seasons’ – stream quality has also improved dramatically…
The sneaky secret (at least something the American announcers will never talk about) of Tim Howard spilling away points pops up again. He is a very good keeper, but he is so prone to blunders. Can’t be giving away 2 points like that.
Who would believe it Blackpool 1st in the Premiership lol …. wtg Blackpool
Totally agree, though we still have three more games to go and I don’t see Chelsea or Man U tying.
You gotta love it. After being trashed all week as sure relegation fodder they go out and destroy the first team they meet….in an away match. The atmosphere at their first home match was always going to be fantastic, but can you imagine it now?
If no one beats their GD they will be listed as 1st in the standings. Certainly one game doesn’t make a season, but that would be great.
Well, so much for that idea. There goes Chelsea.
Drogba does his magic
Villa played beautifully today, Kevin McDonald ought to be pretty damn proud of his boys. Cool moment with Milner, as well.
VIlla came out by looking they had something to prove. I was very impressed by their performance. That said, the Hammers were awful.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Truly awful. Despite Aston Villa undoubtedly being a stronger club (finished 6th last season, semis of FA Cup and 2nd in League Cup), I was hoping West Ham could capitalize on the coaching shakeup and prove they’ve improved over last season by at least giving them a match. Instead Aston Villa controlled the entire first half (Villa had at least 11 corners vs. only 1 for West Ham, about the same numbers for shots on goals) and West Ham looked incapable of maintaining possession. My spirits is a bit crushed after that performance.
And that was without TWO starting defenders (Cuellar and Collins) and Agbonlahor in the starting lineup for Villa. They jumped all over an unprepared West Ham team and the scoreline could have been a lot worse that 3-0 too.
poor West Brom…..
Blues picking up where they left off… 6-0!
Well it would be pretty cool if Blackpool could prove the pundits wrong and save themselves from relegation. Not very likely, but for everyone who had the “Derby County” meme pushing forward, I think that’s been rested for a little while.
Man City vs Tottenham…….goes to show you that money can’t and will NOT buy you a championship trophy!!! Oh…..and I hate Tevez!!
Another bitter it’s not fair fool, it’s one game into the season for god sake. City got a clean sheat and a good point away to Spurs, not many teams will be doing that this season you can bet on that.
Money can’t buy the championship, really ,better tell that to Chelsea, Blackburn and UTD come to think of it. Give ya head a wobble numpty!
you gotta watch the next set of fixtures in foxsoccer.tv – it’s awesome!