Football News: Matchday 1 - Quick Round Up

Match Day 1 Round Up

Friday 15th August 2025

Liverpool 4-2 Bournemouth

An entertaining game to watch, with Bournemouth always looking to catch Liverpool on the counter, and giving a very good account of themselves. Though they must be thankful to VAR's incompetence in missing a clear and obvious handball by Senesi, which stopped Ekitike breaking through and being one-on-one with their keeper. Liverpool looked very open and more than half the players look a mile off match fitness but they still had more than enough to deal with a very good, hard-working Cherries side. Bournemouth look a lot weaker defensively at the moment, unsurprisingly after losing almost their entire first choice defence, which could cost them a lot of points while they adjust. Giving a good account of yourself only gets you so far, they will need to start getting points on the board quickly before confidence starts to take a hit.

Starmen:
Semenyo - gave Kerkez a torrid time before he went off. Without Kerkez to match up to him physically, he was able to run riot.
Ekitike - looks the business, with a goal and an assist, could easily have been more as well.
Gakpo - always a threat and worked back well to help out defensively.

Flops:
Konate - one of the worst defensive performances I have ever seen in a Liverpool shirt, and I used to watch Martin Skrtel every week! Konate was an embarrassment. Shockingly bad.
Robertson - I am hoping he will improve as he gets match sharp, but this was another in a long line of awful games for the Scot. It is looking more and more like his legs have gone and he is done at this level. His positioning is terrible, which makes his lack of pace even more of an issue.
Senesi - Bournemouth will be hoping this was just a one-off, because otherwise they have massively downgraded with the Argentinian at the back. He was powder puff at best and looked like he had never really played central defender before at times.
Scott - offered them nothing at all.

Saturday 16th August 2025

Aston Villa 0-0 Newcastle United

A dour first half, with Newcastle on top but it did look like Villa had set out to take the sting out of them and then look to take the game to them in the second half. Unfortunately that game plan was ruined by Konsa's silly, and probably needless, red card. The Toon, on the other hand, just went for the jugular from the beginning but had no one to finish off moves. They also lack quality in the build up, with most of their play being simply to fling the ball into the area and hope someone gets on the end of it. They really miss Isak's creativity, as much as his goalscoring. They completely ran out of ideas in the second half and look a long way off a top 5 placing on this showing.

Starmen:
Bizot - back up keeper came in and deputised well with a solid game.
Kamara - might be a bit of overkill having both him and Onana in midfield, they both do an excellent job of breaking up play but Kamara just brings that little bit more quality on the ball.

Flops:
Konsa - the sending off put his team in real trouble.
Tielemans - struggled to get into the game.
Rogers - looks way off the pace.
Emery - failed to make enough use of subs to give them a chance to snatch it on the counter. There was a lot of pace on the bench and very little on the team, it was bizarre that he brought just Malen on and then only in the 83rd minute.
Elanga - had a very poor debut. Replaced the very one-dimensional Murphy in the starting line up from last season, but looked like a downgrade on this performance.
Gordon - offered nothing as a striker.

Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Fulham

I was not able to watch this match, so the only comment I can give is that, at half-time when there is a round up of the other games shown on TV, they were unable to produce a single highlight to show from this match!

Sunderland 3-0 West Ham United

Another game I was unable to watch but I am surprised so many are terming it a shock result. Sunderland have been building a team, while the Hammers have sat on their hands despite having probably the worst squad in the Premier League. The club is in a mess, with only the cheap stadium left of any value. A lack of investment in the rest of the infrastructure is now coming back to bite them and they are in real danger of going down. Sunderland will probably not get an easier game all season.

Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Burnley

Not as convincing a win as it looks judging by the scoreline, Burnley gave as good as they got at times, but just lack any real quality in their team. It is all well and good playing well, but if you lack quality through the team you are not just going to struggle to score, you are also going to struggle to keep the ball out of the back of your own net too. Plus they had the handicap of Ed77 saying how well they were doing, just before Spurs scored. That is why we call him The Luck Ender! Spurs look a lot more organised defensively under Frank, but are still a long way off a top 4 team on this showing.

Starmen:
Kudus - the difference it makes when he bothers to try and play for the team, rather than sulk and play for himself like he did all last season. Bullied the Burnley players physically and with his skill.
Richarlison - always a grafter, but usually struggles to score enough and stay fit. Scored two very good goals in this game.

Flops:
Romero - needing rescuing a couple of times after errors.
Walker - he was always just quick, but now he is no longer quick his inability to actually defend is being exposed. Hopeless. And being ragdolled by Johnson, who is not exactly big and strong, is embarrassing, but he was physically bullied by the former Forest winger.
Rest of Burnley defence - Walker was outstandingly bad, but the whole defence was poor and ripped to shreds far too easily.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-4 Manchester City

Once Man City opened the scoring, it was a stroll in the park for them. Wolves look so weak apart from the central midfield pairing. Larsen is a good goalscorer, but he had no support at all. Vitor Pereira looks to have gone into that game with damage limitation in mind, rather than trying to win it, judging by his team choice. If he had two players to choose from for a position, he always chose the more defensive minded player each time. That was only ever going to end one way against a fired up City with something to prove.

Starmen:
Gonzalez - there were a lot of Citeh players that had a good game, but Gonzalez stood out in what was in effect the 'Rodri' role in midfield.
Haaland - scored a couple of goals, which is what he is in the team to do.

Flops:
Sa - the score would have been much closer if Sa had not been in such poor form.
Doherty - looked like he was towing a caravan for 90 minutes.
Agbadou - I think this guy has real quality, but he was poor against City. Was far too ponderous on the ball and cost the team a goal.
Wolfe - he may have the right name, but he does not look like the right player based on this.
Doku - was the one starter from City who did not have a good game.

Sunday 17th August

Chelsea 0-0 Crystal Palace

Glasner has Palace extremely well organised and capable of catching anyone on the break, so not really a surprise result that they were able to go to Chelsea and pick up a point. However, Chelsea were dreadful. They were so slow to move the ball around that they made it easy for Palace to contain them and it is little wonder they struggled to break down the defensive set up. Chelsea have players who can run with pace, but they were getting the ball to them far too slowly to achieve anything with it. Palace, on the other hand, tried to get the ball forward quickly and exploit gaps at the back. Unfortunately, most of the time Mateta had dropped deep to try and contain Caicedo, so they had no out ball. They ended up mostly attacking down the Chelsea left, with Cucurella inverting that left a gap, but Acheampong did well covering the space.

Starmen:
Acheampong - still raw and in need of improvement, but he looked a very capable defender.

Flops:
Enzo - offered nothing to the team.
Palmer - anonymous again. He really struggles to have any impact unless given lots of time and space in a game.
Gittens - was not helped by only getting the ball when there were massed ranks in front of him but he did nothing when he did get it.
Pedro - his excellent form since joining them in the summer evaporated. He did not get much in the way of service though.

Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford

Unfortunately I was watching the Chelsea game and missed this one, which seemed to be much more entertaining. Forest looked to pick up from last season with Woods once more looking sharp. Brentford have relegation battle written all over them.

Starmen:
Woods - I saw some footage of his movement and it really is impressive how well he anticipates possibilities, rather than reacting. That is why he scored so many last season, he did not wait to see where the ball would break, he moved towards where he thought it would end up. He is once again key to Forest's chances.

Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal

While Man Utd fans will be happy with the performance, Arsenal have finally done something they struggled to do in the past - win without playing well. So both sets of fans went home with something to cheer them up. Overall, Man United were the better side in terms of play and chances created, but, just like when Arteta tried to claim a moral victory of being 'the best team in Europe' when they got knocked out last season, you have to score more than the opponent to actually be the winner. Still, it is good signs for the Mancunians, who look to be getting to grips with Amorim's tactics and are unlikely to struggle as badly as they did last season. For the Gunners, the important thing is getting three points and keeping themselves right in the battle at the top. It does look like it is going to take some time for them to adapt to Gyokeres though. On the goal, there is an argument that it could, probably should, have been disallowed for fouls by Saliba, but you also have to say the goalkeeper has to be stronger there. We all know what Arsenal will try and do at set pieces, so there is no excuse for the keeper to not be ready and to deal with it.

Starmen:
de Ligt - I am not a big fan of his, but he had a good game and held the United defence together.
Raya - made some good saves to keep Arsenal in front.
Odegaard - looked like he was back to something approaching his best.

Flops:
Bayindir - he was not a complete clown like Onana, but he was very weak in conceding the goal.
Gyokeres - barely touched the ball, but his hair flick game is world class.

Monday 18th August

Leeds United 1-0 Everton

A well deserved win for Leeds, who bullied Everton into submission physically in the first half and edged the game in the second half. Leeds played the high press, high intensity attacking game that Farke used in the Championship and it worked. They are a big, physical side and Everton were unable to cope with it. The Toffees were not helped by Moyes reverting to his old 1980's bang it up to the centre-forward tactic and hope to pick up the bits and pieces. Beto was just bashed around by the Leeds defence and failed to hold on to anything played up to him, but the quality of the balls he was receiving was extremely low. When Everton did look to get it down and play it about, rather than just hoofing it to him, they looked much better but just lacked any thrust in the final third. Leeds, on the other hand, just constantly overpowered and overran Everton for most of the match. The penalty has garnered a bit of controversy, but in my opinion once he leaned in to block it with his arm, even if he was trying to get his chest to it, then it has to be a penalty. If he is stood up or trying to get out of the way, then I would say it is not a penalty, but his act of moving his arm towards it means it has to be given. Having said that, if the referee on the pitch did not give it, then it would not be overturned. It is one of those decisions that you can make a case for either way. Must be said that Everton will also feel hard done by after Perri let the ball run out a couple of yards over the goalline before clearing it but the linesman was not in position to see it, so never gave the penalty. That was very poor by the linesman to miss that. Overall though, the officials did a very good job, unusually for Chris Kavanagh, who I thought was excellent and allowed the game to flow and players to be physical. Leeds do really need to upgrade their attack, the two widemen have pace but not enough quality, while Piroe in the centre has a bit of quality but a lack of pace. Everton look a mess, with players shoehorned into positions that did not suit them and absolutely nothing on their right going forward. I am not sure Moyes is the right man to take them forward, though he did a brilliant job to steady the ship when they needed it.

Starmen:
Gudmundsson - very impressive debut, defended well (though Everton's right side attack was pretty much non-existent) and got forward as much as possible to support attacks.
Stach - got better and better as the game went on.
Tanaka - he looked a class above in the Championship and stepped into the Premier League with no issues. His energy and closing down are excellent, he was in large part responsible for Everton having to boot it long when they did get the ball.

Flops:
James - works hard but offered little of any real quality to the team play.
Gnonto - tried to create but just is not quite good enough to get past a man at this level.
Harrison - is trying to win the Leeds fans round by putting money behind a local bar for them to have a drink, but then runs out to warm up and starts high fiving and cuddling the Everton players. He followed that up by almost prostrating himself before the Everton bench in worship. Idiot.
Pickford - if he had human arms instead of those from a T. Rex, he saves the pen. His kicking was abysmal all game as well.
O'Brien - he tried but this game really showed up his deficiencies at full-back. He has not got the pace and technical ability to offer much going forward and Leeds were so up for the physical battle that his size was no help either.
Alcarez - ran around a lot but achieved almost nothing.
Iroegbunam - probably lucky not to pick up a couple of yellow cards.
Beto - I know he was up against two men each time the ball was pumped up to him, but he has to do better with it.

Written by Tris Burke August 20 2025 06:40:13