The opening day of the 2014/15 Premier League season did not disappoint. There were some lovely goals, a red card, a missed penalty, and a fairly surprising upset. Not bad at all. Let’s recap all the results from Saturday’s action.
EPL scores: Spurs steal a win late, Everton’s defense melts down in draw against Leicester
The opening day of the new Premier League season featured some surprising results, including a loss by Manchester United at home.
The Louis van Gaal era got off to a rough start as Swansea City earned their first ever league victory at Old Trafford thanks a late winner from Gylfi Sigurðsson. The Swans took the lead in the 28th minute when Ki Sung-Yeung put a well placed shot past David de Gea from the top of the box. United fought back though and new captain Wayne Rooney equalized in the 53rd minute to give United fans hope. In the end though, the home side was undone by a close range goal from Sigurðsson after a scramble on the goal line.
The return of Leicester City to the Premier League went quite well as they took advantage of some absolutely horrific Everton defending to earn a point against the Toffees. Everton looked strong early taking the lead on a stunner from Aiden McGeady, but the Foxes fought right back equalizing minutes later. Everton took the lead right before halftime thanks to Steven Naismith, but Leicester's Chris Wood took advantage of a positional blunder from John Stones to steal a point late.
James Chester and Hill City spoiled QPR's return to the Premier League, handing Harry Redknapp and company a season opening home loss. The loss will sting a little more for QPR after Charlie Austin had a penalty saved in the 85th minute by Allan McGregor that would have allowed them to salvage a point from the match.
Andreas Weimann’s 50th minute goal allowed Aston Villa to happily wag their fingers at everyone who picked them to be relegated this season ... at least for one week. Stoke once again proved that having more possession and generating more shots on goal than your opponent doesn’t equal points.
Alan Irvine's debut as West Brom manager started bad, got much better, and then ended with a bit of a "meh" moment as West Brom conceded late and settled for a 2-2 draw against Sunderland. Lee Cattermole scored a lovely goal just five minutes in to put the Black Cats in front, but the Baggies evened the match before halftime thanks to a Saido Berahino penalty. Berahino appeared to give West Brom a win after he scored in the 74th minute, but Seb Larsson rescued a point for Sunderland with just fives minute left.
West Ham United 0-1 Tottenham
If you just look at the score, a 1-0 win for Spurs over West Ham doesn't seem like a big deal. When you consider that fact that Spurs had to play over an hour with 10-men, it's positively wonderful. Kyle Naughton was shown a red card for handball in the 28th minute, but Mark Noble missed his PK, handing Spurs a lifeline. Just when it looked like a scoreless draw was going to be the result, Spurs new signing Eric Dier snatched a goal three minutes into stoppage time to give Spurs an unlikely victory.
Just when it looked like Crystal Palace would hold on for an opening day draw at the Emirates Stadium, a late red card opened the door for Arsenal to grab a winner in stoppage time. While Arsene Wenger will be pleased with three points, he’ll likely be none to happy with his sides play overall. After losing their manager unexpectedly late in the week, this loss by Palace becomes exponentially crueler.
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