UNITED HELD AS RIVALS DRAW FIRST BLOOD
Premiership and European Champions Manchester United once again struggled on Opening Day after been held 1-1 at home by a gutsy Newcastle. Despite a good start by the home side, it was the Geordies who drew first blood with an Obafemi Martins header after 24 minutes. United took just a minute to get back into the game with Darren Fletcher turning in a Ryan Giggs centre at the near post. But the Reds never really kicked on and their lack of firepower was evident with the only options available on the bench been Brazilian youngsters Possebon and Rafeal.
Whilst United were struggling the other member s of the 'Big Four' were having a good opening weekend. Not least Chelsea, who battered Portsmouth 4-0 at the Bridge thanks to goals from Joe Cole, Anelka, Lampard and new signing Deco, who despite having a fantastic debut, was lucky to be on the pitch after a horror tackle in the first 5 minutes on Diarra. New coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said, "Portsmouth didn't think we would play like we did and we were more aggressive than last season. I think they were surprised by our team"
Arsenal and Liverpool meanwhile both scored 1-0 wins over West Brom and Sunderland. The Gunners new signing Sami Nasri scored an early debut goal, whist the red half of Merseyside celebrated a late Fernando Torres strike at the Stadium of Light.
Elsewhere there was a fairytale win for newly promoted Hull over Fulham, with Caleb Folan grabbing the winner for the Humberside outfit, another disappointing start for Tottenham as they lost 2-1 against Middlesbrough with Bulgarian striker Berbatov sulking on the bench and big wins for Aston Villa, Blackburn, West Ham and Bolton.
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