London sides off to Capital Flyer with three wins on opening Saturday
By Steve Clare
There are seven London sides in the EPL this season and wise heads say that three will be at the top end and the other four struggling to beat the drop. If opening Saturday is any guide, and it probably isn’t, London is set for a banner year.
Two of the sides headed to the north and came back with away wins while Watford hosted Brighton and Hove Albion from the south coast.
Tottenham Hostpur had acquired the somewhat unwanted record for being the only EPL club to ever add no players in an off season. Having read the newspaper articles, manager Mauricio Pochettino will have a broad grin this evening after his side returned from Newcastle, their longest away trip on Day 1 with all three points.
All three goals came in the first 18 minutes with players who had appeared in Russia among the most prominent in their creation. In the 8th minute, Denmark’s Christian Eriksen found Colombian Davinson Sanchez whose touch was headed home -just- by Belgium’s Jan Vertonghen.
France’s Hugo Lloris fared less well shortly after though.
Matt Ritchie’s cross found Joselu who secured the equaliser. However Serge Aurier, who had been prominent in the ICC pre-season friendlies in California, supplied the necessary for Dele Alli to score the 18th minute winner.
Christian Eriksen created Tottenham’s opener
Photo: Ali Gilmore/Prost Amerika
Chelsea also returned from the north east with a win in a three goal game. N’golo Kante opened the scoring with a mishit on 34 at Huddersfield in West Yorkshire after an opening period where the Terriers had been the better side up to that point.
However, David Wagner’s side were totally deflated just before half time. German defender Christopher Schindler fouled Marcos Alonso and Jorginho stroked home the resulting penalty for a 2-0 half time lead that was very harsh on the Yorkshiremen.
Eden Hazard set up Pedro for a third in a second half where Chelsea at least began to cruise and 3-0 was a final score that slightly but not overwhelmingly flattered Maurizio Sarri’s team.
Meanwhile, at the salubrious end of the Metropolitan Line, Watford were hosting Sussex club Brighton. Robert Pereyra was the two goal hero for the Hornets who started with Ben Foster in goal. Jose Holebas’ corner in the 35th minute provided the opportunity for a great volleyed opener. Eight minutes after the break, he was allowed to curiously wander deeper and deeper into the area before he cured Watford’s second into the net past an unprotected Mathew Ryan.
Two other London sides were in action against each other at Craven Cottage where newly promoted Fulham met Crystal Palace. Usually counted as a West London club, Fulham’s ground is actually further south than Millwall’s New Den and Charlton’s Valley homes and has a South West post code, so technically this is a South London derby.
Jeff Schlupp and Wilfried Zaha scored the two goals that gave Palace the win. Fulham dominated the early proceedings and Schlupp’s 41st minute opener was against the run of play. Zaha added a stylish second in 79 to give Palace a dream start.
Fulham had a good claim for a penalty when Mamadou Sakho pulled down André Schürrle but it wasn’t awarded.
Arsenal and West Ham play tomorrow and seek to put the icing on the cake for London. Their opponents? Manchester City and Liverpool.
Piece of whatever the opposite of cake is!
