EPL: Day 2, Part 1
Posted by Pierre Igot in: FootballAugust 23rd, 2003 • 10:50 pm
This second day of the English Premier League season was entertaining, although not for the expected reasons… Frédéric Kanouté’s goal for Tottenham against Leeds was simply magnificent, and will probably be one of the goals of the season. Strange player he is to look at: tall and lanky, never seems to be actually running. Quite elegant. He’s been injury-prone in the last couple of years. Let’s hope that he can have a good season at Tottenham, who weren’t as bad as some people suggested before this game. Then again, Leeds weren’t too bad last week, and were pretty dismal today. They simply seemed unable to create anything, and their goal was rather fortunate. (The goal keeper didn’t see the ball until it was too late.)
It’s always pleasant to see French players do well in the EPL. It looks like Kanouté could be another success story. I wonder if he’ll ever get a chance in the French national team.
We didn’t get to see the Newcastle vs. Manchester United game here in Canada — but I heard that “Sir” Alex Ferguson was sent off. Serves him right. What kind of example does he think he’s setting? Unfortunately, his team managed to win again… Oh well.
The Chelsea vs. Leicester game was a bit of a surprise. Instead of seeing Leicester get thumped by the “All Stars” team bought by Roman Abramovich’s fortune, we saw a rather tentative Chelsea side who only won thanks to an own goal by Leicester. It was quite funny to watch Veron commit all kinds of blunders (I have yet to see a game that demonstrates why this player is worth so much money — and I’ve had to watch way more Man U games than I would like), and the letters of the Leicester players’ names on their jerseys peeling off one after the other.
Nobody in both the Chelsea and the Leicester teams can have any complaints about the red cards, which were fully deserved. My issue is: Why is this kind of refereeing the exception rather than the norm?