{"id":1271006,"date":"2023-08-10T15:10:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1271006"},"modified":"2023-08-10T15:30:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:30:56","slug":"premier-league-opening-weekend-shock-results","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/premier-league-opening-weekend-shock-results\/","title":{"rendered":"The most shocking opening-day Premier League results, from “You can’t win anything with kids” to Oxford ‘pocketing’ Ozil"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Premier League’s pre<\/strong>-eminent curtain will be raised in Lancashire on Friday night to mark the start of the 2023\/24 season, with Burnley and Manchester City meeting at Turf Moor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A battle between the Premier League champions and Championship winners, Friday’s game will also pit Vincent Kompany against his former club and manager Pep Guardiola. Of course, Kompany will be pushing all that love to one side this weekend in hopes of an upset and it wouldn’t be out of the question.<\/p>\n

Down the years there have been plenty of astonishing games, giant-killings and freak results on matchday one of the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Hopefully another spectacle will transpire this weekend, and to mark the occasion we’ve revisited some of the most shocking opening games since the competition’s inception in 1992\/93…<\/p>\n

2022\/23: Man Utd 1-2 Brighton<\/h2>\n

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Last season the Erik ten Hag era at Manchester United got off to the worst possible start, in defeat to Brighton. Although Brighton were no minnows going into this game, having beat Man Utd 4-0 towards the end of the 2021\/22 campaign, the Seagulls hadn’t won at Old Trafford in the club’s history. The damage was done in the first half thanks to two goals from Pascal Gro\u00df, with Man Utd pulling a goal back eventually thanks to Alexis Mac Allister’s own goal. But they couldn’t turn things around.<\/p>\n

2021\/22: Brentford 2-0 Arsenal<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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As far as Premier League introductions go, beating one of the division\u2019s most successful and celebrated clubs in your own backyard isn\u2019t a bad way to go about it. Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard got the goals as Brentford went full Rory Delap tribute act and wrought chaos on Bernd Leno’s goal.<\/p>\n

2020\/21: Liverpool 4-3 Leeds<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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This game had everything as both clubs tapped into their fistic subconscious and traded blows in a flurry of leather. Marcelo Bielsa announced himself to the Premier League in typical eyebrow-raising fashion as Liverpool led three times before Leeds pegged them back at Anfield. Mohamed Salah would ultimately net the match-winning goal in the 88th minute — scoring from the spot to claim the match ball — but it set the tone for Bielsa-ball in the top flight, a mix of mesmerising and madcap.<\/span><\/p>\n

2019\/20: Man Utd 4-0 Chelsea<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer\u2019s first full season in the Old Trafford dugout got off to a barnstorming start. The Norwegian marked the opening game of the 2019\/20 campaign with a resounding 4-0 triumph over Chelsea, leaving Frank Lampard to pick over the bones from a debilitating loss in his first game in charge of the Blues. If Solskjaer was hoping to generate some momentum for the rest of the season though, it wouldn’t work, as the Red Devils went on to go winless in their next three games to Wolves, Crystal Palace and Southampton. Consistency has so often eluded them since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down.<\/p>\n

2017\/18: Arsenal 4-3 Leicester<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Another seven-goal thriller, this match veered between spectacular and silly at times. By the fifth minute it was already 1-1, and by the 80th Leicester were leading 3-2, and well on their way to a famous triumph in north London. However, a late flurry would change the complexion of this fixture, with Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud netting at the death to hand Arsene Wenger one final opening-day win before he stepped down at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

2017\/18: Watford 3-3 Liverpool<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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We\u2019re not done just yet with 2017\/18. Mohamed Salah looked to have grabbed the headlines by netting on his Liverpool debut in the 57th minute to give Jurgen Klopp\u2019s men a 3-2 lead. However, the script-makers were feeling particularly mischievous that day, as Miguel Britos bagged in the 93rd minute to spark bedlam at Vicarage Road. Klopp would ultimately spend \u00a370m on Virgil van Dijk that January to ensure there would be no more defensive capitulations.<\/p>\n

2017\/18: Chelsea 2-3 Burnley<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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And another! Has the 2017\/18 season provided the most dramatic opening weekend in the competition\u2019s history? Not too far from north London and Hertfordshire, Sam Vokes was making Stamford Bridge his playground. The Premier League champions found themselves in a world of trouble 14 minutes into this contest as Craig Pawson handed Gary Cahill an early bath. Sean Dyche\u2019s Clarets would capitalise on their numerical superiority, racing into a 3-0 lead by half-time. Antonio Conte obviously gave his charges something close to his own version of the \u2018hairdryer treatment\u2019 at the interval as the Blues battled back to make it 3-2, but another red card picked up by Cesc Fabregas made the complete comeback all but impossible.<\/p>\n

2016\/17: Arsenal 3-4 Liverpool<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Another Emirates thriller, this time with the 4-3 going against Arsenal. Theo Walcott broke the deadlock, but Klopp\u2019s men refused to lie down and feel sorry for themselves, a common theme of the German\u2019s team, battling back to go 4-1 up by the 63rd minute, with Philippe Coutinho grabbing a brace and Sadio Mane adding a coup de grace on his debut. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers scored shortly after to try and inspire a comeback, but the Reds ultimately held firm for three valuable points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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2016\/17: Hull 2-1 Leicester\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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A sign of things to come? Leicester\u2019s against-the-odds title triumph from the previous season appeared to be a thing of the past on matchday one of 2016\/17. Claudio Ranieri\u2019s men lost to newly-promoted Hull in the first game of their title defence, and things went pretty much down hill from there as the Foxes struggled to maintain their script-defying momentum, with “The Tinkerman” running out of ideas and suffering the sack in February.<\/p>\n

2015\/16: Arsenal 0-2 West Ham<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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‘Be careful what you wish for’, West Ham fans were told when the club got rid of the ever-polarising Sam Allardyce and drafted in ‘one-of-their-own’ Slaven Bilic. Many will have you believe that the former defender was an instant hit at the old Upton Park, but in truth his reputation dipped before his side ventured to the Emirates for the first Premier League game of the 2015\/16 season. Three days before that curtain-raising triumph, West Ham relinquished the chance to play European football by putting out a second-string side to Astra Giurgiu and getting eliminated in the qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Bilic, though, was ultimately vindicated for his decision to keep the first-teamers on ice as they beat Arsenal 2-0, with Dimitri Payet getting the first of his many assists that season and 16-year-old Reece Oxford keeping a lid on Mesut Ozil and Co in one of the<\/em> great debuts for an academy graduate in Premier League history.<\/p>\n

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