Arsenal
and Liverpool got their Premiership campaigns off to
winning ways with victories over Birmingham and Aston
Villa respectively.
A
Thierry Henry free kick and a wonderful individual
goal from Sylvain Wiltord gave champions Arsenal a
2-0 victory over the newly promoted Blues, who had
new signing Aliou Cisse harshly sent off for two bookable
offences.
Henry opened the scoring as early as the ninth minute
when his tame free kick was pushed into his own goal
by Nico Vaesen.
The Frenchman was involved again as a quick Arsenal
breakaway resulted in Wiltord picking up the ball
just inside Birmingham's half. Wiltord carried the
ball to the edge of the penalty area before cutting
inside two defenders and curling an unstoppable effort
past Vaesen for 2-0.
Arsenal could, and should, have won more convincingly.
Vaesen made good saves at close range from Parlour
and Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell had a header cleared
off the goal line and Darren Purse made four incredible
blocks to deny Wiltord, substitute Gilberto, Parlour
and Toure.
Edu and Henry also missed the target with headed efforts
as the Gunners started the defence of their title
in style.
One of the main challengers for their Premiership
crown, Liverpool, also got off to a winning start
as John Arne Riise's strike sealed the points with
a 1-0 win at Villa Park.
The Reds were the better side throughout and Michael
Owen and El Hadji Diouf were guilty of missing glorious
opportunities to break the deadlock before Riise's
intervention on 48 minutes.
Danny Murphy burst through the midfield with a purposeful
run before passing to the Norwegian, who took full
advantage of a Mark Delaney slip to drill the ball
between the impressive Peter Enckelman and the near
post.
Villa had few chances but Steve Staunton hit the bar
and the post in a first-half goal-mouth scramble and
substitute Marcus Allback wasted a good opportunity
to equalise when his volley flew harmlessly wide.
Liverpool had further chances and Owen uncharacteristically
had a penalty saved after Steven Gerrard had been
tripped by Gareth Barry before Enckelman also saved
from Gerrard in the dying stages.
