Liverpool can still win title after opening day defeat

AMONGST all the hype and knee-jerk reactions that surrounds the opening weekend of the Premier League season, it’s important not to get too carried away by early results.

In the previous two seasons Manchester United have drawn with teams who ended up relegated – Reading and Newcastle – at Old Trafford in their first game before going on to win the league on both occasions. In fact in the 2007/08 season, they only picked up two points from their opening three games before racking up an impressive 87 from 38 games.

So Liverpool shouldn’t be too concerned that they lost their opener to a good Tottenham side. White Hart Lane will be a tricky place to go for any Premiership team this season, while their main title rivals, Chelsea and Man United, hardly set the world alight with one-goal victories over sides who are likely to be fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the table come May.

However, there are two key areas that need to be addressed if Liverpool are going to end their 20-year wait to win the league. Their first worry is the amount of goals they have conceded from set pieces over recent years, Sebastien Bassong’s headed winner being the latest. Surely it is time for the zonal marking system to be given the boot. Secondly, looking at their bench against Tottenham hardly inspires you with much confidence. While Liverpool’s first 11 looks strong, the depth is simply not there and two or three signings before the transfer window, with the priority being a striker, must surely be on Rafa Benitez’s mind if there is any more cash to splash.

Elsewhere, Roberto Martinez made a great start to life as a Premier League manager as his Wigan side recorded an impressive 2-0 victory at Aston Villa but weren’t we saying the same thing 12 months ago when Paul Ince’s Blackburn won 3-2 at Everton on the first day and look what happened there. Both are young and talented managers, I just hope Martinez gets more time than Ince did.

Like Ince at Blackburn, Martinez is trying to mould a side to play attractive, free-flowing football, rather than the more physical and in your face sort of approach that those particular northern sides have become renowned for. While Wigan looked very good on Saturday, they are unlikely to come up against a side as out-of-sorts as Villa were once the Premiership is in full swing and the challenge will be whether they can maintain the high standards they have now set themselves.