EPL Round-up - September 1: Liverpool crawl past United, Swansea win, Arsenal victorious against Spurs

Daniel Sturridge celebrates his goal

In what turned out to be a match fraught with tension, Liverpool managed to hold on to a slender one goal lead and draw first blood in this season’s rivalry with Manchester United.

Sturridge gave the Scousers a very early lead, as early as the 4th minute, after he latched on to Agger’s header from Gerrard’s corner, nodding it into the net. From then on, it was all hands on the pump for Liverpool as United came after them with wave after wave of attack.

But all their attacking moves came to nothing as the Liverpool defence held tight to deny any clear goal scoring opportunities.Young, in particular, had a very poor game as time after time he was responsible for United losing possession, after some good moves down the flank. Liverpool had a few chances of their own, but Sturridge was a bit selfish taking the chances while Coutinho and Aspas couldn’t do much with the service they got.

There was a minor fracas near the end of half time as Robin van Persie got into an argument and a pushing match with a couple of Liverpool players. The second half proved to be even worse for United as they once again could not get past the Liverpool defence. But at least they could concentrate on one end of the pitch as Liverpool hardly came forward, in an obvious tactic of wanting to protect the one goal lead instead of looking to put some daylight in the score line.

Moyes tried a few changes as he brought on Nani for Young and Chicharito for Giggs in a bid to put more focus on the front line. It came to nought as neither could do much in the short time they were on the pitch, with Nani trying a long range effort, which Mignolet making the save.

In the other game, West Brom lost to Swansea at home as Swansea scored two goals at either end of the match, with Pablo Hernandez and Ben Davies scoring the goals. There was a flurry of yellow cards as both sides suffered from disciplinary issues.

In the final game of the weekend, Arsenal came out winners in the North London Derby, with Giroud once again on the score sheet for the Gunners.

Giroud was once again at the end of a wonderful move from Arsenal, after Rosicky passed wide to Walcott, who squared it to Giroud. With a neat little flick from the outside of his left boot, he put the ball past Hugo Lloris, who had an otherwise fantastic game. There were a lot of chances created by Arsenal in the first 60 minutes, which were more and less thwarted by Lloris.

But after the 60 minute mark, it seemed as if Arsenal had decided that they would rather defend and get the 3 points. That gave Spurs more chances, and a couple of good saves and bad finishing from Walker ensured that Arsenal secured the 3 points.