(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
After three months without a ball being kicked in anger, and no I'm not counting the Confederations Cup as a meaningful competition, the English Premier League roared back into action.
As we've grown a custom to, the early fixture wet our appetites for all that the EPL represents.
Hull came and saw, and threatened for a while before losing to a Chelsea side who just overpowered them in the end. 30-something shots on goal shows Chelsea's dominance over the Tigers.
The most hated figure at Stamford Bridge, Stephen Hunt, came back in the Tiger stripes and tucked away the opening goal in this year's league to give Hull a surprise lead.
The inevitable happened when Chelsea came back to win the game through two fortuitous goals by Didier Drogba.
Hull put in a lot of huff and puff, but they rarely threatened a Chelsea team that controlled the match from start to finish. And although the 2-1 winning margin was tight, the two teams should in all probability be separated by around 18 places come May.
Mark Hughes led out his new look Manchester City side as they took on Sam Allardyce's cavemen at Ewood Park.
The two City goals were almost separated by 90 minutes as Emmanuel Adebayor scored a nice breakaway goal after two minutes before Stephen Ireland continued from where he left off last year by finishing coolly in stoppage time.
This Blackburn team are one of the worst football sides ever to assail the Premiership, and the only thing worse than watching Blackburn in action must be actually playing for them. My heart goes out to any player that has to play under Big Sam.
One thing to look out for is October. All four of Blackburn's games will be televised, including a mouth-watering game with Burnley, so for football purists, you may want to check out La Liga or do some ironing in October.
In truth and as bad as Blackburn were, Manchester City were no great shakes. Carlos Tevez swapped the bench on the red side of Manchester only to find himself on the bench for the blue half as the new season kicked off.
One thing is for sure, if Manchester City keep with the midfield that started the game they will not do much as far as the Champions League is concerned. Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips were both lazy out wide, Adebayor has plenty of room to improve, and Craig Bellamy is a lost cause, while neither Stephen Ireland or Gareth Barry put in a tackle worth remembering.
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