Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Swansea City in Their First Weekend

Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Swansea City all played their first games of the season this weekend as the newest members of  the Barclays Premier League.

Queens Park Rangers completed an excellent previous season in the npower Championship, clinching the title with 24 victories and 88 points. They were four points clear of Norwich City, who also earned automatic promotion for their second-place finish behind the Hoops.

Swansea City would finish third and earn promotion three weeks later in a 4-2 Wembley victory over Reading in the playoff final.

One of the original founders of the Premier League, QPR is back after 15 years out of the premiership.

Norwich was last in the top table in 2006 for a one-year stay.

Swansea became the first Welsh side to compete in the 19-year history of the Barclays Premier League and got their first taste of top-flight action since 1983.

All three clubs would enjoy the financial windfall that comes with promotion to the Premier League and would enter the summer looking to improve their teams for the upcoming season.

QPR would sign forwards Jay Bothroyd and D.J. Campbell, both of whom were facing play in the Championship with Cardiff City and Blackpool respectively.

Manager Neil Warnock also signed injury-riddled Kieran Dyer from West Ham, bringing in another player with Premier League quality.

While QPR did bring a few fresh faces in, the only player that cost them cash in terms of a transfer fee was the aforementioned Campbell.

£1.25 million was the price for Campbell, who enjoyed a productive Premier League campaign last season, bagging 13 goals for the Seasiders.

Norwich city made a small splash in the summer window, with their two most prevalent signings being forwards James Vaughan from Everton and Steve Morison from Millwall.

Morison is untested at the top level, and Vaughan had played a few season but just a handful of games for the Toffees.  

Swansea arguably did the least of the three newcomers, as they brought in goalkeepers Michel Vorm and Jose Moreira as well as midfielder Routledge from Newcastle United.

None of the clubs made any shocking signings with their new-found bankroll, but all of them saved money while bringing in useful players to aid their causes.

While most of the pundits had at least two of the incoming squads listed as their relegation favorite—Wigan being mentioned for the drop among most—there was no clear-cut option over who is superior among last season’s second-tier competitors.

Given their appearance last season, QPR would seem most able to handle Premier League-quality teams.

With the incoming strikers, experienced goalkeeper Paddy Kenny and last season’s npower Championship Player of the Year Adel Taarabt in the mix, the only fear for Neil Warnock could be his back line, which was thought to be a bit weak by most.

The R’s opened their season against Premier League stalwart Bolton Wanderers, and Owen Coyle’s gang did not disappoint at Loftus Road.

A 0-4 score line was delivered at the end of the match, seemingly confirming QPR’s weaknesses.  

Norwich traveled cross-country to the DW Stadium to face Wigan Athletic.

Perhaps this is the game that would give us a hint as to how the new boys would fare against competition for this level, with Wigan being tipped to be at the bottom of the table at the end of the season.

The Latics would jump out to a quick lead on a 21st-minute Ben Watson penalty.

At the halfway mark, however, Wes Hoolahan would convert a mistake by Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi. The score would stay level at 1-1 as the Canaries bagged their first top-flight point in five years.

The Swans would have to wait until Monday evening to face heavy-spending Manchester City on the road.

The constant flow of cash at Eastlands the past few years had yet to yield results until last year, when City finished third to gain an automatic spot into the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

A daunting matchup awaited Swansea as they traveled north.

Manchester City would validate their summer spending binge by thrashing the Swans 4-0, with two goals coming from this summer's prized transfer, Sergio Aguero.

While all three managers search for positives in this collective 9- thumping, the evidence is in that number. These teams simply do not look ready to compete against most of the teams in the Premier League.

It was just a season ago that Blackpool came out in the first week against Wigan and hung a four-goal victory on them.

The Tangerines would eventually be relegated on the final day of the season, but their model might be the best to emulate, given some of the victories they enjoyed over the course of season—a double over Liverpool being the most memorable.

Swansea utilizes a free-flowing style, and their 4-2 triumph over Reading in the playoff final a few months ago emphasizes that.

Norwich also likes to attack, but their most intriguing stat from 2010-11 was the sheer number of injury-time equalizers and winners they produced (eight), including one over Portsmouth to secure promotion to the Premier League.

One of the reasons Blackpool was extremely competitive in most games was Charlie Adam. Adam was a finalist for EPL Player of the Year voting and earned a lucrative offseason transfer to Liverpool with his exceptional play last season.

Manager Ian Holloway deserves a lot of credit for the success at Blackpool as well.

Charlie Adam collected 28 goals for his team the previous two seasons—a stat that speaks for itself.

The only player on all three teams that could be compared to Adam is Adel Taarabt.

Taarabt had a great season for the Hoops last year, scoring 19 goals. He showed that he can take over games and single-handedly win them for his squad.

However, we will need to wait and see if that will hold true for the Moroccan in the Premier League. 

Another factor that might doom the promoted three is the possibility that there is no equivalent to West Ham this time around.

West Ham collected an abysmal 33 points last season, as their manager Avram Grant was fired within feet of the stadium pitch immediately after their relegation-clinching contest. 

Wigan seems to be this year’s popular pick for the Championship. However, manager Roberto Martinez did a masterful job to keep the Latics afloat last spring, and this year looks to be no different.

While there are still 37 games to go for everybody mentioned, this week showed that there is still a bit of work to do for a few teams in the Premier League.

For QPR, Norwich and Swansea to retain their top-flight status, it is clear that improvements must be made.