• Premier League

An early ref complaint and an act of violence

Luis Suarez missed his penalty, but Kieran Richardson shouldn't have been there to witness it © Getty Images

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Prem round-up: Liverpool frustrated

Ref justice
The season of goodwill lasted all of six minutes towards referees at Anfield, and really there is nothing to defend man-in-black Phil Dowd. Luis Suarez, clean through, set about rounding Sunderland keeper Simon Mignolet, only to find his legs swiped by Kieran Richardson. It was a clear goalscoring opportunity, and therefore a red card, but Dowd opted for yellow. Suarez missed the resulting spot-kick and Liverpool drew, just to add insult to injury.

Expensive subs
One can only imagine the reaction of the Sunderland board as they took to their plastic red seats at Anfield on the opening day of the season. No doubt feeling smug over their catalogue of successes during the summer transfer window, the men in suits must have been really looking forward to seeing new acquisitions like £8 million Connor Wickham and Craig Gardner in action. But when the team announcements arrived, head-scratching was the order of the day as the tannoy address system announced: "Lining up on Sunderland's bench: Keiren Westwood, Craig Gardner, Connor Wickham, David Vaughan, Dong-Won Ji..." In other words, Bruce opted to go with all the guys he had last season.

Welcome to the Premier League
If you thought that retweeting famous philosophers helped Joey Barton mellow out during the summer, then you would have been utterly mistaken. Pre-emptively striking against accusations he had gone soft, Barton took the opportunity to give new Arsenal player Gervinho a 'welcome to England gift'.

Outraged at the Ivory Coast international's terrible attempt at a dive, the Englishman hoisted him up by his collar and gave him an angry talking to. Gervinho, probably away of Barton's track record, decided his only option was to slap the maniac ... a move that only ended up in him being sent off by referee Peter Walton.

Goal of the day
There can be no arguing that Sunderland deserved something out of their match at Anfield, and certainly no disputing that Seb Larsson's equaliser was worthy of a point. Finding himself on the left side of the Liverpool area, 10 yards out, he met a deep searching cross with an acrobatic scissors kick that flew past Pepe Reina before John Flanagan even had chance to realise he had lost his man. "A wonder goal" said Bruce.

Clint Hill needed just one game to earn a red card in the Premier League © PA Photos

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Money in the bank
We most definitely do not want to seem insensitive to Kieron Dyer, who genuinely looked like he suffered a serious injury during QPR's home clash with Bolton. But we can't help wondering how the financial situation works out in a scenario such as this. Dyer operates on a pay-as-you-play basis, but he lasted only five minutes of his QPR debut. Does that count as an appearance?

An up-Hill climb
Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for QPR as they lost 4-0 to Bolton. Out of the new signings, Dyer got stretchered off, Jay Bothroyd missed a sitter, and Danny Gabbidon scored an own goal. Co-owner Flavio Briatore got booed as he left before the end, with the score at 4-0, but he did at least miss Clint Hill's mandatory piece of violence. By Hill's standards it was nothing serious, but his pushing of the head into Martin Petrov's chest was enough to earn a red card. If only Dowd had been the ref...

The times they aren't a-changing
Newcastle United midfielder Cheik Tiote was the most booked player in the Premier League last season. If you had '66 minutes' in the office sweepstake for how long he would take to get off that particular mark in the new campaign, then you, sir, are a winner!

Up and downs
Spare a thought for Paul Robinson when you watch Match of the Day this evening. Having braved his way through a cheesy Venky's ad during the summer, he appeared to have saved his team-mates' necks when he denied Kevin Doyle from the penalty spot. Ewood Park celebrated, Robinson waited for the chance to absorb the adulation, but before he knew it Wolves had got the ball to Stephen Ward, who slammed the ball in to render Robinson's work an inconvenience at best.

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