• Premier League: What They Said

Rodgers rages at officiating after debut demolition

Brendan Rodgers blamed the referee as Liverpool were beaten © Getty Images

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Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers bemoaned some bad luck and poor officiating as he lost his first game in charge 3-0 to West Brom at The Hawthorns, in a game that saw Daniel Agger sent off and two penalties awarded against him. He said: "The sending off and penalties were very, very harsh I felt. Some of the decisions went against us.

"We will have more days like this along the way, that is the reality, but I could not ask many more from the players. They have given me everything. We had some chances but West Brom took full advantage of the extra man.

"There were some good moments today but it was a day when everything went against us really. We just have to move on. We won't win every day. Today was a period of learning for us and we were not happy with some of the decisions, but we have to move on."

Despite a no-doubt satisfying win over his former employers, West Brom boss Steve Clarke was not getting too carried away. He still expects the Reds to be strong this year. Clarke said: "It's a decent start. If we had got a negative result today I would have stood here and said 'Don't read too much into it'. We kept shape and we had a threat going forward which is important when you're playing against a top team - and Liverpool will be one of the top teams this year."

Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw by Sunderland on the opening day, as they seemed to miss Robin van Persie. Arsene Wenger refused to draw too many conclusions, however. He said: "Santi Cazorla played very well, he arrived just a week ago so [the overall poor performance] is not linked with new arrivals. Some players changed position, and some were not completely fit. Playing three strikers didn't work today. We had no space, and the passing was not quick enough so it was difficult for them.

"Maybe we needed one more creative player. It's one game and it's too early to draw definitive conclusions because we faced a specific problem from a team who played very deep."

Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill was happy to escape with a draw: "It was a tough fixture for us. We haven't got all our players in place, and we are hoping to add players shortly. In the sunshine we got very tired and with Arsenal forcing the issue, we are happy to get a point."

Alan Pardew was sent off for pushing an official as Newcastle beat Spurs 2-1 in the day's evening kick-off. He said: "We're overjoyed about the result but I hold my head in shame.

"I was just saying to the players (beforehand) about the great Olympics and how to set an example and there's me pushing the linesman over. It was comical, he just happened to be right in front of me.

"I went in and said I'm sorry (to the referees) and said I would have to apologise publicly too because it was ridiculous."

Andre Villas-Boas was disappointed to lose but admired Demba Ba's goalscoring ability - adding that he hoped to sign a new striker in the next few days. He said: "We'll continue to look at strengthening our squad. We now have to switch our focus onto the coming games, and do what we have to do in our search for one more striker.

"We've been very active in searching for a striking solution, but it hasn't happened for one reason or another. I'm confident we can close it down in the next couple of days."

He added: "We could've done better on closing down Ba, but he's obviously a top goal-scorer and in that split second he made the difference," he said.

"For the penalty, Ben Arfa goes through two players and makes it difficult for the referee, but he gives it.

"I think we did (deserve more), we played very well. We had most of the chances in the first half and continued to push in the second. When we had momentum, we gave the penalty, but I think we deserved to get something extra for the opportunities we created and the possession we had."

After an opening 5-0 win over Norwich, Fulham manager Martin Jol admitted that Clint Dempsey is desperate to leave the club but so far there are no offers on the table. Jol said: "Clint Dempsey wanted to move and we thought there was an option. We all like him. He's our top goalscorer. I told him I almost love him as a son last year. So hopefully for Fulham it's better if he stays here. There's no offer on the table."

On the game, he added: "To have Mladen Petric on the scoresheet with two goals is great. He was scoring one in two [games] at Hamburg and if we can get him playing like that then he can be a good asset for Fulham."

Opposite number Chris Hughton opined: "It was not a good day. We wanted something from the game, either a result or a performance and we didn't get either. The first 25 minutes our ball retention was good but they were two poor goals to concede before half time and that changed things. We had to come out and open up and they hurt us. You can't put in a performance like we did today against a team like Fulham and come away with anything other than defeat."

Swansea boss Michael Laudrup was delighted to get his first taste of the Premier League with an emphatic 5-0 win against QPR. He said: "To start with a victory like that, never mind scoring five goals, but any away game on the first day of the new season against a team which has always caused problems for Swansea, is fantastic."

Mark Hughes, unsurprisingly, was more angry: "It's unacceptable. You can make all the excuses you want but it doesn't wash with me. We chased the game when we didn't have to. We became ragged and made bad decisions. In the end we didn't deserve anything from the game so we have to improve remarkably."

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was delighted to start with a 1-0 win against Aston Villa: "We grew into the game. We started to expose Aston Villa's defence and got the goal with a perfectly good goal with the referee overruling the linesman. It ended up as a good day as we won 1-0 and kept a clean sheet."

Paul Lambert was pragmatic about his side's display in defeat: "We started the game really well but never really created as much as we wanted to. I couldn't fault the effort. We will pick ourselves up and go again. There is a long way to go and we'll see what happens."

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