So, the first weekend of the new Premier League season 2008/09 is complete with plenty of smiles, scratching of heads, and the occasional surprise.

The season kicked off at the Emirates Stadium where Arsenal began with an unconvincing 1-0 win over one of the newly promoted team, West Brom. New boy Nasrim scored the opening goal after just four minutes but Arsenal were unable to hit the target again.

Stoke City found themselves on the end of a 3-1 thrashing from Bolton Wanders, which I think is a tell-tale sign of how the rest of their season is going to go.

By contrast, Hull City were involved in one of the biggest shocks of the day, as they were worthy winners against a revitalised Fulham.

As far as I am concerned, the biggest shock of the opening fixtures was Middlesborough beating the new look the Juandes Ramos Tottenham. I am one of those who believe Tottenham will be fighting it out with Arsenal for fourth position, come May. But after yesterday’s poor performance it looks like it could yet be another season of promise and expectancy that fizzles out before the Autumn for Spurs.

Starting the new season as they finished the last, Liverpool were reliant once again on Fernando Torres again to sneak a 1-0 win against a new look Sunderland at the Stadium Of Light.

Three games were played today, Chlesea v Portsmouth, Manchester United v Newcastle, and Aston Villa v Manchester City.

Manchester United were without Carlos Tevez as well as the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, as they began the defence of the Premiership title against Newcastle, who themselves were without strikers Michael Owen and Mark Viduka.

Newcastle stunned the Old Trafford sell-out crowd by taking the lead in the first-half with a stunning header from Obafemi Martens.  Unfortunately for Kevin Keegan, the lead only lasted for 45 seconds before Darren Fletcher slotted home the equaliser.

Manchester United looked a little more threatening on the break as the game became stretched in the second half, but they were definitely missing firepower upfront.  But don’t forget Manchester United started last season with a disappointing draw with Reading before they went on to retain the Premier League & be crowned Champions Of Europe.  With Ronaldo out ofr the next few weeks at least, today’s result will probably speed up the transfer of Dmitar Berbatov.

The last two Chelsea managers have allegedly lost their jobs because owner Roman Abramovich wants Chelsea to play exciting football AND win trophies. Felippe Scholari has manged Brazil and Portugal and said he wants Chelsea to play like Brazil; and in their opening game against Portsmouth, they did just that. The confidence, movement and fluidity, especially of the midfield quartet of Deco, Ballack, Lampard and Joe Cole was beautiful to watch and completely mesmorising for the first 45 minutes as far as Portsmouth were concerned.

Brazilian born, Portugal international Deco was rightly voted Man Of The Match. He was the main driving force in blue and capped his Premier League performance off with a fantastic strike from about 30 yards out to give Chelsea a convincing 4-0 win. A win that was greeted with a smile from Roman Abramovich and puts Chelsea on top of the Premier League.

Joe Cole inherited the number 10 shirt but it looks like Deco may be the obvious replacement for Gianfranco Zola.

In the other game today, Aston Villa beat Manchester City 4-2 with a seven-minute hat-trick from Gabriel Agbonlahor and a good performance from Gareth Barry.

All in all, a great start to what I m hoping will be an exciting new Premier League season.