2 **^ Sunday 11 August 2019 The Sunday Telegraph
Sterling picks up
where he left off
but VAR spoils day
Sport Premier League
By Tom Prentki at Vitality Stadium
Billy Sharp had read the script. The
man who once jokingly referred to
himself as “a fat lad from Sheffield”,
came off the bench to score a charac-
teristically instinctive goal to give his
hometown club their first Premier
League point after a 12-year absence.
“You’re thinking, who do you want
floating about in that area? It’s Mr Shef-
field United and I’m delighted for him,”
said manager Chris Wilder, his voice
hoarse with fatigue.
It was only Sharp’s third appearance
in the top flight, having had little
chance at Southampton, and he netted
with his first Premier League shot.
Of his 228 goals to date, this is one he
is likely to remember for some time,
and it led to elation in the away corner,
with the 1,264 United fans having en-
joyed a long day on the south coast.
“They ambushed us on our walk
through Bournemouth in the morning
- all piled out of a boozer at about 11am,
trying to get some spare tickets. I’m de-
lighted for them,” said Wilder.
United scored only eight goals in 19
away fixtures during their last spell in
the top flight and scoring goals could
Blow for Bournemouth after Sharp’s first
elite goal earns Sheffield United late point
By Adam Lanigan at Turf Moor
Ashley Barnes has always thrived on a
reputation as a Premier League pest,
driving defenders to distraction. But
that hides a growing threat in front of
goal and his double eased Burnley to
their biggest opening-day win in the
top flight since 1966.
They added to his tally of 12 league
goals from last season as the 29-year-
old looks more comfortable at this level
with each passing year.
Barnes had been his usual busy self
for 63 minutes, but when Southampton
defender Jannik Vestergaard mis-
judged an up and under from debutant
left-back Erik Pieters, Barnes drilled
his shot unerringly through the legs of
Angus Gunn.
Seven minutes later, he combined
again with Pieters, albeit in a more
deliberate manner as he emphatically
volleyed in the Dutchman’s excellent
cross. Two chances and two goals, and
such was the quality of the finishes, it
was hard to imagine that he had not
scored in any pre-season friendlies.
“He did not look like a striker who
hadn’t scored,” said Burnley manager
Sean Dyche. “His finishes were excel-
lent. Ashley continues to learn about
himself and the game. He is certainly avery effective player. He doesn’t go
under the radar here with what we
think about him. But even if he does,
that won’t bother him. Not much does.”
Johann Berg Gudmundsson curled
in a third after beating Ryan Bertrand
to a bouncing ball as three goals in 12
minutes decided the outcome. The
margin was flattering but reflected the
key difference between the teams.
Saints were neat and tidy if lacking
punch, whereas Dyche’s side were clin-
ical. It could have been so different if
Southampton new boy Che Adams had
converted their best chance inside the
opening two minutes. The striker,brought in for £15 million from Bir-
mingham, saw a volley go inches wide.
“We did OK for 60 minutes, but then
it was not good enough,” said South-
ampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl.
“One long ball and bad timing from the
centre-half and you are suddenly one
down, but the next 12 minutes was not
acceptable.”
Burnley (4-4-2) Pope 7; Lowton 6, Tarkowski 6, Mee 6, Pieters
7; Gudmundsson 7, Westwood 6, Cork 6, McNeil 6 (Lennon
84); Barnes 8 (Rodriguez 84), Wood 6. Subs Hart (g),
Hendrick, Gibson, Bardsley, Long.
Southampton (3-4-3) Gunn 6; Bednarek 6, Stephens 6
(Hojbjerg 73), Vestergaard 5; Valery 6, Ward-Prowse 7, Romeu
6, Bertrand 5; Ings 5 (Obafemi 66), Adams 5 (Boufal 73),
Redmond 6. Subs McCarthy (g), Soares, Yoshida, Djenepo.
Referee Graham Scott (Oxfordshire).well prove to be their biggest hurdle
once more.
They began with David McGoldrick
and Callum Robinson in attack and Mc-
Goldrick almost scored within a min-
ute from John Lundstram’s excellent
pass but was foiled by a smart reaction
save from Bournemouth’s debutant
goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
Bournemouth had more possession
and territorial advantage for long peri-
ods but struggled to create clear
chances despite their dynamic front
three of Ryan Fraser, Callum Wilson
and Joshua King.
“I’m really frustrated because we
didn’t play at our best today but we had
the lead,” offered Eddie Howe by wayof assessment. “Small details cost us.
They have a style and a way of playing
and it’s not easy to stop.”
Characteristic of that style in last sea-
son’s promotion-winning season was
the mobility of Wilder’s three central
defenders and there was some sign of
that continuing with the step up.
Jack O’Connell drifted to the left
touchline on one occasion to set up a
chance for debutant Callum Robinson
to shoot.
Chris Mepham missed an opportu-
nity for Bournemouth at the end of the
first half as he badly miscued his shot
from close range.
Wilder’s side showed a little more at-
tacking intent at the start of the secondhalf with McGoldrick hitting a half-vol-
ley narrowly wide and Lundstram
crossing low for Robinson who was un-
able to apply the crucial touch.
The game then ebbed back towards
Bournemouth and new signing Philip
Billing thundered in a shot from the
area which was brilliantly tipped round
the post by Dean Henderson.
The Cherries scored minutes later,
the scrappiest of goals with Mepham
atoning for his earlier miss by lashing
the ball over the line after Henderson
had made an excellent point-blank save
from Callum Wilson following Ryan
Fraser’s free-kick.
Enter Sharp. As he has been so often,
the 33-year-old was in the right place at
the right time to poke the ball across
the line via Mepham, after George Bal-
dock’s low cross had first been struck
by Ollie McBurnie.
“I won’t be greedy, I think it was the
right result,” said Wilder, asked if his
side deserved to have won. “We grew
into the game. There’s always going to
be apprehension in our play.
“None of our boys have played at this
level. When the bullets start flying on
the first day, we just have to get on with
it. I’m not surprised the way the team
came roaring back.”
Bournemouth (3-4-2-1) Ramsdale 7; Cook 6, Mepham 7, Ake
7; Smith 6, Billing 6, Lerma 7, Rico 6; King 6, Fraser 7;
C Wilson 6 (Solanke 90). Subs Boruc (g), Surman, Ibe, Daniels,
H Wilson, Simpson. Booked Smith, Fraser.
Sheffield United (3-5-2) Henderson 7; Basham 6 (Sharp 82),
Egan 6, O Connell 7; Baldock 6, Lundstram 7 (Freeman 78),
Norwood 6, Fleck 6, Stevens 7; Robinson 6, McGoldrick 7
(McBurnie 63). Subs Moore (g), Jagielka, Osborn, Besic.
Referee Kevin Friend (Leicestershire).This is the brave new world of VAR, the
era of the video assistant referee who
chops and re-edits a game from afar
like a film director who wants to choose
a new plot, and while it may suit a tele-
vision audience, for those in the sta-
dium something in the soul of the game
is lost.
“VAR is f------ s---“ sang the support-
ers of West Ham, or it might have been
Manchester City. The home team were
on the wrong side of a decision by VAR
David Coote that ruled substitute Ser-
gio Aguero had to retake – for en-
croachment – a penalty that was
initially saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
Before that, Raheem Sterling was
judged offside by an armpit for his as-
sist to Gabriel Jesus for what would
have been the game’s third goal. The
decision was so close the Hawk-Eye
lines could hardly be divided.
Sterling’s shoulder was presumably
the legitimate scoring part of his body
that was offside, although it was far
from clear. In Stockley Park, west Lon-
don, where the VARs are based, it must
have been pored over numerous times
and eventually given. Leaving the only
question: was it all worth it?
For those watching on television
who insist on millimetre decisions and
a hundred different replays, it may well
be the latest television innovation to
hook a new audience. For the tradi-
tional match-going fan, it still feels
wrong. There was no stadium-screen
explanation as to why Aguero’s penalty
had to be retaken – it was for encroach-
ment by Declan Rice – and when the
City players saw the fractional offside
decision freeze-frame they argued
with referee Mike Dean nonetheless.
Sterling scored a hat-trick, enduring
another VAR check for his beautifully
taken second goal. The Englishman
picked up where he left off last season,
and so, too, City, who demolished a
new-look West Ham with the usual
overloading of players in key areas and
clinical finishing. Manuel Pellegrini ar-
gued that his team had not been over-
run in the first half but even he was a
little embarrassed by the margin of de-
feat. The summer investment might
turn out to have improved West Ham
but City still play a very different game.
Guardiola described his team as
“sloppy” in the first half, summoning a
little confected outrage that a manager
who demands such high standards –
and usually gets them – has to deploy at
times. “The first half we were sloppy in
our passes,” he said. “[We needed] our
basics to be precise and be crisp, but
our passes were not good. But that’s
normal. I knew it [might happen]. We
talked about that. First game, away,
12.30pm, hot, [we struggled] to still
have the rhythm. It was not there, but
that’s normal for the first game.”
He selected a team with Bernardo
Walker’s pace on the overlap for the
first goal and then a clearance by Issa
Diop onto Jesus’ boot. Fabian Balbuena
was easily beaten by De Bruyne in cre-
ating Sterling’s second.
Sterling finished beautifully with a
lob for the third goal. The twice-taken
penalty was another Diop mistake, a
foul on Riyad Mahrez. The fifth goal
and the hat-trick goal for Sterling an-
other moment when there should have
been a challenge offered.
Guardiola joked that he liked VAR
for the retaken penalty, less so for the
offside. As for how it killed the atmos-
phere, he said he had already been
through that. “Listen, after what hap-
pened against Tottenham in the
[Champions League] quarter-finals –
where we have scored in the 95th min-
ute and we were there, all the 60,000
in joy, dancing, jumping and one sec-
ond later, we lost because it was offside- now I’m used to live these situations.
It will never be comparable with what
we lived together last season.”
He said his only hope was that there
would be no mistakes in the applica-
tion of VAR this season. Pellegrini
warned if VAR was to be used at such a
granular level there would be calls for
it to be applied at corners too. “If you
use it for every corner then you can
probably find four or five penalties, in
both boxes easily,” he said. “The referee
thinks that Declan Rice has intervened
to clear the ball, that’s his decision, so
we can’t really talk about it.”
Either way, this is the future. There
was no mistaking the response of play-
ers and fans – it felt petty and unneces-
sary however much they might have
been justified by tiny margins.
Perhaps we will get used to it over
time but it seemed as if it was being
done for a far-off audience, watching
on television around the world, rather
than those present in the experience.
West Ham (4-4-1-1) Fabianski 6; Fredericks 5, Balbuena 4,
Diop 4, Cresswell 4; Anderson 5 (Hernandez 66), Wilshere 5
(Snodgrass 56), Rice 6, Antonio 5 (Fornals h-t); Lanzini 6;
Haller 5. Subs Roberto (g), Zabaleta, Sanchez, Ogbonna.
Manchester City (4-2-1-3) Ederson 7; Walker 7, Stones 6,
Laporte 6, Zinchenko 6; De Bruyne 8 (Gundogan 79) Rodrigo 7;
D Silva 6 (Foden 79); Mahrez 6, Jesus 6 (Aguero 69),
Sterling 8. Subs Bravo (g), B Silva, Cancelo, Otamendi.
Referee Mike Dean (Cheshire).
Silva and Aguero on the bench. Kevin
De Bruyne looked close to his best
again. Rodrigo had a solid debut in the
Premier League. The champions have
not needed much of a tweaking this
summer to look as hungry and as for-
midable as last season. This was a West
Ham team that will surely play better
but at times they looked remarkably
vulnerable when City outnumbered
them in key areas of the pitch or broke
forward with quick passing moves.
Pellegrini played the club’s record
signing Sebastien Haller alone in attack
with Manuel Lanzini just behind him
and it was, all told, a quiet start for the
Frenchman. Of West Ham’s five-man
midfield, only two finished the game,
each of Michail Antonio, Jack Wilshere,
and Felipe Anderson substituted as
Pellegrini tried to make changes. There
was one hint of frustration at his for-
mer club whom the Chilean accused of
specialising in tactical fouls drawing
attention to a foul count of 13 for the
visitors to five for the home team.
“Every time that we tried to arrive to
their box, they committed 13 fouls,”
Pellegrini said. “We were a little bit in-
nocent.” There were mistakes too:
Aaron Cresswell caught out by KyleTable
P W D L F A PTS
Manchester City 1 1 0 0 5 0 3
Liverpool 1 1 0 0 4 1 3
Brighton 1 1 0 0 3 0 3
Burnley 1 1 0 0 3 0 3
Tottenham Hotspur 1 1 0 0 3 1 3
Bournemouth 1 0 1 0 1 1 1
Sheffield Utd 1 0 1 0 1 1 1
Crystal Palace 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
Everton 1 0 1 0 0 0 1
Arsenal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chelsea 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Leicester City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Manchester Utd 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Newcastle Utd 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Wolverhampton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Aston Villa 1 0 0 1 1 3 0
Norwich City 1 0 0 1 1 4 0
Southampton 1 0 0 1 0 3 0
Watford 1 0 0 1 0 3 0
West Ham Utd 1 0 0 1 0 5 0Barnes at the double to give
Burnley best start since 1966
Man of steel: Sheffield United substitute Billy Sharp celebrates scoring a late equaliserOff the mark: Ashley
Barnes scored twice
against Southampton
after a barren pre-
season for BurnleySam Wallace
CHIEF FOOTBALL
WRITER
at the London Stadium
West Ham United
0
Manchester City
Jesus 25, Serling 51, 75, 90, Aguero 86 pen^5
Att: 59,870
Spot the difference When is a goal not a goal?
Manchester City
had a Gabriel
Jesus goal ruled
out after David
Coote, the video
assistant referee,
adjudged Raheem
Sterling’s
shoulder offside
in the build-up. It
would have been
the third goal of
the game.With Hawk-Eye
rules used to
establish his
position, Sterling
then survived a
VAR referral,
allowing his
second goal to
stand. Some fans
struggled to find
a difference in the
incidents.75 mins
3-0
Sterling lofts the ball
over West Ham keeper
Fabianski after a dink
from Riyad MahrezSterling’s
stunning
start
51 mins
2-0
Raheem Sterling
sends a low shot past
Lukasz Fabianski after
Kevin De Bruyne put
him throughBournemouth
Mepham 62^1
Sheffield United
Sharp 88^1
Att: 10,714
Burnley
Barnes 63, 70, Gudmundsson 75^3Southampton
0Att: 19,784РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS