Premier League is back
Snodgrass sends Foxes crashing to shock defeat
CHAMPS STUNNED: Hull’s Robert Snodgrass celebrates after his goal beat Leicester 2-1
THE Premier League returned with a bang — and an upset — as champions Leicester were downed in the season’s first match by two goals scored by three players from Hull, a club supposedly in crisis.
The hosts’ opener was initially credited to Abel Hernandez, although the ball was simultaneously attacked during dual backward flips by Hernandez and team-mate Adama Diomande.
Replays could not definitively settle the issue and even Hull’s caretaker manager Mike Phelan said he was unsure which player would claim it.
‘Both strikers touched it at the same time I think,’ he said. ‘It was quite unique.’
The Foxes levelled just after half-time when Riyhad Mahrez converted a penalty awarded for a foul outside the area.
However, Robert Snodgrass lashed the winner from 18 yards just before the hour mark.
‘I was sure Hull would be a difficult match for us,’ said Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri, who had insisted before the game there was more chance of a visit from E.T. than his team retaining their title.
In fact, they became the first English champions since Arsenal in 1989 to begin the defence of their crown with a defeat in their opening game.
‘We created chances but conceded a goal from a corner. They were smarter than us,’ said Ranieri. ‘After this we got nervous. Hull played counter-attack. We made a big effort but as individuals, not a team.
‘Our strength is to play as a team. Today [we made] a big effort but not as a team.’
Ranieri seems genuine in his playing down any talk of repeating last season’s 5000-1 title miracle and so he might. ‘We will lose a little more than last season,’ he said. ‘That’s normal.’
Phelan has had to stabilise a club rocked by uncertainty since their promotion via the play-offs, almost wholly down to the fact the owner Assem Allam and his son Ehab want to sell and so will not invest.
As a consequence, Steve Bruce resigned as manager less than a month before the new campaign.
Hull have a squad so thin — 13 fit senior players — that midfielder Jake Livermore was playing at centre-half and teenagers as young as 17 were on the bench. ‘I’m relieved, thrilled, all the emotions,’ Phelan said. ‘It’s been difficult for everybody concerned. The players had to galvanise themselves against the champions and their reward was richly deserved.’
His 11 starters all played 90 minutes but he said he let them do that because of the spirit they had showed. ‘There is a risk of fading away in those last 15 minutes. But these players have kept together through this and worked hard.’
Phelan said Bruce had been in touch regularly, and had ‘been great’ and ‘given encouragement’. The caretaker expects to meet the owners this week to find out what happens next but has no idea if he is a candidate for the job, or who will even own the club in the near future. Phelan also maintains he has no knowledge of any proposed takeover. The stadium had been daubed with graffiti overnight reading ‘Allams Out’ and supporters protested before and after the game. Leicester’s supporters, meanwhile, strolled merrily in the pre-match August sunshine singing: ‘We are staying up.’ By the time they had taken up their places inside, this had become: ‘Champions of England, we know what we are.’ That chant wasn’t being sung too loudly by the end.
Hull had the first decent sight of goal in the sixth minute when Curtis Davies headed wide from Snodgrass’s corner.
Leicester’s Demarai Gray sliced over at the other end after latching onto a long throw-in from Christian Fuchs before Mahrez fired wide.
Leicester were marginally the more creative at this stage, but it was a poor opening half.
However, after 40 minutes of tedium the first period suddenly
fizzed into life. Leicester had a triple chance thwarted. First Fuchs had a shot blocked, then Vardy’s was by Livermore, before Mahrez jinked onto the rebound and curled wide.
Hernandez and Diomande launched their synchronised back-flips — surely without knowing the other was about to do the same thing — after a corner and connected to take Hull ahead.
But just 14 seconds into the second half, Gray was felled by Tom Huddlestone, resulting in a penalty. Replays showed contact was made outside the box but presumably Mike Dean adjudged it continued past the line. Mahrez slammed home down the middle only for Snodgrass to give Hull a lead they would not relinquish. Crisis, what crisis?