Premier League: Goalless debut for Jurgen Klopp
Reds held by Spurs in EPL; City, Chelsea, United win
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-10-18 01:21 GMT
London: Chelsea and Manchester United returned to winning ways in the Premier League on Saturday with victories against Aston Villa and Everton respectively. Diego Costa put the Premier League champions ahead at Stamford Bridge before Villa defender Alan Hutton scored an own goal in Chelsea’s 2-0 win.
United won 3-0 against Everton at Goodison Park, with Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera and Wayne Rooney scoring. Manchester City routed Bournemouth 5-1. Raheem Sterling scored a hat trick in the first half, and Wilfried Bony scored twice.
Elsewhere, Southamp-ton surrendered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Leicester, Sunderland lost 0-1 at West Brom in Sam Allardyce’s first game in charge of the Black Cats and Crystal Palace were beaten 1-3 by West Ham.
Earlier, Jurgen Klopp’s tenure as Liverpool manager began with a hard-fought 0-0 draw at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday. Greeted by Germany flags in the away end bearing legends like ‘Liverpool Uber Alles’, Klopp handed a league debut to 20-year-old striker Divock Origi, who hit the bar in the early stages at White Hart Lane.
But he was also indebted to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet for producing three important saves, which meant that although Liverpool have now won only once inside 90 minutes in their last 10 games, their manager was spared defeat on his first outing.
“We need to improve, but for today, after three days (of training), anything could have happened and it’s 0-0,” Klopp told BT Sport. “I’m completely satisfied for the moment. This was a good first step.”
Klopp will have drawn encouragement from his team’s combativeness, particularly against a team who had crushed Manchester City 4-1 in their previous home game, and will now turn his thoughts to his first home game against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League on Thursday. Spurs, meanwhile, are now unbeaten in seven games — the longest run in the division — having ended a run of five straight league defeats against Liverpool.