Brian Deane’s double sinks United, 1992
IT’S ALWAYS A great quiz question: who scored the very first Premier League goal? Alan Shearer? Robbie Fowler? Teddy Sheringham? But it was Brian Deane, then of Sheffield United. A hero at Bramall Lane, he’d never quite hit the same dizzying heights once he left the club to join Leeds in 1993.
Facing the hotly-tipped United (they were pipped to the First Division title by Leeds a few months before) on the opening day of the brand-new Premier League championship, it took Deane just five minutes to find the net after Peter Schmeichel was caught in no-man’s land after a near-post flick.
Deane added a second from the penalty spot shortly after the restart before Mark Hughes pulled a goal back on the hour mark. But United failed to find an equaliser and the Blades held on to claim a memorable victory.
Later in the season, they’d get the better of United again in the FA Cup, knocking them out in the 5th round.
Jurgen Klinsmann endears himself to the Premier League, 1994
What’s forgotten about Klinsmann’s classic goal celebration (hands up – how many of you copied it immediately after watching Match of the Day that night?) is how much of a thrilled the actual game was.
This was Ossie Ardiles’ Tottenham side at its best. Magical going forward, horrible at the back. And there’s also the subtlety of Teddy Sheringham – the way he takes the first goal and the superb through-ball for Darren Anderton to score Spurs’ second.
But, it was all about the German attacker, really. Everyone knew about his talents in front of goal but it was his sense of humour that was a surprise to everyone in dear old condescending England.
He’d stay for a season before heading to Bayern Munich and though he returned to White Hart Lane on loan in 1998, things were never quite the same.
Fabrizio Ravanelli’s hat-trick v Liverpool, 1996
The Italian arrived at Middlesbrough as a Champions League winner. Just two months before, it was his goal in the final against Ajax that secured the European Cup for Juventus.
But there was a revolution of sorts brewing on Teeside as Bryan Robson, in his first managerial role, pushed them to the Premier League in 1995 and soon a couple of high-profile signings were made. Two Brazilians arrived in the form of Juninho and Emerson and after a mid-table finish in their debut top-flight campaign, the club splashed more cash to secure Ravanelli’s services.
On the opening day, he came up trumps and grabbed a hat-trick in a ding-dong battle against Liverpool but despite the Italian’s goals, Boro were relegated at the end of the season and Ravanelli packed his bags and left for Marseille.
David Beckham’s screamer from the halfway line, 1996
Eric Cantona had already scored a superb goal to open the scoring in this game. He followed it with one of those sumptuous celebrations that dripped of arrogance. He had quite a few of those.
There was also a magnificent performance from Roy Keane, who set up Cantona’s goal with a gut-bursting, surging run down the right side that saw Vinnie Jones trailing in his wake. He then teed up Dennis Irwin for United’s second, threading a superb pass inside the Dons’ defence before the full-back thumped it inside Neil Sullivan’s near post.
But United’s third is the most famous. David Beckham would score a litany of remarkable goals during the 1996/97 campaign but none would define him as much as this.
Chelsea swagger thanks to Gus Poyet’s brilliance, 1999
People tend to forget but Chelsea weren’t bad before Roman Abramovich took over, banished Claudio Ranieri and brought in a young Portuguese upstart to pout on the sidelines.
They may not have been crowned champions but they were brilliant to watch and were never as irresistible than on the opening day of the 1999/2000 season when the thrashed Sunderland.
Here’s the Chelsea XI that took to the field that afternoon:
De Goey, Ferrer, Desailly, Leboeuf, Le Saux, Petrescu, Wise, Deschamps, Poyet, Sutton, Zola.
Pretty special, right? It never quite happened for them in the league but under Gianluca Vialli’s management (he was player-coach before taking on the role full-time), they were still successful, claiming the League Cup, Cup Winner’s Cup and Super Cup in 1998 and the FA Cup in 2000.
Arguably, Gus Poyet’s second goal in the game against Sunderland perfectly summed up Chelsea at the time – imaginative, creative and flashy.
How we miss it.
