Premier League clubs kick off pre season – Liverpool, Chelsea and Palace in action

It doesn’t seem too long ago that the Barclays Premier League came to an end, and here we are setting up for the season ahead with pre-season schedules galore.

Here we will take a look at how the Premier League clubs have done in their first match back since the final game on the 11^th May 2014.

Brondby 2 – 1 Liverpool

Liverpool travelled to Scandinavia to face a Brondby side who finished 4^th in there respected Danish Superliga last term. The only recognisable face representing Brondby these days is that of ex Bolton striker Johan Elmander.

Brondby went into the break with a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal from Norgaard.

Immediately into the second half Liverpool responded with a goal from youngster Kristoffer Peterson only for it to be cancelled out in the 90^th minute by Brondby player Hasani.

Possibly a sign of continued frailties at the back or lack of experience by those on show but Liverpool will only see the match as a fitness test with the end result irrelevant.

Senior players such as Borini, Suso, and Wisdom competed in the match joined in the squad by Agger, Allen, Coutinho, Lucas and Skrtel.

Grazer AK 1- 13 Crystal Palace

Tony Pulis has started his first pre-season at the helm of Crystal Palace and it couldn’t have started in better fashion. Playing Austrian Grazer Athletik-Klub a win was certainly on the cards but nobody would have expected such an amount of goals.

The man of the moment was certainly Stephen Dobbie who managed to bag 4 goals for his parent club. Dobbie was on loan at Blackpool last season and is now looking to use this opportunity to impress Tony Pulis in time for the upcoming season. He no doubt took a step forward with a performance as such.

Also on the score sheet was Chamakh who was recently rewarded for his improved performances last season with a 2 year contract after being released by Arsenal.

Wycombe 0 – 5 Chelsea

Chelsea had the relatively short distance to travel in comparison to other clubs to face a Wycombe team who put up a resilient performance for the first 45 minutes. Chelsea went in at the break one nil up.

The second half was a different story with Chelsea bossing things from the get go. A goal from 17 year old Izzy Brown 2 minutes into the second half set the tone.

John Terry wouldn’t have been used to being back in pre-season so early especially in World Cup year but showed his seniority by keeping a clean sheet and bagging a goal.

Ipswich 0 – 0 West Ham

West Ham continued with their struggle to find goals but can at least take comfort in the clean sheet.

West Ham started a strong XI with Jaaskelainen, Collins, Tomkins, Noble, Diame, Jarvis, C.Cole and Downing but couldn’t capitalise.

This was West Ham’s second pre-season match with Sam Allardyce making full use of the squad at hand with the likes Reid, Nolan and Vaz Te making appearances from the bench.

West Ham will now head out to New Zealand to kick off their Football United Tour.