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Vince Grella has had a fiery debut in the English Premier League as his new club Blackburn Rovers were thrashed 4-1 by West Ham.
While Grella was receiving his baptism of fire in England, his fellow Australians Mark Bresciano and Scott Chipperfield celebrated goals for their top-flight European clubs.
Grella, who this week sealed a transfer deal from his Italian Serie A club Torino, ran on with the starting squad and soon received a hostile reception from West Ham fans.
The Australian midfielder, wearing the number 11 shirt, had been on the field just seven minutes when he was handed a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Scott Parker, who fell in a heap near the half-way line.
Referee Mike Riley had to quickly calm several of West Ham players and their fans as they vented their fury at Grella’s actions.
Five minutes later West Ham, led by Lucas Neill, gained the upper hand as Calum Davenport scored with a header before Christopher Samba consolidated the Hammers’ lead shortly after.
But Blackburn struck back within minutes after Grella intercepted a West Ham clearance and headed the ball to striker Jason Roberts.
Grella’s Premiership baptism came to an end at half-time when Blackburn’s new manager Paul Ince decided to substitute him.
Fellow Australian Brett Emerton played the entire match and was unlucky not to equalise with a close-range header in the 71st minute.
Injury time goals by Craig Bellamy and Carlton Cole wrapped up the match for West Ham.
The win relieved some pressure on Hammers’ boss Alan Curbishley, who has become the bookmakers’ favourite to be the first manager sacked this season.
Ince, who used to play for West Ham, said if Emerton had scored the result could have been much different.
“(Matt) Derbyshire had a great chance to make it 2-2, so did Brett Emerton and that could have changed the course of the game if we had made it 2-2, I’m sure (we) would have gone on and won the match,” Ince said.
Elsewhere, Richard Garcia also missed a chance to score early on in the second half of Hull City’s 5-0 loss to Wigan.
Everton continued to miss the talents of midfielder Tim Cahill, who is still recovering from a foot injury, as they went down 3-0 to Portsmouth.
An injured Mark Viduka was also absent from Newcastle who were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal.
Bolton drew 0-0 with West Bromwich while Middlesbrough beat Stoke 2-1.
In Italy, Mark Bresciano marked the first round of this season’s competition by scoring Palermo’s only goal in their 3-1 loss to Serie A rivals Udinese.
Udinese pushed ahead after just nine minutes as Antonio Di Natale opened the scoring and then fired another one home shortly before half time.
Bresciano appeared to give Palermo some hope when he scored at the 68th minute mark, but Udinese sealed their win within minutes with a header from Gokhan Inler.
In Switzerland, Scott Chipperfield continued his fine form with Super League club FC Basel, scoring right on half-time in his club’s 2-0 win over FC Aarau.
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