Gavin Bazunu buoyant amid a Southampton side all at sea and Matt Doherty to reclaim Tottenham starting role - Conan Byrne

From an Irish point of view, the opening weekend of the Premier League held plenty of intrigue.

Of course, last season was one in which players from these shores endured a low point in terms of collective minutes at their various clubs.

But on Saturday, Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and defender Nathan Collins both made notable debuts for their new clubs, although both ended up on the losing side as Southampton and Wolves lost to Tottenham and Leeds respectively.

Mark Travers kept a clean sheet as Bournemouth claimed a 2-0 win over Aston Villa while Shane Duffy also featured late on as his loan club Fulham tried to hold onto the eventual 2-2 draw against Liverpool earlier that day.

While Spurs thrashed the Saints 4-1, Bazunu still managed to perform creditably in difficult circumstances behind a porous Southampton rearguard according to ex-St Patrick's Athletic midfielder Conan Byrne who watched that match closely.

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"I was very impressed with Bazunu, even though he conceded the four goals," he said of the former Shamrock Rovers keeper who has immediately taken the starting spot at St Mary's ahead of the more experienced Alex McCarthy.

"He looked very assured, again communicated with his back four and you could see him pointing and shouting at various times and could do nothing about the goals.

"When you're coming up against (Dejan) Kulusevksi, Son (Heung-min), (Harry) Kane, you're not going to come up against harder opposition and attacking players than that.

"So I think we'll judge him