QPR's defence needs to state its case
Last season QPR romped to the Championship title via a combination of the meanest defence in all of the four professional divisions — conceding 32 goals — and the skills of Adel Taarabt, the league's player of the year. Considering the ever-widening gulf between the two divisions, making the step up to the Premier League was always going to be a difficult task for Neil Warnock's men but perhaps even he did not envisage this result.
Bolton Wanderers at home should not have been the hardest of starts. Owen Coyle has lost Johan Elmander, Bolton's top scorer last season, to Galatasaray and the on-loan Daniel Sturridge went back to Chelsea. They may have held on to Gary Cahill but they had the worst away record in the Premier League last season — picking up a measly 11 points on the road. But you know what they say about assumptions …
It is always difficult to stop a 25-yard screamer that is heading for the top corner but a defence that looked as stable as Kate Smith walking a tightrope cost QPR dearly in the second half — what was Danny Gabbidon thinking? — and will be exploited further by teams more ruthless than Bolton. However, it is not just defensive weaknesses that will have to be cured. For the majority of the first half QPR were on top but failed to take any of the chances that landed at their feet. They will have to start scoring if they are to avoid the drop. They will also need to avoid silly sendings-off, Ã la Clint Hill's one-man recreation of a stag's rutting ritual on Martin Petrov.
Making predictions after the first game of the season is liable to leave one red-faced in May — see Alan Hansen for further details — but QPR are going to have a tough time unless they regain last season's solidity to their defence. The last time a newly promoted team let four goals in at home on the first day of the Premier League season was Crystal Palace in 1994. They went down. QPR will not want to suffer the same fate.
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