So, what can we learn from the first weekend of the Premier League season?
From an Arsenal perspective, there’s good news and bad news. Firstly, Chamakh looks like he’ll be a very good signing. He’s willing to mix it up with the defenders physically, and is better than Bendtner in that he’s actually able to control the ball without it bouncing awkwardly off of a shin or a knee. Even during the brief period when Van Persie and Chamakh were on the pitch together, they worked well, with Chamakh’s presence enabling RvP to just drop off a little and try to find some space.
I was similarly impressed by Koscielny, the new centre-back. He’s quicker than I expected, and looks OK in the air. Hopefully he’ll form a good partnership with Vermaelen sooner rather than later. Oh, and harshly done by with the red card, I thought.
The bad news concerns Arsenal’s lack of penetration once more. Despite playing against 10 men for half of the game, and dominating possession, we only rarely threatened the Liverpool goal. We still lack a killer pass, and there didn’t seem to be too much willingness to shoot from distance.
Look at one of Chelsea’s goals which had a big deflection: if you don’t shoot you don’t get lucky. It’s harder to get a goalbound deflection when you’re playing 5-yard sideways passes…
Speaking of Chelsea, it’s a little tiresome to see teams roll over so easily against them. Fine, you’re probably going to get beaten, and it’ll probably be 2 or 3-0. But don’t just lay down and give them 6, 7, or 8 goals, for crying out loud. Yes, you could say it’s Chelsea being relentless in their attacking, but for me it’s a lack of fight from the opposition.
Chelsea looked impressive, again, and Manchester United eventually got going against a pretty poor Newcastle team. I still think both are very reliant on their centre-forwards, and Arsenal will be competitive in the league with them again this year.
Whether we can compete during the 90 minutes against each team is a different story. They seem to have figured us out, but hopefully our defence will be better this season. We definitely need a goalkeeper though, and I’d like to see Shay Given arrive.
That’s more likely now that he’s no longer the first-choice at Man City, who flattered to deceive in their first game. I thought Tottenham looked very good, although that has been tempered somewhat by their performance last night, especially defensively. Bale looks like he’s picked up where he’s left off though.
City’s defence seems equally porous, which is odd considering the number of defensive midfielders they deployed on the pitch. Up front, the Spanish winger Silva looks fantastic, especially centrally. Man City are going to be one of those teams that wins games 3-2 or 4-3 rather than 1-0.
Elsewhere, Wigan looked awful, West Ham too. Despite Blackpool’s win, I expect them to be relegated, joined by Wigan and one of the two clubs with West in their name. Newcastle, Wolves, Stoke and Birmingham will stay up by virtue of not being as bad as those three, even if they will get a thumping at some of the bigger teams.
That’s the first weekend done and dusted, only another 37 games to go!
I find it amazing that Utd can run up these eye-watering debts, because banks are willing to support them based on the name/brand status, and that the football authorities turn a blind eye to the sheer level of debt in which they find themselves.
And yet teams lower down in the leagues get huge point deductions and are effectively crippled because of debts of a mere (in the grand scheme of things) £250,000 or so. Yes, these clubs got themselves into debt and problems, but all it takes is the withdrawal of backing from either a bank or the multimillionaire owner and the club goes tits up.
Can you imagine what would happen if the banks behind Man Utd starting calling in their debts, rather than just accepting interest payments? Utd would be fucked, absolutely fucked.
And they’re not alone in running up massive debts, or relying on the never-ending pockets of their owners. To varying degrees, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, practically every big team, is in the same boat.
I like to think that Arsenal’s debt is a little more structured, having been taken on voluntarily in order to fund the stadium move, and with a solid plan regarding paying it off, but we’re as equally enslaved to the banks as anyone else.
Yet we see clubs, famous clubs with lots of history, go to the wall. Luton Town got screwed over, and now that area has no league football team. Teams like Southampton, Chester, Bradford, all of them got points deductions for relatively small financial issues.
It’s a shame that the hypocrisy is so brazen, it really is.
