Premier League opening day conclusions
Arteta’s Arsenal will compete for the Top Four
Gabriel celebrating his first Arsenal goal, which put them 2-0 up vs Fulham
Mikel Arteta has turned Arsenal around. He came into a club in disarray, but 9 months on and it looks like they are moving in the right direction. He is a great communicator, shouting all the way through their 3-0 victory over Fulham, and his non-negotiables has this team looking like genuine Top Four contenders.
Big wins last season over Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea gave the team confidence in their system and style, and their start vs Fulham has given them momentum. Their 3-4-3 system is fluid in possession, as Maitland-Niles joins the midfield, Tierney pushes up to join in as an advanced player on the wing, Bellerin joins the attack on the right hand side and Willian, making his debut, drifts from the right hand side in between the lines.
They have shown a marked improvement in playing out from the back. Under Emery, it always looked like a disaster waiting to happen, but under Arteta they have scored wonderful team goals by doing so. Today, for the third goal, they beat Fulham’s press well, and Willian’s great pass found Aubameyang on the left wing. His phenomenal flourish into the far corner was as precise as it was expected. The captain is in top form.
A word on their debutants too: Willian had a hattrick of assists, immediately slotting in on the right of the 3-4-3 and looking at ease, as one would expect of a Premier League veteran. There was much furore over his signing at a time when Arsenal laid off staff, but he has had a brilliant start to his Arsenal career. Gabriel looked strong and composed in the middle of the back three, and deserved his debut goal. There will be much bigger tests to come for both players, but so far there are encouraging signs. If Gabriel and Saliba both settle in well, then Arsenal may have finally solved their defensive issues.
Liverpool need to sort out their defence
Jürgen Klopp said Liverpool will “attack” the Premier League title this season, rather than look to defend it, and on this evidence he was telling the truth! At home to Leeds, they started the new season as they finished the last, getting back to their high scoring but defensively open habits. Mo Salah looked back to his very best, giving Leeds defence a torrid game and scoring a hattrick, including the winning goal in the dying embers of the game. Wijnaldum joined in the attack frequently, while Robertson in particular was regularly seen marauding in the Leeds half, finishing up with a hand in two goals.
Mo Salah’s hattrick set Liverpool off to a winning start in their first game of the season
However, the main issue today was Liverpool’s defence. Yes, Van Dijk’s error for Leeds’s second goal was horrendous, but Leeds were constantly able to get in behind Liverpool and cause problems. Liverpool’s inability to shore up the midfield and defence throughout the game will absolutely be of concern to Jürgen Klopp. It is no coincidence that they started to assert dominance and control over the game when Fabinho came on midway through the second half, but he won’t be able to play every single game Liverpool have. Joe Gomez has looked anything but the convincing centre back we usually think of him as in his most recent games for both Liverpool and England. Van Dijk, usually so calm and collected, has looked flustered in recent times, with mistakes long thought to be ironed out of his game creeping back in. Much work to be done then, to ensure they return to being the dominant team of the last couple of seasons, as opposed to the gung-ho, easy to get at entertainers that they were before.
Leeds will be the great entertainers of this season
When Leeds narrowly lost at the Emirates to Arteta’s Arsenal last season, they put the Premier League on notice. Yesterday, when they nearly took the Premier League Champions by surprise on the opening day, they showed that under Bielsa they will never change. The incredibly hard running, aggressive and progressive style is here to stay. No team has out tackled and outworked Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield since he took over in October 2015 - until now. They put in 33 tackles - more than any other team at Anfield since the German manager arrived.
Leeds exposed Liverpool’s defensive issues in their 4-3 defeat on the opening day of the season
Not many teams have also shown the ambition, ballsiness and confidence that Leeds showed at Anfield. Far from wilting after Liverpool’s incredibly soft first penalty, they rose to the occasion and quickly struck back through Jack Harrison’s wonderfully worked equaliser. Their 4-1-4-1 may leave Phillips slightly exposed in the middle of the pitch, but offensively it gives Leeds so many options going forward, and crucially, so many bodies in the middle of the pitch to press the ball. They hunted Liverpool down, and when they got it, worked themselves into forward positions with impressive ease. Their third goal, scored by Klich, illustrated this perfectly. Neat play on the edge of the box gave Costa 5 players in the box to look to pick out. That his perfectly weighted pass landed at the feet of Klich is no coincidence. His touch and finish was sublime, but so was their build up play throughout the game.
Liverpool pinned them back and won in the end through a sloppy Rodrigo mistake, but it has to be said that the level Leeds play at is exceptional, especially given the disparity in quality and reputation across the pitch. Bielsa has truly worked magic on this team, and they put many teams with higher wage bills and aspirations to shame. The challenge for Leeds will now be how they deal with teams who sit deeper and make it harder to play through them, but they will certainly avoid any relegation troubles. The only question is how high will they finish. A top half finish should certainly be within their reach if they show the same intent as they did on the opening day.
VAR will finally used in the right way as Crystal Palace beat Southampton
When Kyle Walker-Peters was shown a straight red card for his foul on Mitchell, it looked like a reasonable decision at full speed. However, when the replay came up on screen, it was clearly a harsh decision. Yes, Walker-Peters’s foot was high, but there seemed to be a clear lack of ‘excessive force’ or danger to the opposing player. So, off to the pitchside monitor John Moss went.
Last season, on countless occasions, due to senseless PGMO directives, referees were told not to use the VAR monitors at the side of the pitch, with the nonsense justification that it would slow the game down; better to stand in the centre circle with your finger on your earpiece for 3 minutes than to actually go check the decision yourself. On this occasion, common sense prevailed and the red card was downgraded to a yellow. Hopefully this was the first of many poor decisions overturned.
Onto the game itself, and Crystal Palace never really looked to be in too much danger vs Southampton. Sitting deep in their 4-4-2 formation, they were compact and didn’t allow Southampton to play through the middle or in behind them. Southampton struggled to create much and didn’t use their fullbacks enough, while their high line gave Crystal Palace plenty of joy offensively. With the pace of Townsend, Ayew and Zaha on the pitch, this was exploited time and time again, with only slightly mistimed runs/passes stopping Zaha at least doubling his tally.
Townsend’s first half cross was inch perfect and picked out Zaha, who finished with style and composure at the back post. He looked more like his old self, and seemed to enjoy playing as part of a strike partnership in this 4-4-2, rather than being out on the wing. Playing as a wide midfielder, not a winger, clearly does not get the best out of him, so it will be interesting to see how Hodgson uses him going forward. It doesn’t look like he’ll get the big move he craves, so it may be up to him to have his best season yet, to drum up more firm interest at the end of the season.
A word too on Eberechi Eze, who made his Premier League debut. He looked silky on the ball, and in only a few minutes showed what he can bring to this Palace team. He is a player who can drift in between the lines and link the midfield and attack, through clever passing and audacious dribbling. Hopefully he gets many more opportunities to show what he can do this season.
Callum Wilson looks like a steal at £20M, as he gets Newcastle off to a winning start
When Bournemouth went down at the end of last season, for all of the transfer speculation, one thing was clear: there was no way they were going to be able to keep Callum Wilson. He wasn’t at his best last season as they slumped to relegation, but there is no way he was playing Championship Football this season.
His move to Newcastle made sense for all parties: guaranteed regular game time for him, and guaranteed regular goals for Newcastle. With the effervescent Saint-Maximin and mercurial Almiron either side of him, and Jonjo Shelvey behind them, all of a sudden a Newcastle team which looked incredibly short of ideas going forward last season now looks like it can score goals. His predatory opening goal yesterday was a clear example of his knack of being in the right place at the right time, and set Newcastle on their way. The signing of longtime collaborator Ryan Fraser will help him settle too no doubt, and for the Scotsman it’s a move closer to home and to a huge club, which will hopefully let him show his talent.
For West Ham, it was another terrible awful start to the season. The team looks like it desperately needs upgrades, and their fruitless chase of Burnley’s James Tarkowski looks like it might not provide one, for the time being at least. Mark Noble’s tweet regarding the sale of Grady Diangana may have upset Graeme Souness, but would have hit the nail on the head for many West Ham fans. Frustration at this board is always palpable, and once again the fans and the players clearly feel aggrieved at their inability to not only secure their brightest talents, but also to add much needed strength to the squad. Failure to do so before the end of the transfer window will consign West Ham to another season of scrapping it out at the bottom of the Premier League table.