It's back! JAMES GRANAHAN reviews week 1
A fascinating opening weekend in the Premiership saw the Manchester teams lay down a marker, whilst some of the other big guns were less than impressive.
The defending champions surprisingly went off at 6/5 for their match with Swansea but made a mockery of the price pretty quickly with an impressive display and a 4-1 victory. United should have been favourites for the title all along given that they have returned the same side that was dominant last season. Van Persie is sure to score another 20 league goals (barring injury) and their midfield will only improve with the return from injury of Tom Cleverly. The elephant in the closet is the potential transfer of Wayne Rooney, but I believe United can get by without him. The latest rumors suggest Chelsea are ready to make a bid of around £40 million for the England striker, but he hasn’t played up to the price tag for two seasons now and that would be a great deal for United should I happen.
On the other side of Manchester, United’s ‘Noisy Neighbours’ also made a flying start to the season with a comfortable 4-0 win over Newcastle. There are lots of questions surrounding City as the campaign kicks-off, mainly in relation to their manager and his ability to get a group of star players playing a team-oriented game. That was certainly no problem on Monday night with 4 different players getting on the score sheet and Jesus Navas having an excellent game on the wing. If City can play this kind of football on a consistent basis we could have an repeat of the epic two-horse title race from 2012.
Among the most disappointing sides last weekend for me were Arsenal and Tottenham. Spurs opened their season at Crystal Palace without injured star Gareth Bale and his attacking presence was sorely missed throughout this match. Tottenham had more possession than Palace and had 17 shots on goal but looked toothless at times. Only 2 of those 17 shots were on target which says a lot about their decision making. It’s only the first match, but I expected much more of Spurs, especially considering the vastly inferior opposition they faced. It will be really interesting to see how Spurs do this season, especially if Gareth Bale does eventually end up at Real Madrid.
As for Arsenal, I’m not really sure what to think. They opened the match full of energy and took the lead early with a wonderful team goal finished to the net by Giroud but it was all downhill from there for the Gunners. Much has been made of Wenger’s lack of activity in the transfer market and after watching last Saturday’s match it’s clear that the Frenchman needs to be more pro-active in bringing in new talent if the Gunners are to continue to be a top 3 or 4 team over the next few seasons.
It certainly was an interesting opening week and with United and Chelsea squaring up next Monday night and the transfer deadline ever approaching, things are going to heat up quite fast.
