Premier League: The good and bad returns for new season
Liverpool's Federico Chiesa, left, celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Premier League match against Bournemouth at Anfield. Picture: AP Photo/Ian Hodgson
The packed stands, the anticipation, the sunny weather, there are few periods across the footballing season that can compare to the opening weekend of the Premier League.
The matches didn’t throw up too much by way of surprises. But the opening weekend is always more about seeing how your side performs after the summer break, seeing how the team’s new outside talent responds to the ‘British Game’, rather than providing any real insight in to league form. Nevertheless, the reality is that it no longer the pre-season anymore, and the three points available now are as valuable as they will be, come the run-in next May.
Friday’s opener between Liverpool and Bournemouth, at an emotionally charged Anfield, provided us great entertainment and confirmed many people’s suspicions of a delicacy within the Liverpool’s defence and also the work required for the new players to blend and get up to speed. Bournemouth eventually lost on a 4-2 scoreline, which was not a fair summation of the match. Minus four of their stars from last season, they fought all the way, and that Antoine Semenyo silenced the idiot racist in the crowd in the best possible way by scoring a brace to bring the match back into the mix was, as you might say, put The Cherries on top of a great game.
Arsenal succeeded in maybe one of the toughest openers for a side, an away game at Old Trafford, while Man United, despite still in defeat, will take a lot of heart from a performance that deserved a draw at the very least. And boss Ruben Amorim was definitely making sure that he was reading the most into this moral victory.
Man City and Pep Guardiola showed they may be back in contention, albeit against a Wolves side minus nine first team players from last season. The Erling Haaland brace in the game a warning to all defenders in the league of what may be coming their way.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were the latest top six side to see how hard it is to get the better of Crystal Palace. And the south Londoners added yet another genuine gripe with officialdom after what looked like a spectacular Eberechi Eze free-kick goal was ruled out by one of the most obscure and bizarre interpretations regarding a player’s proximity to a free-kick wall. One of a few questionable calls over the weekend.
Midtable is already taking a familiar look and will be populated by Brighton, Fulham, Bournemouth, and Everton. The Toffees will be looking forward to seeing Jack Grealish having a full free-running match at their new hilariously named Hill Dickinson Stadium.
There were mixed fortunes for the sides that will be associated with relegation. Leeds and Sunderland (most spectacularly) defied the straight back down narrative for the promoted sides. While there will be genuine fears that Wolves, West Ham, and most of all Brentford will be dragged into mire beyond just the promoted clubs.
Of course, a new season meant a whole new set of controversies and VAR scandals.
As we mentioned in the Chelsea game, Palace’s Marc Guehi was deemed to have been encroaching on Chelsea's free-kick wall when his team-mate Eze scored a subsequently disallowed goal. I was unaware of such a rule, but you can guarantee that there are a thousand examples of free-kick goals that should have been cancelled due to this unenforced rule before Sunday’s game.
Everton defender Tarkowski was penalised on Monday evening after a goal-bound shot from Leeds’ Anton Stach appeared to hit his elbow which VAR confirmed. That it was a deliberate handball is debateable but there were probably four or five similar incidents over the weekend that were not treated with the same harshness.
Which brings us to Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi, who blatantly used his hand to swat the ball away from getting to Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike at Anfield. That VAR supposedly looked at it and deemed that the ball rebounded off his body on to his hand is unfathomable.
If VAR had seen what even the most myopic fan had witnessed in the stands and on TV, then Senesi would have been sent off as Ekitike was then through on goal. Sure, it would have ruined what turned out to be a great game. But that’s not the point of VAR. It’s supposed to confirm whether there is an infringement or not. When it is only used to confirm an obvious error, it reduces any confidence in the tech's use for everyone. It didn’t affect the result of the game but it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be here again complaining about how their errors will cost a side a title or Premier League safety.
Ah yes, it’s good to be back.
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