EPL: Talking points of the weekend
The first weekend of the highly anticipated English Premier League season has drawn to a close. Though Chelsea and Aston Villa are yet to square off in what would be their second game of the season and the week, fans and critics all around have got a glimpse of what to expect from their teams and from the League as a whole.
The opening weekend always makes for an exciting one with blood running fast in huge anticipation of witnessing the new signings in action and the timely analysis of squads so as to fill any void before the transfer window slams shut in a little less than two weeks.
While Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea had a perfect start, Tottenham and Liverpool managed to pass through with the scruff of their necks. Arsenal got off to the worst possible start following a disappointing summer of transfers as they slumped to a heavy defeat at the hands of Aston Villa, who now look a good unit under Paul Lambert.
West Ham looked like a revitalized unit with the midfield boasting of Joe Cole, Kevin Nolan and now Downing, who will pose a huge threat once Carroll gets into the line-up.
Everton, too, salvaged a draw against a refurbished Norwich side, having bought Whittaker and Van Wolfswinkel in the summer. Though certain players were up for it, the Blue half of Merseyside have left a lot to be desired.
Newcomers Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Hull City slumped to defeats, but their performances gave hope.
With an exciting week drawing close with each team having played at least one game, we look at the talking points:
RVP still key for United, Welbeck’s persistence pays off
Manchester United began their title defence amidst huge speculation over Rooney’s future in the summer, with a move to Chelsea highly likely. This prompted Moyes to bench Rooney and start with Danny Welbeck and Robin van Persie upfront.
Despite a fight from Swansea, the two strikers’ rose to the occasion with van Persie starting the scoring in alternate fashion between him and Welbeck, to put four past the Swans.
Welbeck scored more goals in the opening game than he scored in the entire campaign last term and seems to be repaying the faith shown in him.
Despite van Persie stealing all the headlines with a stunning double strike, Welbeck showed a considerable improvement and gave early signs that the attacking line-up is gelling well.
Arsenal need to spend, now!
After such an horrendous start, one thing is pretty sure, the early remarks of Arsene Wenger challenging for the title without a signing is certainly delusional. If Arsenal continue with the stubbornness and continue with lowly evaluated bids, the title is far-fetched; even a top four finish would seem far from reality.
Though Arsenal fans would cry foul over bad refereeing but one thing cannot be denied is that it was a bad performance and the squad looked shallow. Having gone into the season with a long injury list, Arsenal piled on their misery with four more addition to the list to go with a red card to their most dependable defender.
Arsenal have been in pursuit of a striker, but the weekend gave a fair glimpse of the actual need- a defensive midfielder.
Tottenham will take time
No one has a percent of doubt regarding the quality of Tottenham this season and are bookies favourites after the Manchester sides and Chelsea to break into the top-4, pipping the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool to the spot. But the performance this week has left a lot to be desired of a threatening looking Tottenham lineup.
Tottenham have a fairly new look midfield and forward line with the likes of Paulinho, Chadli and Soldado breaking in. Capoue too has been acquired in the summer and with their focal point in Bale uncertain to continue with the London outfit, most of the midfield is fresh and have no experience of playing together.
All this means that the AVB led side will need time to adapt to each other’s game and gel well to pose the kind of threat they do on paper.