After the wild world cup summer, club football is back and the Premier League has gotten off to an explosive start! The opening game was played on 21 August between defending champions Arsenal and Coventry City, with Arsenal taking a dominant win.
Five games in, the season is in no shortage of fan frustrations, with teams meeting expectations and surprises from newcomers. Manchester City have won five games in five. Thus, it seems like the Enzo Marcesa era has come to a good start. With the departure of longtime manager Pep Guardiola and three key players namely Rodri, Bernardo Silva and John Stones, the Manchester City squad faced a major roster rebuild this summer. The team performed exceptionally well against Crystal Palace beating them 4-1 and also won against their rivals Manchester United 1-0. So it can be said their overhaul has panned out well so far.
Arsenal, the defending champions, have won four out of the five games. Suffering a heavy 3-0 defeat from Brighton. The surprise team of the season so far is Hull City, the team which barely pushed through their EFL Championship to reach the Premier League. In their very first game, they beat one of the big six teams, Manchester United 2-0. Hull City picked up two draws with Chelsea and Aston Villa. Their unbeaten streak came to an end with their 2-1 loss against Newcastle.
Manchester United had their fans in high spirits with the way they ended the last season under Carrick’s gameplay. But this happiness was short-lived, after United’s unexpected defeat against Hull City. The team’s performance was quite poor throughout the five games, despite dominating ball possession they drew with Everton and Fulham. They only won one game against Ipswich Town.
Five games is too soon to come to any conclusions. The Premier League doesn’t follow a script, expectations and surprises keep coming and going. There is a long season ahead. There will be new challenges and changes ahead and the teams need to be prepared for it. During this time teams like Tottenham have a lot to think about, having one of the big six in the relegation after avoiding one last season is shocking.
Photo by Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash.
