Premier League wasn’t the first sport to come back and wasn’t the first major league, either, but something feels different about it.
There’s just that feeling of excitement getting to watch teams that you know and support come back after such a long layoff. When you think about it, the break that the Premier League took due to the COVID-19 pandemic was about as long as its typical off-season. That’s quite the mid-season layoff and we should applaud the teams for even coming back to finish out the schedule at this point.
But even seeing Aston Villa and Sheffield United fight to a 0-0 draw to kick things off again was better than the alternative of nothing. It brings a sense of relief, even without a raucous crowd egging the teams on.
And, the thing is, this has only just begun.
Starting this past Wednesday and through to July 15, there are only four days without a Premier League game. And, for the first slab of games, we saw a staggered schedule which certainly filled up our plentiful free time.
There are going to be a lot of games played in a very short period time. Expect a lot of rotation amongst squads and a lot of rusty players as we get back up to speed. We should also see managers give their youth players a good test run down the stretch.
One thing is for certain over the next month: There’s going to be a lot of solid football to watch and a lot of interesting races to the finish, even if the battle for the title is basically sorted.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
It might be cheating a little bit considering he take part in two games over the past week, but our award goes to Manchester City starlet Phil Foden. The 20-year-old midfielder scored once as a substitute against Arsenal and then bagged a brace against Burnley in his fourth start of the season.
Foden has been tabbed as a future star for both City and the English national team for a bit and now should get the opportunity to shine with manager Pep Guardiola likely to use more squad rotation than his already-high usual in the coming weeks.
In the Sky Blues’ star-studded lineup, Foden is certainly one to watch grow.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
It didn’t take long for some technological controversy to crop up, with plenty of ire drawn in the first game back. But, shockingly, it wasn’t VAR that was the culprit, but the usually reliable Hawkeye system which monitors the goal line. After an Aston Villa defender accidentally knocked his own keeper – who was holding the ball after a free kick into the box – into the goal, it looked like Sheffield had opened the scoring. But, despite the ball clearly looking well over the line, Hawkeye didn’t kick in because the Villa defender was apparently blocking the view. Seems rather suspect to us, given how reliable the system usually is … You know what, games with no crowd noise aren’t all that bad. Given the option by DAZN during the rather-tame Merseyside derby, we found it actually a better experience than watching with piped-in noise. In fact, the fact that they’re trying mimic crowd reactions with the FIFA 20 crowd noise actually takes you out of the experience. The delay between the on-field event and the crowd “reaction†was far too delayed and ruined any possible positive effect … Norwich is most definitely going back down to the Championship. The real question will be if it is able to yo-yo back up … City defender Eric Garcia got absolutely clobbered by his own ’keeper last week. It was a scary sight to see him stretcher off after the collision, but how did Ederson not do a better job of warning his teammate? … Who knew that Newcastle actually had some goals in it? After the Blades went down to 10 men, the Magpies potted three goals – including record-signing Joelinton’s first for the Northeastern club … Paul Pogba is back in action – finally. Now, the question is how he’ll fit in with January signing Bruno Fernandes now in the midfield, too.
THE LAST WORD
I’m not sure the restart to this season could’ve gone worse for a team that’s already a usual butt of jokes: Arsenal.
The Gunners have played two games since their season resumed and the losses just keep piling up, both off the field and on it.
First off, before even facing Manchester City, three players were placed in quarantine after a positive coronavirus test. It was later revealed to be a false positive, but it certainly threw a wrench into planning for a vital game against one of the world’s best sides.
Then, during their 3-0 loss to City, the Gunners were soundly outplayed, but also saw two players subbed off in the first 25 minutes due to injury: Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari.
To make matters lose, David Luiz – who came on for Mari – was sent off for a bad challenge in the 49th minute. It was a laughable mistake really and just another example of how far the Brazilian “defender†has fallen. At this point of his career, he’s doing his team more harm than good.
You would’ve thought that Saturday’s game game against relegation-battling Brighton & Hove Albion would’ve granted manager Mikel Arteta some reprieve – instead the nightmare only got worse.
Then result was bad enough to look at, losing 2-1 to the Seagulls, but the bigger loss was that of goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
The German backstop, who leads the PL in saves this season and has been one of the Gunners’ two most important players along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, went down with a grisly looking knee injury after getting bumped in mid-air by Brighton striker Neal Maupay. It was a dumb challenge and completely unnecessary, but the Frenchman didn’t even garner a yellow card.
And for Maupay to be the one to net the winner, that just twists the knife even further.
Having sunk to 10th place with hopes fading of even making Europa League next season, we’re betting Arsenal would’ve rather packed things in and called it a season back in March.