Pass & Move - New Season, Same Old Spurs
Welcome to the new Premier League season, which for now feels a lot like the old Premier League season.
But I’ll tell you one little unique oddity: this is the first time ever that the first PL goal of the season was an own goal. Shout out to Kyle Walker for being a trailblazer, more on him in due time.
Still, it seemed like a lot of expected narratives were lived up to. Manchester United ground out an unimpressive win, Spurs played well but lost, Everton got booed at home, Crystal Palace (and Yohan Cabaye) were very good and the promoted teams had their teething problems. The only shockers were that Leicester ended the opening day top of the table and that Chelsea didn’t win.
The Leicester result isn’t really a shocker though. Look at that team, it’s crazily top-heavy. Four genuine top flight strikers, their potential survival will and has always been about getting those lads scoring goals, because their midfield and defence are not up to scratch. Score four goals in any game and you won’t lose too many of them, now they’ve just gotta do it another 37 times.
We also can’t get carried away by one game when that one game was at home to Sunderland. Make no mistake, Sunderland are in a relegation scrap themselves. Their defensive pairing of Younes Kaboul and Sebastian Coates (Spurs and Liverpool exiles) was abysmal and Lee Cattermole was hooked after only half an hour in the midfield. At least Jermain Defoe got a goal, because they’ll need 15 of them from him alone to stay up.
Enough of that now. We’ll save the Tinkerman memes for another day.
This week’s feature game was that opening clash between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Two managers beginning decisive second seasons, with strict philosophies and processes.
And bloody hell it was Tottenham that dominated the first 20 minutes. Proper dominated too, their high pressing nature cutting off the links between the United players. Schneiderlin had a couple sketchy moments. Carrick couldn’t really get on the ball. In fact they should have taken the lead when Harry Kane put a lovely ball in for Christian Eriksen, only for the Dane’s lob to end up over the bar. It turned out to be a crucial miss too because United soon found their feet.
Kyle Walker scored the OG, but Nabil Bentaleb was most at blame. A lazy pass on halfway under little pressure goes straight to Juan Mata and United counter.
Mata slips the ball to Depay, who finds Young running wide and drawing in a centre back with him – Davies the left back was making an advanced run, he was the guy Bentaleb was trying to pass to so he was well out of position. With the defence dragged to their left, Wayne Rooney was left something close to a million miles wide open.
It was actually a pretty bad first touch from Wazza, otherwise he’d have scored it himself. If he takes that thing onto his left foot then he rides the wild, desperate challenge from Walker and gets his first goal of the season. Instead he settles for what he got, KW charging in like a mad man and poking the ball past his own keeper. Sure, he had to do something there, but what he did was still dumb. Walker was powerful every time Ashley Young ran at him, to the point where Young looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground and hide away. To the point where you wondered if the ref was even looking. But up against Rooney here he was unbalanced when he didn’t have to be. If anything, Rooney threw him off by giving him an unexpected shot at the ball. Unlucky but very avoidable, an odd deciding moment in an odd sort of clash.
Truth be told, it wasn’t a fantastic game. Neither side was anything close to mid-season form (obviously – it was the first game after all) and chances were few and far between. Spurs fought hard late on, but Romero made a couple nice saves (and one nervy one) to preserve the clean sheet and the victory. Pochettino’s emphasis on physical fitness reaping benefits in how well they finished, it just was never gonna be enough without more cohesion on the ball.
Man Utd have copped it a little for only having one shot on target in this game. That’s misleading. Shots on target can be missed opportunities just as shots off target are. What counts are goals. Under Louis Van Gaal, Manchester United tend not to be a side that has that many shots on target because they don’t take that many half-efforts. They shoot to score and they only shoot when they expect to score, not when they hope to score. There are problems with that, like it means they’re easier than other teams to park the proverbial bus against. Get men back and the opportunities dry up. Spurs did this pretty well, blocking four shots while a further four went off target.
This is why Memphis Depay shapes to be a crucial player for United this season. He’s got that clichéd youthful exuberance, he’ll run at players and he’ll take shots. With his much-publicised goal haul last season, he’s go the talent to make it count too. It’s that ability to take on defenders that might be the most important factor. LVG’s MUFC play some lovely possession footy around the opposition penalty area but they don’t often commit defenders. They don’t draw guys in and out of positions, they don’t force their foes to lose their shape. On debut he showed glimpses of what he can do but was mostly quiet in the final third. A promising start though.
He wasn’t the only new signing on show, either. Matteo Darmian looks a steal for what United got him for. The Italian international got forward from right back with confidence and did everything he needed to without the ball too. A very assured debut, he was the second best player on the park. More than a shade of Gary Neville about him, and this isn’t the first time it’s been said either.
Scheiderlin came into the game strongly after an iffy start. He’ll play better than this in other games, probably a 7/10. Schweinsteiger didn’t lack for energy off the bench but he did lack for match fitness. Romero didn’t always inspire confidence with the gloves, he did what he had to do though. As for Tottenham, they mostly relied on guys who were there last season and beyond but Toby Alderweireld had a fine debut. He immediately fixes up more than a couple issues with this team and he’s already got a nice little combination going with Jan Vertongen, his international teammate. Delle Alli got a run off the bench too. He was playing League One for MK Dons last season, quite the rapid rise. Could be a bloke to keep an eye on because Eric Dier, quality player though he is, will not prove the answer in central midfield.
The dude I really wanna talk about now is Harry Kane. Some will have called this an open audition for him, playing at Old Trafford, but if all is good and right in the world then Harry Hotspur will be a lifetime Tottenham lad. And to be honest he didn’t really give LVG much to think about anyway.
Chris Smalling had Citizen Kane in his pocket for most of the game. The gorgeous little dink for Eriksen was the only time he really broke free. After that he was continually isolated, forced off the ball or having to retreat deep to find it.
Harry Kane's heat-map vs MUFC, via Squawka
Expect plenty more from Kane in the coming weeks. He’ll score 15 good goals this season and it’ll be met with underwhelming acceptance. The lad’s got plenty about him but he’s no Sergio Aguero just yet. This is a year of consolidation for Kane, before any big money transfer rumours can be believed he needs to show he can back up his last 12 months of performances.
And shout out to Chris Smalling. A very deserving Man of the Match. He was brilliant. Strong and decisive, assured and adept. Virtually flawless. Just what Louis Van Gaal would have wanted from him for his birthday too (that or a new watch or something). Not a result that’ll convince too many that this will be a championship season for LVG but after how his side started the last campaign he’ll take three good points any way he can get them.
The Good
Reece Oxford (West Ham) - How about 16 year old Reece Oxford!? The kid’s too young to drive, too young to drink, too young to know what a Bulbasaur is, yet he looked comfortably at home in his Premier League debut at the Emirates. He’s a strong lad for his age, muscling up against the (admittedly not so hulking) Arsenal midfield, showing good energy and moving the ball around just enough. He had plenty of cover, the defence behind him was superb and Cheikh Kouyate had a stormer himself, but if this was the dude’s debut then you certainly haven’t heard the last of him. Oxford is now the seventh youngest player in Premier League history.
Coutinho (Liverpool) – It wasn’t fantastic from Liverpool but then all you need is those three points to get started and they got ‘em thanks to Coutinho. In these rough, battling games, the team with the guy that can create something out of nothing will always be the favourite.
(I’ll say this, though: If Charlie Adam were still on then there’s no way Coutinho would have been able to roll through the initial challenge. Steve Sidwell will never know the dark arts that make Adam such a pest and such a handy player. Obviously Adam ain’t the fittest lad around, he was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf he is by the time he took his seat on the bench, but you kinda got the feeling that Sidwell’s introduction might be a problem after Stoke’s physicality had blunted the game in their favour ‘til them. On the topic of substitutions, Rodgers was seconds away from subbing Coutinho off for Danny Ings when he scored. Phew for him.)
Chris Smalling (Manchester United) – With that form he’ll be an England starter soon. And with Phil Jones’ lay off he’ll get a long run in the MUFC XI to prove it.
Chancel Mbemba’s Tux (Newcastle) – Way to make an entrance, son.
The Bad
Petr Cech (Arsenal) – Oh dear. How very, very Arsenal was it that their supposed difference maker, the man that was to propel them into a serious title challenge, was their worst player? Poor Wenger cannot win. Cech was largely to blame for both goals the Gunners leaked to West Ham, first charging out behind Kouyate’s run and leaving his goal open, then getting caught out of position by a snapshot from Mauro Zarate.
Everton Fans – Geez, we get it. You expect better. But 45 minutes into the new season is a little early to start the chorus of boos. At least give Ross Barkley the chance to do what he does first. Seeing Stones get beaten badly for the second Watford goal was ugly though. Everton have drawn their last three openers, all 2-2.
The Champs – Okay, preseason results mean about the square root of bugger all. But Chelsea haven’t won a game within 90 minutes since beating Sydney FC 1-0 in June. They only dropped two points from their first 21 last season, they’ve already dropped that many this time. Oh, and they have City away in their next game.
Sunderland’s Defence – In defence of Sunderland’s defence… John O’Shea was only on the bench.
The Downright Odd
Aleksandar Mitrovic (Newcastle) – We knew this fella was gonna be fun, and the 20 year old Serbian lived up to that with a yellow card 10 seconds after coming off the bench on debut.
Claudio Ranieri’s Musical Tastes – The Leicester City manager has done his homework. He’s crediting LCFC locals Kasabian and their track ‘Fire’ with pumping up his players for their blazing start to the season. Woulda thought The Tinkerman might be more into some Ornette Coleman or something but then he wasn’t from Leicester.
Arsene Wenger - "Any championship is never a motorway, it is always about responding well to accidents"… Quick, someone call AA!