Premier League Check-In: The Blues are Red Hot
(Photo by Michael Regan via olympics.com)
Although American football is dominating headlines right now, as it should be, the real football season is in full swing overseas.
Most European leagues are five or so games into their season, the Champions League group stage began last week, and now domestic tournaments such as the Carabao Cup are underway. The beautiful game is looking as beautiful as ever at this point in the year.
The GTD Catalog has been poppin off recently with new blogs on a daily basis, but there is certainly a lack of soccer content. Or at least there WAS a lack of soccer content. In this new series, Premier League Check-In, I’ll be taking you through some of the biggest moments, trends, and rumors from around the UK throughout the season.
Obviously there has been some massive news in the soccer world recently as both Messi and Ronaldo have joined new clubs this past transfer window, but rather than glossing over the boring, mundane news you could get anywhere else; we’re here to have some fun.
We’ll be making predictions, rankings, and just about anything you can imagine to analyze the state of the premier league at any given time, with my own personal twist on everything. My discussion topics will vary from time to time, but as an introduction to the series, let’s check up on how our friends in the “top 6” are performing a month into the season.
Arsenal are in shambles
(Photo by DeFodi Images / Getty images via 90min)
Starting from the bottom up, I could rant about the Gunners for hours on end. If you have ever listened to the Going The Distance Podcast with Elijah and myself, chances are you know I am a MASSIVE Arsenal supporter.
I don’t even know where to begin with this lot. Chances are people that have never watched a game of soccer in their life know who Arsenal Football Club is at the moment because of the never-ending memes and internet mockery after every loss (and there have been a lot of those lately).
Heading into this season, things were looking up. Mikel Arteta has had time to settle into the club and bring in some signings of his own such as Ben White and Martin Odegaard, Aubameyang signed a new long-term deal, and overall the team seemed to have found some sort of chemistry - something that has been a major problem for Arsenal the past couple seasons.
So where did things go wrong? No clue. Since the beginning of the season, Arsenal have improved slightly with now two consecutive 1-0 victories over Norwich City and Burnley, but overall they have been a massive let down yet again.
The Gunners took a whopping 333 minutes of game time to net their first premier league goal of the season. That’s pitiful. It’s one thing when you’re facing giants like Chelsea and Manchester City, but a 2-0 loss to newly-promoted Brentford to open the season is inexcusable.
Being an Arsenal fan brings me true agony, but I can’t stop. I love this club, and always will love this club ‘til the day I die, but god dammit can we please start competing again? In case you are unfamiliar with the unique pain and suffering that comes with supporting Arsenal FC, these internet memes should do the trick:
I’m at the point where I have accepted a life of endless hope and excitement followed by let downs and disappointment - the life of a gooner. As I said before, the Gunners have secured two straight three-point performances, but their schedule doesn’t get any easier as they take on Tottenham in the North London Derby this Sunday.
Tottenham are a mystery
(Photo by Getty Images vis eurosport)
It pains me to say this, but the Spurs look really, really good on paper. One of my favorite things about the premier league though is that passing the eye test doesn’t always produce results on the pitch. This is a league where anyone can beat anyone on any given day, and Tottenham Hotspur are the epitome of that revelation.
You never know which Spurs team is going to walk out of that tunnel. Will it be the Spurs that opened the 2021/2022 Premier League campaign with a dominant 1-0 victory over defending champions Manchester City? Or will it be the Spurs that gets obliterated 3-0 at home against 14th place Crystal Palace? You truly never know.
The Spurs began this season with three straight victories, bagging nine out of nine possible points. Since then, they have lost two straight by an aggregate score of 6-0.
After a back and forth battle between club and player, Harry Kane remains in North London, but is he there mentally? It’s not all that shocking for a player to have a goalless drought, but for a striker of Kane’s caliber a four-game drought can do a load of damage to a player’s confidence.
One could assume there would be somewhat of an adjustment period after the Jose Mourinho era in North London, but the question remains whether or not this squad will be able to find consistency in the long run.
Manchester United needs to hop off Ronaldo’s dick
(Rui Vieira / AP via marca.com)
I get it. You signed arguably the greatest footballer of all time in a nostalgic return to where Ronaldo started his career, plus he’s hot, but relax. Red Devils fans acted as if this signing was the second coming of Jesus, and although Ronaldo is probably better than Jesus at soccer, he isn’t a magical solution to fix all their problems and carry them to a league title.
Don’t get me wrong, Ronaldo is fantastic in every way, shape, fashion or form imaginable and this was a brilliant move by United to bring him back. BUT, and this is a big but, Manchester United are going to continue pulling Manchester United shit.
In terms of Premier League play, Manchester United couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Five games, four wins, one draw, zero defeats. Overall, there are still some concerns.
The Red Devils began their Champions League campaign with an embarrassing 2-1 loss against Young Boys FC despite an opening goal from Ronaldo. Fast forward to the Carabao Cup and Man United was knocked out by West Ham in the third round.
In the grand scheme of things, focusing on league play can be a winning strategy, but I’m still not convinced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the right man to lead the charge. With a team full of superstars like Ronaldo, Pogba, Sancho, Varane, De Gea, and even Rashford, there is no reason Man United shouldn’t be dominating everyone outside of the top 6.
The richest club in the world has shown their wealth over the past few seasons, and because of this they seem poised to compete for a title this season. I wouldn’t put all my eggs into one basket at this point in the season, but if the Red Devils can mimimize their random dogshit performances they might not be a bad bet to lift the trophy in 2022.
Manchester City are human
(Photo by PETER POWELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Citizens have been so dominant for so long now, I was beginning to believe they had become an impenetrable dynasty comparable to the NFL’s Patriots or the old school Celtics back in the day. Turns out, just as any other team, Man City has some faults.
From their academy players to their seasoned veterans - Manchester City has the most depth of any premier league club at this point in time. I don’t want to compare the Citizens inconsistency to that of Tottenham Hotspur because there are levels to it, but early on in the season we have seen that it is possible to compete with England’s defending champs.
With Tottenham, it’s always which team we are going to see on any given weekend. With Manchester City, it’s are they going to win 6-0 or struggle to come away with a 1-0 nailbiter - no inbetween.
Disregarding their two 5-0 wins thus far, Manchester City dropped the opening game of the season against Tottenham and recently finished in a 0-0 draw with Southampton. I truly have nothing against Man City, but this is a beautiful sight.
Plastic money can only hold on for so long, and the Citizens have shown vulnerability at times early in this season. I guarantee you they’ll finish top four again, if not top two, but be on the lookout for a few random, unexplainable draws or losses similar to the one against Southampton.
Liverpool are boringly good
(Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Liverpool are going to Liverpool. Led by Jurgen Klopp, the Reds look just as good as ever after a disappointing finish to last season.
Five games into the season, Liverpool have four dominant wins and one hard-fought draw against current 1st place side Chelsea. Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Roberto Firmino make up one of the best attacking trio the beautiful game has to offer.
They’ve been a nightmare for opposing defenders so far this season, accounting for 8 of the Reds’ 12 league goals. Both Salah and Mane are serious contenders for the golden boot this year. On the other end, you have one of the best defenders in the world - Virgil Van Dijk. Top to bottom this squad is loaded and should be primed to compete for another Premier League trophy (sadly).
A lot of Liverpool’s late season woes can be attributed to injury problems, but with a mostly healthy squad now the Reds are looking strong. I hate it. Maybe it’s jealousy as an Arsenal supporter, or maybe it’s just because historically Liverpool are one of the most despicable clubs in history. Either way, the only red and white badge I want to see lift the Premier League trophy anytime soon is the Arsenal cannon.
I have to give credit where credit is due though. Jurgen Klopp is far and away one of the best managers in all of Europe and has done a fantastic job building Liverpool into the, dare I say, dynasty they are today.
This year’s championship is truly anyone’s game - besides Arsenal and Tottenham… sorry North London. The battle between Chelsea, Liverpool, and both Manchester clubs is going to be wildly entertaining throughout the season. Which brings me to the last of our top 6 clubs:
Chelsea are running rampant
(Photo by Jose Coelho/Pool via AP)
The Blues are red hot.
Chelsea have slowly but surely worked their magic in the transfer market over the past couple seasons. From 2019 to now, there are massive changes to the Blues depth chart and clearly it’s for the better.
Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Thiago Silva, and now the return of Romelu Lukaku; all of these signings have worked out beautifully for Chelsea. Somewhat of a nice change of pace after their expensive disasters like Alvaro Morata and Tiemoue Bakayoko in 2018/2019.
At this point in the season, and I never thought I’d say this, I believe Chelsea are the favorites to win the league. Thomas Tuchel has come over from PSG and done a masterclass in England, paving the way for a lot of other manager’s transfer market activities. Tuchel hasn’t made a bad signing yet, and the Blues haven’t had a bad performance yet.
Key word: yet. In a 38-game season, bad games are bound to happen, but in the long run Chelsea seem to be the most fundamentally sound and cohesive unit in all of England.
With four completely capable teams, this might end up as the most exciting championship race we’ve seen since Leicester City pulled off a miracle in 2015-2016.