The Premier League is back, although not quite as we know it.
All 20 teams have played at least once, but with no fans in attendance and sticky summer weather conditions to contend with, most matches have looked more pre-season than Premier League.
Nevertheless, the return of football is, for the most part, a good thing and there was plenty happening during the first round of fixtures.
Here are the main things we learned.
Liverpool’s wait for the title goes on
That Jurgen Klopp went out of his way to praise Alisson as “world-class” shows that Liverpool were nowhere near their pulsating best against Everton in a Merseyside derby played in 28 Days Later conditions.
The big takeaway from Liverpool’s perspective was how badly they missed the width and thrust provided by Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson, neither of whom have a natural replacement to step in.
The result has delayed the inevitability in terms of the Premier League title, although Liverpool could win it as early as Wednesday by beating Crystal Palace if Manchester City inexplicably drop points against Burnley on Monday night.
A more likely scenario is Liverpool winning the title at the Etihad in their next game (on Thursday 2 July) after Palace as they could require just a draw to take it off City’s hands on their own patch.
Players take the knee
By a distance, the most breathtaking moment of the Premier League’s return came before a ball had even been kicked when players from Aston Villa and Sheffield United took the knee before kick-off on Wednesday.
It made for an even more striking image with the player’s names on the back of the shirts replaced with ‘Black Lives Matter‘, to show support for the global movement for racial equality.
Raising awareness is one thing but as former Lionesses star Eni Aluko articulated on Sky Sports, this has to be the start of real change being implemented in English football rather than a one-off show of support.
Of the 91 managers in the Football League, for instance, only six are from Bame backgrounds.
“What I would say though is that I don’t want it to be a fleeting moment – unless the players are going to kneel for the rest of the season – what is the lasting change that is going to come from this?” said Aluko on Sky Sports.
Hopefully, this is just the start for equality in the game.
First halves are over-rated
A talking point before play resumed was whether there would be an upsurge of away victories in the Premier League, like there has been in the Bundesliga.
Interestingly, there were four away victories to three home wins, but perhaps of greater significance was the breakdown between goals scored in the first half compared to those in the second.
In the opening 11 fixtures, 23 goals were scored in total but only five of those came in the opening 45 minutes – Raheem Sterling, Steven Bergwijn, Luka Milivojevic, Jordan Ayew and Kortney Hause were the goalscorers for you quiz fans.
Perhaps the summer heat is a factor with teams easing their way into matches rather than flying out of the blocks and risking burnout later on. Maybe watching games from 46 minutes onwards is the way to go…
Crowd noise or no crowd noise?
Sky Sports announced earlier this month that in conjunction with EA Sports FIFA they had created a “range of bespoke and team-specific crowd noises and chants” to accompany their commentary for matches.
Early reaction to artificial crowd noise suggests you’re either a fan or you hate it, much like Marmite, craft beer or Kanye West.
Understandably there were some teething problems with crowd noises not exactly matching up to the action on the pitch, like when an audible cheer went up after Richarlison had ballooned a shot into the Gwladys Street End rather than into the net.
Those who decided to watch games au naturel might have hoped to hear pearls of wisdom escape the mouths of the captains or managers, but aside from Chris Wilder barking “Bashy, Bashy, BASHY!!” to Chris Basham, there hasn’t been much in the way of insight.
Counting the cost of injuries
Following such a lengthy lay-off, it was inevitable that some players would succumb to injuries as their muscles readjust to the rigours of the Premier League football.
Most of the injuries suffered were impact ones rather than muscular, such as Eric Garcia’s head injury after a sickening collision with Ederson or Josh King’s ankle knock after a hefty challenge from Gary Cahill.
Virtually every club had at least one player picking up a knock or worse but Arsenal were undoubtedly hit the hardest with Granit Xhaka, Pablo Mari and Bernd Leno all being forced off the pitch in matches against City and Brighton.
Leno’s knee injury sustained after a clash with Neal Maupay caused plenty of controversy with the German goalkeeper accusing the Frenchman of intentionally hurting him as he made his way off on a stretcher.
Maupay inevitably then went on to score the winner in stoppage time.
Battle of the choreography
Without fans in the stands, Premier League clubs came up with creative ways to generate some atmosphere (although fortunately, they didn’t follow the precedent set by K-League side FC Seoul).
Alongside banners celebrating their current stars, the clubs playing ‘at home’ made some eyecatching and classy gestures with their various tifos dotted around the stadium.
Norwich City paid tribute to the late Justin Fashanu by placing an LGBT themed banner with his name and number on the back behind one of the goals, while Tottenham laid shirts out with the names of every fan who has sadly died during coronavirus.
Aston Villa also put an orange steward’s jacket on a seat inside Villa Park in tribute to Dean Smith’s father Ron who was a steward for the club after he too sadly passed away from Covid-19.
At a time when Premier League clubs receive criticism for taking advantage of supporters, it has been heartening to see them give back to their communities over the past couple of months.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Ymhyvy
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