Tottenham’s rivals weather highs and lows on opening weekend
By Ryan Wrenn
The opening weekend of the Premier League season offered a little something for everyone, including Tottenham fans anxious to see how their rivals stack up.
Beginning Friday evening and ending Sunday afternoon, the first round of games ranged from the cool and calculated efforts of seasoned professionals all the way to chaotic circuses of goals encouraged by an utter absence of competent defending, with Tottenham’s own win nestled somewhere in between.
The season began Friday with Leicester City’s trip to the Emirates to take on Arsenal. Goals on either in within the first five minutes set the tone for a raucous night.
Leicester would take the lead only for Arsenal to equalize in first half stoppage time. A third goal from the Foxes ten minutes after the interval threatened disaster for Arsene Wenger and his charges. Only two goals scored in the 83rd and 85th minute saved Arsenal from suffering a disastrous continuation of last season’s disappointments.
As elated as the home support were for that 4-3 win, it is a troubling reflection of just how brittle Arsenal look in defense. With several centre-backs either suspended or injured, Wenger was forced to name two full-backs in a back three formation that Arsenal still don’t look quite used to yet. This issue was compounded by the fact that, despite many attempts, Wenger still has not resolved his defensive midfield conundrum.
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The result was that Leicester frequently found space to run into and far too many angles on goal. Even if his centre-backs all return in the coming weeks, this is unclear if Wenger can put together a defense good enough to keep them in contention for a Champions League place.
The defensive fragility continued Saturday midday, with Liverpool succumbing to a 3-3 draw against Watford in the final minute. Again, Liverpool found plenty of joy in attack but could not put up a meaningful defensive effort — particularly in set plays.
Thirteen goals in two matches might have been an outlier, but the woes did not end for some in last season’s top six.
Chelsea’s Gary Cahill earned himself a red card in the 14th minute of their home opener against Burnley, and Antonio Conte’s men promptly fell apart thereafter. Burnley were 2-0 up at the interval, and scored another to make Chelsea’s own two goals late in the game meaningless.
It’s unusual for the defending champions to lose at home to a team that only narrowly avoided relegation in the previous term. What will sour Conte and Chelsea fans even more is the fact that, barring some serious investment over the next five days, they will travel to Wembley to play Spurs next weekend severely depleted thanks to injury and suspension.
Tottenham fans will be more worried about the much more competent performances of the Manchester club. Both played relatively weak opposition — City traveled to recently promoted Brighton, while United hosted a truly terrible West Ham team — but they scored the goals they needed to get three points. Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho look much more settled in with their clubs after uneven first seasons, and Pochettino should expect a challenge from both.
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There’s absolutely no way to draw any meaningful long term conclusions based on the first round of play, of course. Chelsea will find something closer to their rhythm of last season, while plenty can still go wrong in Manchester.
What this weekend did make clear, though, is that Tottenham are not alone in their bit of summer turmoil. Their 2-0 win over Newcastle combined with these encouraging results elsewhere will settle nerves rattled over the Danny Rose incident last week.