Manchester United may have only played two Premier League matches this season, but it can be argued that history is not on their side. This was ensured when they dropped their opening week fixture 1-0 to Everton. Some would say it is only the first week and that United have plenty of time to recover, which is true, yet Premier League history tends to disagree. Only two sides have ever won the Premier League title after losing their opening fixture. Unsurprisingly it was United who had twice lost their opening Premier League match before recovering to win the championship. That said, both of those victories came in the first four years of the Premier League’s existence, 1992-1993 when United fell 2-1 to Sheffield United and 1995-96 when United suffered an opening loss to Aston Villa.
But discounting United for the sole fact that history is against them would be foolish, as the Red Devils may be the most jaw-dropping club in the history of club football. If one is going to ask questions about United’s title hopes it must have more concrete reasoning. Luckily for all those (especially the blue sector of the city) who are looking to ask those questions, plenty of reasoning has presented itself.
This weekend United had an excellent opportunity to avenge their opening week loss against a Fulham side who are good, but far from great, and answer to those who believed they were in peril. While on paper they did just that, winning 3-2, it was by no means a convincing result. From Damian Duff’s opener onward United were dealt plenty of doubt as Fulham continued to press even after falling behind 3-1. If not for David De Gea who was solid despite a dismal blunder on the second Fulham goal, United would almost certainly have dropped points at home.
To make matters worse for United injuries are already starting to play a huge role in their season. When viewing a football match few would expect to see a moment so grotesque that it would be more akin to UFC or Ice Hockey, yet in the Fulham match a horrible gash on the leg of Wayne Rooney proved to be just that. Rooney, who had not started the game (which in itself hasn’t gone unnoticed by critics), will most likely miss at least the next four weeks. Luckily for United their next two matches are against Southhampton and Wigan, two squads who will most likely be in the relegation battle at the end of the season, so they should have a short recovery period. But they will miss him for their upcoming Champions League matches and late September fixtures against Liverpool and Tottenham. Oh yeah, United are also missing Rio Ferdinand, Paul Jones, Chris Smalling and Darren Fletcher.
All of these injuries have made United fairly vulnerable at the back and it could be a theme that resounds during this Premier League season. In our season preview, we noted the vulnerability of the United defenders, and the first two weeks have done nothing to discourage our warning.
The acquisition of Robin van Persie has become so much more important now that Rooney is injured and plenty of pressure will be put on last year’s Premier League Golden Boot recipient. Yet van Persie has had plenty of his own injury issues in the past and if he were to go down at this point in the season a United title would become incredibly unlikely. Yes, I’m getting ahead of myself, but sometimes thinking of the “what-ifs” is valid. Further, a loss to both Tottenham and Liverpool before the end of September and United have almost drowned themselves before the season has even really begun.
Hey, at least there’s one good thing that comes out of this for United: Rooney won’t be taking their penalties. Ouch!
City look like champions
They say that the best teams in sports can get results when they are undeserving of them (cough MANUNITED, cough). That fact is true for Manchester City who were very lucky to pouch a draw at Anfield against a Liverpool side who were better on the day. This came after City’s week one fixture, which may have been the most exciting of the entire weekend. After leading early through Carlos Tevez they trailed 2-1 to a scrappy Southhampton side until late when they regained the lead and reminding supporters of the manner in which they had won the title last year. They had a similar experience this weekend as it was Tevez who scored his second of the season late in the second half to grab City points that they certainly didn’t deserve. While neither result from City this campaign has been particularly impressive, the desire and ability to come from behind is inspirational. Like I said, good teams pull rabbits out of their hats just when you least exptect it – their cross-town rivals have been doing it forever. It may turn out to be the catalyst for back-to-back championships.
El Nino is all right
Going into the 2012-2013 Premier League season it appeared that the main problem for Chelsea was going to be at the top of bottom of their lineup. With Didier Drogba’s departure still fresh in the memories of supporters it became quickly evident that Chelsea didn’t have a player like Drogba to step in and score the goals the club requires. Fernando Torres had been a prolific goalscorer in the Premier League in the past, but with only seven Premier League goals in fourty-seven Premier League matches over two campaigns it seemed that the one they call “El Nino” had lost his scoring touch. But Torres has looked every bit as dangerous as he was in his Liverpool days to start the season. All it took was a missed offside tap-in to bring out a striker who had seemingly become vintage. His next match against Newcastle United, Torres would be the hero drawing a penalty (suspect, at best) slotted home by Eden Hazard and then adding a brilliant strike of his own to win the match 2-0 for the Blues. As Torres continues to gain confidence he will only become more dangerous for other Premier League sides.
Norwich robbed of win against QPR
Both Norwich City and Queen’s Park Rangers were looking to rebound from horrible opening week losses when they met each other in week two, and to some extent both clubs did just that. Canadian international Simeon Jackson, left out of the lineup for the opener, scored the opening goal for the Canaries after excellent movement through the midfield. The goal was expertly crafted by Robert Snodgrass who was class for Norwich on the day. However, the main talking point in the match came on the equalizer. The ball was played through to Djibril Cisse who fell down in the box after some light contact with a Norwich defender. Even in real time from the television angle it was easy to spot that there was little force behind the challenge and that Cisse had taken a clear flop, but the referee thought otherwise giving QPR the penalty. Cisse would fail to finish on the penalty but Bobby Zamora was the first to the free ball and leveled the score. If the form of both of these clubs continues there is a chance one or both of them could be in the Championship next season.
Swansea and Everton off to a brilliant start
It may only be two weeks into the Premier League season but both Everton and Swansea have to be proud that they currently sit number two and three in the standings behind Chelsea, who have played three matches. Neither team is expected to contend for a Premier League title, yet both have impressed. Swansea began their season with a demolition of a fairly talented Queen’s Park Rangers side. Brilliant counter-attacking football was the name of the game as Swansea played through-ball after through-ball to Michu and Nathan Dyer who each had a brace as Swansea went on to win 5-0. Swansea would follow their opening match in style beating West Ham 3-0. Michu would take the lead in Premier League scoring when he added his third of the season and appears to be one of the best Premier League summer transfers thus far.
Everton kicked off their Premier League season in an even more impressive fashion against Manchester United. Not only did Everton beat United but they outplayed them as well. Marouane Fellaini has proven to be deadly in the air as he scored the only goal in a 1-0 Everton victory before adding another almost identical goal against Aston Villa. Besides Fellaini, South African International Steven Pienaar has to be given plenty of credit for his quality in the midfield.The fact that Everton are usually poor to start the season seems to be forgotten by the current roster as they dominated an Aston Villa side this weekend who will have plenty to answer for after their performance. While it is early in the season Everton and Swansea both have plenty to be proud of and have put themselves in excellent positions work with going forward.
There you have it, lads, a quick look into the Premier League weekend. I’ll see you bright and early next Monday morning as we recap the week’s most important stories. Follow me on Twitter – @LastWordMitch
