It’s a week late, but after the third weekend of the Premier League season, here’s what we learnt that weekend:
Firstly we’ve learnt that no-one could have predicted Manchester United’s brilliant 8-2 tonking of Arsenal. Whilst for United fans it was a performance that was a joy to behold as a team with an average age of 23 (younger than Arsenal’s) ripped Wenger’s boys to shreds, it was a nightmare for Gooners everywhere around the world and was a game that they will never forget – well until they finally win something anyway.
It was the result that confirmed, somewhat sadly perhaps, that Arsenal’s kids are not ready to take on the world and that they still need 2-3years of experience (haven’t we heard that before) until they will be able to cope with the demands of the Premier League.
To be fair to Wenger, he did have an weakened team on his hands (due to injuries and suspensions) but even he would not have expected to see his team crumble on the big-occasion faster than a HobNob biscuit does when you dip it into your average cup of tea.
We’ve learnt about a new time-zone that will be coming into the league this season. Dzeko-Time (think Chico-time) has struck already this season and the big Bosnian looks to be a much stronger and confident player this season after settling into life at Manchester City last season.
Yes some people may say: ‘but he only scored against Spurs’ but Dzeko has started the season well and his movement in City’s 5-1 win at Spurs (that happened hours before United’s 8-2 win) was exceptional and showed that he isn’t a bad player after all.
We’ve learnt that Franco Di Santo can actually score goals in the Premier League and is not just the white-version of Emile Heskey. To be fair to Di Santo, he was never really given the chance to prove himself at Chelsea (regardless of whether he was good enough or not) and was unlucky in that his style of play was not suited really at Blackburn where he spent the whole of the 2009/10 season.
Last year he got plenty of opportunities under Roberto Martinez at Wigan but only scored once in 29 appearances, casting doubts about his long-term future at the JJB sorry DW Stadium despite the fact he had signed a three-year contract with the club after leaving Chelsea. Already this season he looks a more confident player and after winning a penalty on the opening day in his sides draw with Norwich, scored twice against QPR. Whether he can keep his form is anybody’s guess.
We’ve learnt that Juan Mata is certainly going to be an exciting player to watch this season and that he will certainly add something different to Chelsea’s play this season. The World Cup winner has the pace and imagination that Roman Ambramovich’s Blues have been lacking since Arjen Robben’s departure and if his cameo against Norwich City is to go by, defenders this season will certainly need to keep an eye on him.
Lastly we’ve learn that more penalties will be missed this season, that Ben Foster is still prone to making the odd error which he proved to West Brom fans late on getting involved with a mix-up that led to Stoke City bagging a late winner and that Didier Drogba doesn’t always feign injury after witnessing the horrific collision he had with Norwich’s John Ruddy when the big striker was knocked out and was lucky to escape serious injury.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
