The return of top-flight football lived up to the billing, and there are plenty of arguments ready to be made after one weekend of action
The Premier League is back, baby. For the next nine months, your weekends are going to be dominated by goals, glory, despair and all sorts of nonsense. That's why we love it.
Gameweek one is in the books, with plenty of thrills and spills to whet the appetite. Liverpool opened the season with the defence of their title, only to suffer a bit of a wobble in a late win against Bournemouth, while Arsenal secured a victory away at Manchester United that was more gritty than glamorous.
For the most part, fans enter the first weekend of the new season full of optimism. What if their team really can win the league? What if their dreams do come true? Those who emerge from those first games victorious often cling on to that sentiment, but the losers' spirits go up in smoke. The first and last days are the only ones to bring out that emotion.
So, in honour of gameweek one, GOAL have cobbled together our hottest takes. Not necessarily things we're certain will happen, but some quick rethinks over how the season may play out.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportAmorim to be sacked by Christmas
Managers need time to implement their ideas and that's becoming decreasingly possible in the modern game. Those are both true, at odds as they unfortunately are. There's a school of thought that Ruben Amorim will make Manchester United great again if given the right tools and that he deserves patience. That said, no one can deny how worryingly little they've kicked on since his appointment last November.
Sunday's 1-0 loss to Arsenal has been labelled gutsy and promising. In some senses, yes, that's a fair assessment, given the stronger team on the day finished 15th last season and the other has realistic aspirations of winning the title. In another, it shows the levels of straw-clutching you have to go to in order to praise what United are nowadays.
What do Amorim's United do well? Score goals? Nope. Keep goals out? Nuh-uh. Control possession? Only when the opposition plan for it. Play their formation correctly? Not even that – there's a long history of other managers' 3-4-3 systems working far more cohesively than this hodgepodge of players almost randomly thrown together.
Amorim has now won only seven of his 28 Premier League games at the wheel – a shockingly low win rate of 25 per cent – and is the fastest manager to reach 15 losses of a side that hasn't just been promoted, per . It's not looking good, is it?
There is a clear desire on all levels at United to run with one plan for better and worse – Marcus Rashford urged them to do this as the door hit his bum on the way out – but you can't help but feel they're running with Amorim for worse and worser.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesGyokeres and Sesko will both be flops
Let's stay at Old Trafford for one more point before we take this rodeo elsewhere. Sunday was the first time that United's Benjamin Sesko and Arsenal's Viktor Gyokeres had played in the Premier League, with both finding out how difficult it is to adapt to life in England's top tier.
Gyokeres started and completed 60 minutes before being replaced by Kai Havertz having appeared off the pace while boasting only a couple of moments of any quality whatsoever – winning a free-kick for being thrown to the ground, and then outmuscling Matthijs de Ligt for a loose ball. There was no sense that he was going to score or create any danger in the box whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Sesko had to settle for a place on the bench and was introduced shortly after Gyokeres' withdrawal. However, he too struggled to get into the game, though at least he could point to having to face one of Europe's most formidable centre-back duos in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Big-money strikers don't always pan out as planned, even despite the hype and the supposed guarantee of goals they're meant to bring. Remember when Arsenal, Chelsea and United fans bickered over Alexandre Lacazette, Alvaro Morata and Romelu Lukaku? Those deals all went swimmingly.
Gyokeres and Sesko clearly need more time to settle, but at first glance, they're going to need to do a lot more suffering if they're to actually prove successful signings, particularly given the weight of expectation they're having to manage.
Getty Images SportReijnders for Player of the Year
Football's best signings at the elite level rarely prove to be those north of around £70m, but rather the ones between £40m and £60m. They often turn out to be the best value for money. You can look at most of Manchester City's major purchases in the Sheikh Mansour era to realise that.
Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva are some of their more understated purchases who boomed into club legends. Jack Grealish at £100m, for example, didn't really live up to the hype, and Erling Haaland at £50m isn't the same because of the agent fees and supremely high wages he's on.
At £46.5m, Tijjani Reijnders has half a chance of making that first list. His debut on Saturday, scoring and assisting in a 4-0 thrashing of Wolves, was one of the very best in Premier League history. There is a De Bruyne-shaped hole that City must fill and he's made a pretty decent first impression. If this is more than a one-off and he reminisces the Belgian playmaker even more so, then he will have a huge say in where this year's title goes.
"He is a typical player we need in the Premier League," Pep Guardiola said of City's new No.4. "He is an incredible, big signing for us. His work ethic, a holding midfielder occupies a lot of spaces and then after the control with the ball and his movements. And then he is trying to get in behind and score – really pleased."
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Getty Images SportEstevao will be Chelsea's best player by 2027
There's a reason why Brazilian football experts were higher on Estevao Willian than even his Palmeiras team-mate and Real Madrid striker Endrick, and that's because this boy is quality. Chelsea were largely laboured in their 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace, though that wasn't for the want of their new winger trying.
Estevao played with the fearlessness you'd expect of a wonderkid of the Selecao. He burst down the right wing whenever an opportunity was afforded, took up every invitation to get on the ball and try to make something happen. In a Blues team that can turn monotonous if the game isn't going as planned, that's going to prove an invaluable trait.
"The personality has been top," concurred Enzo Maresca. "You can see that he is from Brazil, they are different and he is going to be a fantastic player for the club. We know about Cole [Palmer], Estevao needs time to adapt but he is going to be important for the team… He is already showing that in our training sessions and for no doubt – slowly, slowly – he will become a very important player for this club."
How slowly Estevao gets there may be the more pertinent question. As Maresca alluded to, Palmer became a global superstar quite soon after a fine run of games for Chelsea, and there's nothing to suggest the Brazilian teenager can't follow a similar path. These sorts of stories about a young player suddenly exploding are hardly isolated cases.