5 Great Things About the Premier League's Opening Weekend
The greatest thing about this past weekend is that football is finally back!
However, in addition to once more having a reason to justify the ridiculous amount of money we spend on our cable and satellite TV bills, here are a few other great things to take away from this weekend’s Premier League games.
Feel free to weigh in with some your own highlights from opening weekend.
The Positive Football of Swansea City
1 of 5Never mind the 4-0 thrashing at the hands of a rampant Manchester City on Monday, Swansea seems intent on playing a very attractive brand of attacking football despite the steep odds faced by any newly-promoted team.
Rather than retreating into a defensive shell as many of their newly-promoted predecessors have done, Swansea has chosen to play open, attacking football, taking the game to their much more celebrated opponents.
The magnitude of the challenge of winning as a newly-promoted side is brought squarely into focus when one considers that the club has started the season with a payroll of just over £7.39 million, that’s a hair over one-fifth of the £35 million reportedly paid by Manchester City for Sergio Aguero.
Three Swans players stood out for me against City on Monday night, the speedy pair of Nathan Dyer and former Chelsea man Scott Sinclair… and Swansea’s star of the night, goalkeeper Michel Vorm.
Dyer and Sinclair are both young, blessed with world-class pace, and are full of confidence... qualities you'd want in any player. Sinclair may not have panned out with Chelsea, but at only 22 he still has a world of potential ahead of him.
Vorm meanwhile was simply outstanding, and the scoreline is hardly a reflection of his play. The third-string Holland international may not be entrenched there for long, as with this promotion to the EPL he has a chance to make a real name for himself.
The Performance of Sergio Aguero and the Premier League's Other Young Players
2 of 5This weekend was a revelation with regards to the performance of young players around the League.
In addition to the aforementioned Swansea players Dyer (23) and Sinclair (22), the weekend glistened with stellar performances by Blackburn Rover’s Mauro Formica (23), Manchester United’s Tom Cleverly (22) and Wigan’s Victor Moses (20).
The star of them all however was Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero (23) who only had two goals and an assist in his 30-minute cameo debut against Swansea Monday.
With a performance that is sure to send shivers down the spines of opposing defenders... say nothing of fellow City strikers, Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli, Aguero had as auspicious a debut as one could dream of.
Should he continue in such rich form then Sheikh Mansour would have earned a neat return on his £35 million investment, and City just might earn themselves some more silverware for the trophy case.
Honorable mention to Luis Suarez (24), Sunderland’s Seb Larsson (26) and Swansea’s Michel Vorm (27), other players perhaps still straddling the "young" line.
Suarez continued his torrid performance which began on his arrival in England and which carried over to the Copa America this summer.
Meanwhile the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal may be having a bit of buyer's remorse in seeing a quality keeper such as Vorm elude their scouting.
Move over Andre Villas-Boas, There Are Other Young Managers in the Game Now
3 of 5André Villas-Boas (33)- Sure the Chelsea manager has been the talk of the Premier League for:
a) landing arguably the most visible managerial gig outside of Manchester
b) being the highest-paid manager in English football; and
c) yes, for being so young.
Amazing how far and how fast he has risen given the fact that he’s never played professionally, but he has apprenticed under a pair of greats in Sir Bobby Robson (Porto) and José Mourinho (Chelsea). It remains to be seen whether he can successfully herd all those cats in the Chelsea locker room.
AVB is far from the only rising young manager in the Premiership however. Other stars whose arc appear meteoric are:
Paul Lambert (42)- Norwich City: has won on every level he’s played on, but the international level. Won trophies with St. Mirren in the old Scottish Football League, Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, and a Champions League trophy with Borussia Dortmund of the Bundesliga.
Led Norwich to back to back promotion from first League One (1st place 2010) to the Championship, then from the Championship (2nd place 2011) to the Premier League.
Brendan Rogers (38)- Swansea City: Forced to retire from playing at age 20 he immediately joined the Reading staff, rising to Youth Team Coach. Joined Chelsea in the same capacity in 2004 before taking over the helm of Watford in 2008 and then Swansea in 2009.
His early start in coaching means that he’s been a professional coach for essentially half his life. Impressive, resume… and impressive too is the product on the pitch, despite Monday’s 4-0 hiding by Manchester City.
Roberto Martinez (38)- Hard to think of Martinez in the same light of the other Premier League debutantes, and rightly so, given that he’s now entering his third season at the helm Wigan Athletic.
Nonetheless, it somewhat boggles the mind that Martinez is still so young, and amazing his rise given that me made the move directly from the playing field to the sideline dugout. Perhaps the best thing about Martinez from a fan's standpoint is that he has Wigan playing an attractive brand of football.. even if it has yet to produce the results to match.
The Return of Fernando Torres
4 of 5It must have been a bittersweet sight for Liverpool fans to see a sprightly Fernando Torres once again tormenting defenses with his speed, nimble footwork and close-control touches inside the 6-yard box.
He cuts a solitary figure in AVB’s formation and may not get the type of support he needs in order to score as proficiently as he did at Liverpool, but it’s unlikely that a talent such as his can be held down for very long.
He seems fully fit again and that final burst of speed so critical to his game has seemingly returned. More importantly, the confidence the manager has shown in him in starting him ahead of Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka, has seemingly re-invigorated the Spaniard, and it may not be long before he's once again at the top of his game.
For non-Chelsea fans (Liverpool fans in particular) this may not exactly be welcomed news, but in the end it benefits the League and fans of the game to see the return of a dynamic “El Niño”.
This May Finally Be Manchester City's Year
5 of 5Roberto Mancini finally seems to have all the pieces he needs to now challenge City’s cross-town rivals Manchester United.
Armed with the seemingly bottomless coffers of Sheikh Mansour City has embarked on a remarkable period of spending the likes of which English football has never before seen.
Sergio Aguero is but the latest shiny bauble added to the cornucopia of talent at the Etihad Stadium and with his arrival comes a ton of expectations from fans, but surely from ownership as well.
Such spending of course is not without its share of controversy... "mo' money, mo' problems" as they say. Liverpool and Arsenal have jointly questioned the legitimacy of the sponsorship deal with Etihad Airlines, effectively charging City with circumventing UEFA's financial fairplay rules.
Even internally the taste may be upsetting to some as the UK Daily Mail is reporting that Nigel de Jong, Vincent Kompany and Micah Richards are wondering what they have to do in order to be compensated in line with their value to the club.
But our focus is on the positives... Aguero showed tremendous promise on his debut and should he develop that rapport with Silva, then Mancini can place alongside him Dzeko... or Balotelli... or Tevez... or frankly a training cone at this rate... and City will be well on their way to easing a lifetime of hurt for their long-suffering fans.
What were some of your highlights?
