EPL Review: 10 Things to Talk About After the First Weekend

The unending marathon known as the English Premier League (or EPL if you’re into the whole brevity thing) is back in our lives. One round out of the 38-game season is in the books, but since it’s the first week we put a lot more stock into it than the other 37 that comprise 2.5 percent of the season. Let’s take a look around the first nine results of the season and make some observations that will surely be relevant come May.

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Narratives! Narratives! Narratives! — Arsenal went 4-0-0 on its preseason tour, signed Petr Cech and beat Chelsea in the Community Shield last week. West Ham United got knocked out of the Europa League by a Romanian club Astra Giurgiu and handed 16-year-old Reece Oxford his EPL debut in midfield on Sunday. Naturally in the season opener the Irons won 2-0 at the Emirates, with Cech looking shaky in goal … just as we all drew it up!

Same old Arsenal, right?

Let’s look at the Cech questions first.

Cheikhou Kouyaté’s opening goal is more the result of poor marking rather than Cech coming out and missing. The ball from new West Ham signing Dimitri Payet was delivered into the perfect spot that catches a keeper stuck between deciding to stay on his line or come out of a catch. I’m not sure how it happened, but almost all television commentary on soccer — EPL in particular — tend to make it out that teams should never allow goals on set pieces and that they should be marked 99.9 percent of the time. Sometimes it makes sense to give credit, in this case, to Payet and Kouyaté for doing something right rather than Arsenal’s screwing up.

Cech’s wobble on Mauro Zarate’s goal? Well … that was poor keeping and atypical of Cech. If that happened in November, it’s a blip on the radar but the first game of the season turns everything into DEFCON ONE level events.

Since it’s August and the transfer window is still open the question is where does Arsenal go from here? Rush into buying Karim Benzema, assuming that will be the panacea for all that ails the club? Will Arsene Wenger pair Santi Carzola back with Francis Coquelin in center of the field? The best course might be to see how the team reacts next Sunday at Crystal Palace before wondering if the sky is already falling at the Emirates.

Unfortunately more of the Same — As I mentioned in my preview on Friday, English soccer doesn’t seem quite as concerned over potential head injuries as we are in America. During the Arsenal-West Ham match, Olivier Giroud and James Tompkins knocked heads. The French striker was splayed out on the pitch, seemingly knocked out. After treatment both players finished the match.

Twitter speculated over the severity of the injury and wondered why either player would be allowed to continue. After the match, the official Arsenal account said Girioud never lost consciousness.

Is the club trying to cover its own ass? Possible. Also possible? The club medical staff on the field conducting tests knows more about the situation than anyone like you or I sitting thousands of miles away behind a keyboard or smart phone.

Knowing what we know about head injuries, the risk of playing someone who’s suffered a concussion isn’t smart and clubs should know better or at minimum try to err on the side of caution. Arlo White, on the NBCSN feed, did mention it would be prudent for soccer to adopt a special substitution when it comes to head injuries. I tend to doubt a similar point was made by the English or worldwide broadcast and it was probably an afterthought, which is part of the issue.

We Have a Race! — Chelsea drew Swansea 2-2 at Stamford Bridge, meaning the Blues will not be wire-to-wire champions like last season. Thibaut Courtois’ sending off, leaving the Blues with 10 players is the big talking point, but Chelsea didn’t look great with all 11 — and that’s on the heels of an indifferent preseason.

This result is a good example of not overreacting to a result in August, but it does open up some slight questions for Chelsea. Namely expecting a repeat of last year’s flawless campaign was nigh on impossible. I’d look more at it this way, Chelsea is a veteran squad. Although it has young players on its books, those players have been farmed out across England and Europe. Of the Chelsea regular first team rotation, who beside 20-year-old Kurt Zouma has room to appreciably improve this season compared to last?

Eden Hazard is a Top 5 player in the world, but how much better can his performance be from last year when he won Player of the Year honors and started all 38 league matches? Same with Cesc Fabregas, John Terry, et al. Oscar might not necessarily need to improve, but if the 23-year-old finds a way to stay fresh from August to May it’s a boost for Chelsea.

At their best, the Blues are still the team to beat. The transfer window is still open, so watch Mourinho and Roman Abramovich make a splash at the last minute.

[RELATED: NBC Keeping EPL Television Rights Six More Years]

My Favorite Play of the Weekend: Swansea earned plaudits for signing Andre Ayew on a free transfer. The longtime Marseille midfielder made good on his debut, scoring what — at first — looks like a nothing goal from a rebound. Watch it again.

" REPLAY: Andre Ayew strikes for #Swans to tie #CFC at one. #ForeverFast http://t.co/Rb1PH7BrHG — NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 8, 2015 "

That split-second drag back, while standing up, was impressive. Swansea probably went back to Wales regretting not taking all three points vs. Chelsea.

Three Points Banked: Manchester United beat Spurs 1-0, thanks to a Kyle Walker own goal. To that point in the game United didn’t have a shot on target. The Red Devils held on and got the result, so you don’t fret over it like you did Arsenal and Chelsea. There’s not much more to say, that was a pretty damn boring season opener if you woke up early to watch it.

Boom: Soccer is so prone to lazy clichés, such as “goals win games.” That’s really all there is to say about Liverpool beating Stoke City 1-0 on Philippe Coutinho’s fantastic strike in the 86th minute. This isn’t a long-term strategy to win games, but in isolated moments it works.

Brendan Rodgers was about to sub Coutinho off, too. This made me think of “Homer at the Bat” when Darryl Strawberry launches a home run and Mr. Burns, managing the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant team, remarks “I told him to do that.”

Costly decision: Norwich City had a potential equalizer vs. Crystal Palace nullified when referee Simon Hooper called Cameron Jerome for a high foot on this goal. This call probably won’t be remembered since it didn’t involve any of the “big” clubs in the EPL, but it could end up costing Norwich nine months from now. Long story short, it took barely two hours for the always dubious EPL officiating to create controversy.

Hell is Other EPL Teams: Rooting for Sunderland is some sort of act in courage or the power of blind sports loyalty. Sunderland followed up last year’s relegation scrap by falling behind 3-0 to Leicester City before losing 4-2. The EPL loves to tout how it’s the best league in the world, which is amusing since going into each new season, at best, four teams have a shot at winning whereas more clubs would be happy to finish 17th and avoid relegation — hey, it’s not much but beats the alternative, especially with all the television money pouring into the league.

On the plus side for Sunderland, the club is in its ninth consecutive season in the top flight. Less encouraging these are its finishes: 15th, 16th, 13th, 10th, 13th, 17th, 14th, 16th.

Sunderland is an existentialist’s dream (or nightmare). If you die and go to purgatory you still get to follow and root for a soccer team, which is nice, except that team is Sunderland.

Back?: As of this writing Manchester City are up 2-0 on West Brom in the Monday afternoon/evening game. Yaya Toure has accounted for both goals, including this excellent curled effort set up by a Wilfried Bony lay-off.

Toure scored 20 times in the league two seasons ago when Manchester City won it. His total dropped to 10 last year. Among Manuel Pellegrini’s many challenges this year will be figuring out a way to keep Toure fresh throughout the course of the long season across the EPL and Champions League campaigns.

Random Musings: Riyad Mahrez scored twice for Leicester City and continues to impress. … I laughed during the United-Spurs game when the commentators mentioned the weather at Old Trafford was oppressive. According to weather.com it was 74 degrees with minimal humidity. … Stoke City opened the season with three ex-Barcelona players on its books and appears close to adding Xherdan Shaqiri. What a time to be alive! … It was one game and it was against promoted Bournemouth but Aston Villa’s new striker, Rudy Gestede looks like he and his 6-foot-4 frame will be a handle for defenders this season. … West Brom signed Salomon Rondon from Zenit on Monday, for a club-record $18+ million.

[Photo via Getty Images]