EPL: Three Things to Watch This Weekend

Hey … remember the EPL? That soccer league thing-y where the clubs spent like a billion dollars on new players earlier this month? Yeah that league. What happened to it? I heard so much about it and then — poof — it disappeared quicker than a song about talking foxes.

You can thank a perfectly-timed FIFA mandated break on the calendar for the EPL’s (temporary) fade from prominence. Barely a month into the new European club season, it was highly important for international teams to get together and play friendlies ($$$) or qualifiers for the 2016 Euro which will pare down UEFA’s 54 members to 24 for the tournament in France.

Like clockwork, numerous important club players such as Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey, Chelsea’s Diego Costa and Manchester City’s Stevan Jovetic picked up injuries on duty for their respective national teams. Liverpool was especially hard hit with Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Henderson, Joe Allen and Emre Can each suffering knocks during the international break.

Undaunted, the Premier League presses on and we hit Round 4 this weekend, which begins with a marquee early-morning clash.

Game of the Week: Arsenal vs. Manchester City (Saturday, 7:45 a.m., NBCSN)

Not to get all Mike Francesa, but it’s hard not to laugh every week when NBC plays that “waiting all day for Sunday night,” promo before its NFL game. I suppose, yes, there are football fans who do other things during the day — raking leaves comes to mind — and don’t tune in until Carrie Underwood strides onto the screen.

In EPL terms, you rarely have to wait all day for the best game of the weekend, or even simply a game. That early, 7:45 a.m. kickoff (East Coast … how American fans on the West Coast do it, I’ll never know) often is the best game of the weekend many times, along with the late-Sunday match. There’s some rational to this on the Prem’s part. Despite the growth of the Premier League, there’s still an effort to try to protect the games and have people attend matches at their local club (3 p.m. local time), as the lower-tier teams survive on gate revenues. If you put up a great game ton elevision in the 10 a.m. (American) window, you hurt the other clubs, as fans might opt to watch that Premier League game at a bar as opposed to attending a match in-person.

Anyways, that’s my way of saying — yes it’s annoying (on a sliding sports’ fan scale) to wake up early on Saturday morning in America to watch a great matchup, but at least there’s a reason behind it. The reason Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger failed to strengthen his defensive midfield during the summer? That’s a little less rational, especially in light of Ramsey twisting his ankle on the artificial turf in Andorra during Wales Euro qualifier.

Fortunately for Arsenal, new signing Danny Welbeck made it through England duty unscathed, well, except in the papers. In the span of about five days, Welbeck’s reputation ran the gamut. Following England’s drab 1-0 win over Norway in a friendly he was “crap.” After scoring twice vs. Switzerland he was hailed as a hero. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but moreso toward the good than the bad. Welbeck is a handy player and if nothing else a player with a high workrate. Is he the out-and-out goal-scorer that the Gunners needed? Probably not, but the only fair way to judge him is to see how he meshes with Ramsey, Mesut Özil, Santi Carzola, et al. and that will take time.

There are goals in the Arsenal team, it’s just the Gunners tend to struggle against a packed-in defense since they lack that classic “target forward.” Although announcers love to harp on this, throwing on some big body and camping him out in the opponent’s box isn’t exactly a cure-all, either, despite Costa’s best efforts to prove otherwise since moving to Stamford Bridge.

Manchester City is actually a good way for Arsenal and Welbeck to start since it figures to be an open game, one where Arsenal won’t be facing an opponent on the proverbial back-foot. City scored seven times vs. Arsenal last season, including a 6-3 win in December. Manuel Pellegrini’s team isn’t off to a quick, 100-goal pace this year, scoring only five in three games. Jovetic — scorer of two of those goals — is out. Alvaro Negredo’s been shipped to Valencia, leaving the City strike four halved to Edin Dzeko and Kun Agüero.

For what it’s worth, Arsenal went 1-4-3 vs. Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton last season. (Yes, the Gunners beat Tottenham both times in 2013-14.) More disturbing against those four teams in one of the matches Arsenal allowed six, six, five and three goals. The focus of this match on TV will be Welbeck, but it ought to concentrate on the Gunners defense.

New faces:

As I mentioned earlier, it’s pretty funny that the EPL hypes up transfer deadline day … and fans have to wait almost two weeks before some of those signings play for their new clubs. All eyes will be on Manchester United when it faces QPR on Sunday. Will Louis van Gaal field a FIFA Ultimate Team style squad with, like, three strikers, five defenders and a makeshift midfield?

The influx of Angel Di Maria and Falcao means that last season’s record signing, Juan Mata, will probably be nothing more than a bench-warmer at United. Di Maria, excellent last week vs. Germany, is the sort of attacking link-up player United needs and if you build the squad around him, Wayne Rooney’s presence is needed much, much less also. United also have Marcos Rojo, finally cleared with his work permit, so he’ll slot somewhere into the five man (?) defense. Luke Shaw could also debut this weekend. The Red Devils do lose Phil Jones for a couple weeks, meaning more tinkering in the back.

United certainly spent a lot on players — $240+ million this summer window alone — but I’m still curious if they bought wisely. To win soccer at the highest levels you need elite-level players, duh. Manchester City, thanks to its billion-dollar owners, invested heavily in new recruits. Fortunately City found two stalwart bedrocks in the center of the field in captain Vincent Kompany and later Yaya Toure. These two allowed City to complement with attacking players to suit whomever was managing the team. United bought plenty of players and will be fun to use in FIFA 15, but until we see the combo van Gaal settles on, there will be growing pains. That said, by January if everyone at Old Trafford gets onto the same page there’s a lot to be potentially giddy about. Realistically, United needs to target a strong first-choice XI, complemented by 7-8 quality reserves who’ll be ready to grapple with Chelsea, City, Arsenal and Liverpool … next season.

Stoke’d

A year ago at this time, Stoke City was the defacto Team USA of the EPL. Three Americans — Geoff Cameron, Brek Shea and Maurice Edu — were in the Potters’ squad. Now, Stoke’s American connection is down to Cameron after Shea was loaned out earlier this week to Birmingham City in the Championship (second division). Edu, who only played once for the club, departed for the Philadelphia Union in January. Topping it off, Cameron is sidelined after hernia surgery this week and he tried to force a move away from Stoke prior to his injury.

Stoke also tried to add U.S. international Juan Agudelo, but he failed to acquire a UK work permit and the club released him from his contract in May.

The decline in American influence at Stoke shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, after Tony Pulis left the club and was replaced by Mark Hughes. Different managers will want different players, even if the club’s ownership maintain ties to American soccer through Phill Rawlins — a former director at Stoke and now part owner of MLS expansion franchise Orlando City.

Stoke, as we know, is a cosmopolitan club nowadays meaning its more likely to sign an ex-Barcelona youth team player than dipping its toes into the MLS waters to fill out its roster.

While it’s enjoyable, as an American, to see U.S. players on television when watching the Premier League it’s not a be-all, end-all for the National Team at this stage. The changing tides at Stoke remind you that American field players aren’t exactly highly valued in most English soccer circles and need someone like, say Chris Coleman when he was in charge at Fulham, to take a flier on them. The Cottagers’ investments in Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra and later Clint Dempsey certainly paid dividends both on the field and in terms of business. (Fulham’s current incarnation includes 18-year-old American Emerson Hyndman.)

As for Shea, called in by Jurgen Klinsmann to play against the Czech Republic last week, the “emergency” 93-day loan to Birmingham could be a sort of last-chance for the former FC Dallas winger. With Hughes in charge, it’s fairly clear Stoke doesn’t see Shea in its future plans. Since moving to England in 2013 he’s only played 13 games, including a disastrous loan last year to Barnsley that ended with an unfortunate incident with the team’s fans. Couple his poor form and potentially poor attitude and there aren’t going to be a bunch of teams in England, even in the lower divisions, lining up for Shea’s services.

The normal option here would be for Shea to return to America, but he’s under contract with Stoke until 2017 and presumably making more money riding the bench or playing with the reserves than he would in MLS, unless a team is willing to pay a transfer fee and hand him a designated player contract. As good as Shea was around 2012/13 for Dallas, it’s doubtful too many teams in America would want to invest a decent amount of money in a guy who’s form has fallen off, despite Klinsmann’s continued faith in him.

One postive for Shea? Birmingham needs players — it might suit up a 15-year-old this weekend — and manager Lee Clark say he’s a fan of Shea. The loan to Birmingham City might not be a “last chance” for Shea, but it’s close enough.