A wild opening weekend in the Premier League

The first weekend of the Premier League has come and gone. It feels as though the league had never really left, as the break seems to only be two weeks long. Every one of the clubs in the top league faced off this weekend, and although the campaign is going to be extremely arduous this season, there are some great storylines from week one.

Two of the newly promoted teams came out hot

Fulham FC, AFC Bournemouth, and Nottingham Forest all were promoted from the Championship Division this offseason, as they finished inside the top three of that league. One of the cooler things in sports is relegation, and if you don’t perform with the best of the best, you don’t keep your spot. Getting relegated leads to financial ruin, but let’s not go into that.

Nottingham Forest is not the team to collect any points this weekend, as they were handily defeated by new financial powerhouse, New Castle. Fulham, with the most surprising final score of the weekend, potentially most shocking finish of the entire season, draws the mighty Liverpool, 2-2. Fulham’s striker, Alexander Mitrovic, who led the Championship League last year with an astronomical 43 goals, potted two goals against Liverpool.

Although Fulham didn’t come away with the win, taking a point away from Liverpool is no easy feat. Jurgen Klopp loves to buy players who perform well against his team, so, Mitrovic will likely end up in a Liverpool jersey by the end of the week.

Bournemouth on the other hand, outright defeated Aston Villa, 2-0 at home. Steven Gerrard’s, Villa side came out completely flat, and fell apart on a set piece towards the end of the game that secured the three points for the newly promoted Bournemouth side. It was quite the weekend for the newcomers.

Liverpool’s woes

Liverpool’s dropped points at the hands of Fulham, is a really shocking result. The Premier League is going to be a dog fight all year, and every single point is going to matter in order to keep up with the top of the table. Dropping a result like this to a team like Fulham, in game one, is not the start Jurgen Klopp was looking for.

It’s not only the loss of points, it’s how confident Fulham felt attacking Liverpool in their press. Liverpool played well, they dominated possession, and if Luis Diaz’s attempt late in the first half doesn’t hit the post, I may be singing a different tune. But, credit to Fulham, and Mitrovic, they were not scared of Liverpool.

Fully aware that we are one game into the season, but some of the staples of Liverpool over the last decade, Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson, played below their capabilities on Sunday morning. Henderson was almost a non-factor, despite hitting the crossbar at the end of the game. Firmino, who is beloved by Liverpool fans, seems to get dispossessed too easily.

Liverpool does not play for another week, where they will square off against Crystal Palace. It will be interesting to see what Klopp does in the week, and if we see newly acquired, Darwin Nunez make his first start for Liverpool.

Is this all just a jockeying for 2nd place?

Are we all just wasting our time thinking this season is going to be close in the standings? Manchester City’s thorough domination of West Ham, makes me believe we should turn on a different sport.

Erling Haaland, came to the team this offseason as the best young striker in the world, and immediately proved why he belongs in that conversation. He scored a goal, put away a penalty and won the man of the match. He even went as far as to say that the game was a disappointment because he didn’t score a hat trick in his Premier League debut.

Really adding insult to injury there, Erling. Manchester City picked up exactly where they left off last season and will continue to put pressure on the rest of the league to compete with them. Unless there is a massive injury or a huge distraction in the locker room, I see this squad as a very hard team to dethrone.