GOAL US unpacks the main weekend storylines from the Premier League, La Liga and other top competitions in The Euro XI
Well, that was all a little bit disappointing. The opening weekend of European football was, in most ways, frighteningly predictable. The Premier League teams that should have won, did, indeed win. Man United looked good but lost to Arsenal (thanks, of course, to a free kick).
Man City are (maybe) back and they have a shiny new attacking midfielder to replace Kevin De Bruyne. Meanwhile, on the continent, PSG survived a scare, Barcelona showed that they are still excellent, while Diego Simeone offered some compelling evidence for him to just stick to stocky Spanish midfielders and stop faffing about with all of this "finesse."
In fact, the real action happened a little below, lurking in the shallows, on the edge of the spotlight.
GOAL US presents The Euro XI, with 11 key observations from the weekend.
AFP1Diogo Jota, remembered
The soccer news cycle moves on so quickly that it's, at the very least, reassuring to see that some important things remain top of mind. Such was the case with the European-wide tributes to Diogo Jota. His memory was everywhere: celebrations, pre-match acknowledgements, songs.
But perhaps most jarringly was the extra minutes Mo Salah took in front of the Kop, teary-eyed, as the fans belted Jota's tune. Maybe football can confront something real, after all.
AdvertisementGetty Images Sport2Ruben Amorim and the process
"We are going to play 3-4-2-1 if it kills us!" Presumably, at least, that was what Ruben Amorim said to his players before the season. And, well, it didn't kill them against Arsenal, even if they did lose 1-0. Man United were really rather good throughout, and showed that there may yet be hope for this strange, strange club. Then again, anything more would have been an immense blow to the football banter sphere.
AFP3Mikel Arteta, watching his own fall apart (and somehow still winning)
How the hell did they get away with that? If Man United were excellent in defeat Sunday afternoon, then Arsenal were dismal in victory. It was a fairly morbid start to the season for (phase 7 of Mikel Arteta's Gunners. They showed plenty of fight, but very few tactical ideas when they had the ball. Sure, this is Old Trafford, where anything can happen. But winning 1-0 thanks to a bit of terrible goalkeeping? That's what you call a league-contending team?
AFP4Thomas Frank does not believe in Spursiness
The whole Tottenham thing for a long time was to squeak out results against far better teams, and then get battered by the smaller clubs. Well, Thomas Frank has bucked that trend early.
Spurs did rather throw things away in the Super Cup against PSG last week, but, like, it's PSG – and PSG are very, very good. Regardless, history dictates that Spurs would then go out and lose to Burnley at home. So much for that. Tottenham were excellent value for their 3-0 win, full of attacking intent and scorers of three very good goals. Time for predictable mediocrity? That just might be progress.