Chelsea ensured a troubled build-up to the game after a week of headlines dominated by manager Jose Mourinho’s row with two of his medical staff.
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The latter in particular endured an especially shaky debut season with Liverpool last term, with some even suggesting that the club could offload him after less than a year. Their back line is quite clearly the glaring weakness of Brendan Rodgers’ side, although that has certainly not been apparent over the early part of the campaign. Stones, however, providing he remains injury free, seems better value for money for Chelsea and United despite his £40m price tag, as he has many years ahead of him and is well equipped to the Premier League. While the match was a showcase of the maturing talents of Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley, it also shed light on the importance of players like Morgan Schneiderlin, Toby Alderweireld and Nathaniel Clyne. Every team is improving. With European football to play, have they sold too many of their stars to replicate the success of last season?
Aguero might well have scored the goal of the weekend with his opener against Chelsea (read above) but the number of chances he missed might have made rival coaches wonder if it was worth marking the man at all. It was a confusing decision, especially considering Walcott’s energetic performance in the Community Shield the week before.
It’s now 11 Ligue 1 victories in succession for Paris Saint-Germain, following a comfortable victory over newly promoted side GFC Ajaccio on Sunday evening at Parc des Princes.
“They were the best team in the first half“.
The 2015-16 English Premier League season kicked off on Saturday as Manchester United edged Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at the Theatre of Dreams in a game that was not as exciting as it sounds on paper. And yet they have somehow still managed to overlook their more glaring, undermining flaw.
In the BBC pundits’ predictions for this new season, only two went for Manchester City to be Champions: Chris Waddle and Alistair Mann – Mann is a BBC Sport commentator, but he also commentates for Manchester City’s website on highlights etc. So it’s no surprise he went for City, really. They are now just three wins away from matching the all-time Ligue 1 record of 14; set by Bordeaux between March-August 2009 (under current PSG boss Laurent Blanc). And yet, it’s six points from six for both of England’s most successful clubs. The Blues from Merseyside won 3-0 with two goals from the Belgian striker.
If results continue to fall their way, fans won’t mind too much, but patience will quickly run out if the lackluster performances lead to dropped points.
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“We know that this is another year”, he said.
