First Matchday is done and I thought it was the good time for a casual talk about all of the big six team and their performance. I'll start

Manchester City: Not much to say here, they are still the same team they were, the player who left were replaced mostly. Still, there a couple of worry for City imo. First, Haaland is excellent but his technical ability still need a lot of work, remember him losing an easy ball to West Ham because of a touch far too long. Now I'm not too worried about him as for now, he make up for it by making deadly run that are sure to be dangerous thanks to his more technical teammates. Bring me to my second issue with City, they might end up developing a dependency on Haaland for scoring goal which could be a double-edged sword. Other than that, we need to see how Calvin Phillips adapt but I don't see City having too much trouble this season, they should compete for the title this season once again.

Liverpool: Liverpool looking okay for now, with Darwin Nunez having a immediate impact. I still worry that him and Diaz are gonna need some time to completely adapt and find consistency. Alexander-Arnold for me is their weakest link in defense, it was shown before and once again vs Fulham (which played really good tbf). My biggest worry with Liverpool is them being unable to keep a consistent level of domination and having to rest their legs in game they expect to win. For example, they played a lot better vs City in the Community Shield than vs Fulham in the league. They shouldn't fail to qualify for CL this season but depending on what happen, competing for the title might become hard.

Chelsea: First full season under the new owner, not completely convinced by the project. They lost Lukaku, Christensen, Rudiger and got Sterling, Curcurella and Koulibaly. Not bad from the new owner but those are not pure replacement for the player they lost and at the end of the day, I worry they pay the lack of a goalscoring striker. There is a lot of quality in the team but lots of player will need to start perform more consistently imho for Chelsea to have a shot at the title. Still think they'll make top four but it might be hard at time because they don't really have that optimistic wind at their back unlike a lot of other teams.

Tottenham: First full season from Conte, who's been able to get most of the player he wanted and has Son and Kane, who are both fit and inform. The only thing I could see this not going well is if Conte and the Tottenham direction get in a fight and everything explode from inside. I honestly see them making top four rather easily, maybe even get a shot at a top 2 finish, its a very exciting season for them.

Arsenal: Very exciting season for them as well, two experienced winner joined the team with Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, Saliba is returning from loan as a complete defender. The team got rid of a lot of the older player which in turn is leaving more place for younger player to shine. Good optimism around the whole club as well. Considering how tough it is to get into top 4, they might be cutting it short with this squad right but I'll believe they'll fight for it and who know, maybe have a shot in the Europa League? Only negative is that all those young player will make mistake at time but it still looking better for Arsenal than in a lot seasons past.

Manchester United: Its... its hard to try and predict good things for Manchester United after their 2-1 defeat to Brighton where a lot of the shortcoming of last season weren't fixed. My first issue with the team is lack of creativity, how can a team with Sandon Sancho, Bruno Fernandes and Eriksen be so poor in term of animation with the ball? Short answers, Fred and McTominay. I really wished that instead of signing half of his former Ajax team, ten Hag would have gone for a realist defensive mid target that could at least have a decent level of creativity. Second issue is lack of movement off the ball, the whole seem so terribly slow whenever they don't have the ball at their feet. The defenders are slow to take in information and react to threat, the attacking option are slow to give option to their teammates. I'm starting to think there some low quality staff in the training staff or people responsible for the physical preparation of the players because there no way this speed of reaction from most of United players is Premier League level. I still think ten Hag can help this team progress but I think the man doesn't realize how big a challenge it is to go from Ajax to this Manchester United side. Not even just about Manchester United but the whole league is just so much competetive than what he been used to. Think he'll need this season to realize his mistake and adapt to it next year if given the chance.

Ah, week 1, everyone's favorite week to overreact.

Manchester City

They won the league without a striker last year, and only went out and got one of the best strikers in the world. Provided he stays healthy, they should just roll the league.

Liverpool

Liverpool are a bit weirder because at this stage what got them their success is mitigated by a variety of factors. Their players are getting older and a drop-off of some kind is more or less inevitable. Tbh I liked the Mane sale for that reason, he was never going to be any better, many as well cut the salary and let Bayern enjoy the last year or two of his prime for a gargantuan contract. But players aren't the main thing here, it's the style. Kloop's gengenpress is all the rage now and has been for a few years, which means that the best minds in the game have now spent a few years cracking it and to an extent have succeeded. Fulham's week 1 bout showed that to an extent, but it's a trend that's been visible for the past few years. Liverpool has never had better players than City or even probably Chelsea, but they did have a superior system, that is now not as superior as it was.

Chelsea

Predicting Chelsea is a fool's errand. They'll win a league and then finish 10th with the exact same players. They could win the league or finish out of Europe this year and I honestly wouldn't be surprised by either. High-end talent wins games though, so they're certain to be competitive. I just wouldn't bet on it one way or the other. Hate to visualize their future because I'm literally always wrong. Even when I'm right about them failing in the league they win the UCL. Disgusting. I have literally no idea how they function.

Spurs

I've always liked Spurs. My longest thread here was in defense of their operations, and that all more or less remains accurate today. I expect to see them challenge for a title this year, and I have more faith in them then anyone outside of the top 2. Conte may be an ass, but he's a really effective ass, and the whole team is underrated just because they play for Spurs. You cannot seriously tell me that if we deleted all of human history and looked at the teams and their players truly objectively that Spurs would be out of anyone's top 4.

Arsenal

Young players, a manager in place who is backed by the club, roaring to take back their place in the top clubs of English soccer. That's why I too believe in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. And in that brief moment of PTSD I trust you will all understand my hesitation with regard to optimism regarding Arsenal FC. Realistically, Arsenal are still more than a few steps away from truly competing at the top, but they are trending up. People love teams that are trending up. But Arsenal could very reasonably finish on more points than last season and still miss the top 4. There isn't that high quality level of player performance (outside of maybe Odergaard) that can carry a team when they need it. Their defense is as suspect as it has always been. Their midfield, while good, is not better than any team mentioned so far. And who the hell will score the goals? Saka, Rowe, and Nketiah led the team with 12, 11, and 10 last season in all competitions. That...sucks. I still don't think Ramsdale is a top-level goalkeeper and highlight saves aside, he still concedes soft goals with regularity. There's a reason Pickford still starts over him for England, and Pickford is a meltdown waiting to happen. Throw in a fanbase who is desperate for a crumb of success and you have all of the variables present for an incredibly overrated team.

Manchester United

On the topic of overrated, Manchester United is now probably accurately rated by the majority for the first time since Sir Alex retired. I said in the World Cup thread that you can often easily predict which teams will win by finding out who has the best midfield. United doesn't have a midfield. McFred memes are all the rage, but they're rooted in an element of truth. McTominay is an excellent squad player, a guy you sub on in the 70th minute when you have a 1 goal lead and need someone in the center of the park to kick people. How he starts, even under Ten Haag, is a testament to how horrible Van Der Beek must be, and luckily we all got to see that at Everton so it's not even speculation anymore. Fred is an engine. He runs around, wins the ball, and passes it to someone with a semblance of talent who then does things that Fred cannot. At least when he plays for Brazil. That doesn't work for United, because such players do not exist in the midfield. If you want to know why Ten Haag was balls deep for De Jong, it was painful obvious watching that excuse for a performance in the Brighton game. United doesn't have a midfield. Even better, they don't have a striker. This pretty much negates wing play too, because teams play ridiculously wide against United because the team is so impotent in the center. This also kills fullbacks, which is why Shaw has sucked going forward, genuinely don't think that's his fault. The defense is not good and makes comically bad errors, but it's all rooted in the midfield who nearly always has the defense in a rapid cover. As someone who has the misfortune of supporting United, watch the goals we concede. Nearly all of them feature the defense in a rapid retreat because the midfield did something stupid, and the defense is nearly always outnumbered because the same idiotic midfield doesn't even track back. Watching people last season confused as to why Varane was struggling was stupid. ANY defender would struggle without any support. So yeah, I honestly hope United suck this season to the extent it forces monumental changes up and down the organization. How the hell can you be trying to get Rabiot, the spoilt little French dickhead, to save your midfield? It's rough.

Reserve a spot for future comments. haha Week one is not the best time to predict a teams season, even if those above have some VERY pinpoint reasons for success and or failure (cough cough Man Utd haha)

Arsenal defense is as suspect as it has always been.

I just wanna save this comment here.

@quik

Advanced analytics for defense are far less reliable than midfield and attack, so I went off GA. Last season:

City - 26
Liverpool - 26
Chelsea - 33
Spurs - 40
Arsenal - 48
United - 57

Within the top 6 that isn't remotely impressive and nearly double the elite defenses of Liverpool and City. United's worst defensive season in my lifetime wasn't even that far off. Unless I'm missing something I'm not sure why we'd expect an improvement? Wouldn't surprise me if I had, just not sure what it would be.

We basically played half a season without RB and LB as Tierney and Tomiyasu were injured and we had to play Tavares & Cedric. Add to that missing Partey and our board not deciding to sign any player midseason and we had to rely on Elneny/Lokonga/Xhaka.

Adding Zinchenko and Saliba is IMO gonna be key as we don't need to rush half injured players into the squad because there's no one to play. We will only see by the end of season sure, but I think our defence is much more comfortable now. Still we need to sign midfielder.

Wasn't Partey poor when he did play? I may be misremembering that.

The injuries I can understand, but it's a fools errand to expect an entirely clean bill of health again. Zinchenko did start for City, fair, but he was also City's worst starter, which I also think is fair. Sailba is hardly an addition (I totally forgot about him), as the Gunners have had him for multiple seasons and chosen to loan him out, usually an indication they don't perceive him as good enough. While they didn't do that this season (obviously) why should we expect him to be anything above average?

As I said, the whole team is trending up. It's reasonable to expect them to perform better on the field than last season. But nothing here suggests they'd perform significantly better, or better than the other top 6, outside of the dumpster fire that is United.

While casual optimism is fine, I just don't see the evidence for it.

@Sunflash First off, I'd like to say I mostly completely agree with your analysis in your first post.

Secondly, the part I disagree with you is pretty much only about Arsenal. I mean, you make good argument but are neglecting some really important stuff in what you say.

First off, you cannot take Arsenal defensive stat of last season because their backline is completely different, Saliba came back from loan, Zinchenko with winner experience and Ben White has shown he can play as a defensive full-back when players are out injured.

Sailba is hardly an addition

By the way you are saying this, I'm pretty sure you don't know anything about how his last year loan went. He pretty much grew to be a key player in the third best defense in Ligue 1, despite that second place Marseille was actually very much an offensive team. He even won a place in the Team of the Year in Ligue and got named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year last season. You could very much say that it was confirmation year for him that is why he wasn't sent back on loan, Arteta and Arsenal consider he reach a good enough level for him to help the club immediatly. He even got selected for France this summer because of his good performance.

Wasn't Partey poor when he did play?

Yes, I believe he was but like many player coming from La Liga, it take time to adapt to PL teams, he's been looking much better in pre-season, no reason to think he won't be better this season imho.

And who the hell will score the goals?

Isn't that why they brought Gabriel Jesus though? I mean, I know he's not the most prolific goalscorer but he should easily get into the double digit and help generate more dangerous occassion for all of his team-mates with his quality.

The whole team is maturing together and should be more realist both in offense and in defense. So yeah, I do think your focusing too much on stat and logics and not enough on new information maybe because they are relatively unknown factor (doesn't mean you should ignore them completely :P).

I do agree on Ramsdale giving soft goal at time though, thats one might be a real problem for them this year. One big problem with Arsenal as well is that they don't have the control a team like City for a whole game so they tend to suffer for relatively long period, they need to find a way to limit those and limit what other team can inflict them in that time. Think this might be one of the issue of their season.

All in all, I'm optimist because I don't see them doing worse that last season. Obviously, that doesn't mean they will make it into top 4, that will also depend on team above them because we all know how competitive the PL is but I think there is far more reason for optimist than you might realize Sun.

@DarthFooty Mate, its never too early to make prediction and make a fool of yourself in the long run. XD Theres a reason why I said casual analysis as well in the tile. But tbf, I personally based my comment off the pre-season results and the transfer window as well, not just the first game of the season.

@Emo

I'll take the L on Saliba then. I don't follow Ligue 1 whatsoever.

To the Gabriel Jesus point, City played without a striker at all rather than start him. I get that he'll start at Arsenal, but if the best run system in the world couldn't get you to score goals I'm not sure what will. Certainly didn't think he was worth 40m or whatever Arsenal paid.

I'll take the L on Saliba then. I don't follow Ligue 1 whatsoever.

Hey no worry, I heard he been good but I also knew very little about him before and only recently realized he had been given so much recognition in Ligue 1.

About Gabriel Jesus, at City, last season it felt more like they prefered using him as another type of player, he played as a winger a lot of games for example because he played great there for a while. Despite that, he still managed to score 8 and assist 8 which honestly isn't too bad for a player that only started 21 games and lots of those game in a position where he get less chance to score.

Honestly, I think Jesus just alway been more of a rotation players for City and with recent addition, there no more place for him and especially not at his favorite position, which is why he wanted to leave.

If Arteta give him his confidence and that he manage to stay fit and play most game this season, I do believe he could pull off his best season in term of statistic.

Also, I do believe Jesus is similar to Firmino in the sense that he won't be the best goalscorer in the league but he will help his team-mates score more goals and maybe reach that statut, which is a perfect kind of striker at Arsenal imho. Honestly, maybe I'm too optimist but I wouldn't be surprised to see Saka scoring more goals if he managed to develop good complicity with Gabriel Jesus.

I'll concede its no evidence Jesus will work in the long term as a striker in Arsenal but at the very least, I don't think you can take the fact City used him in other role than a striker as evidence he cannot perform well there.

As good as Jesus is, I have never rated him very high as a #9 or true striker. I can't quite put my finger on why, but he is never in that conversation of go to #9's for me. We all know, Brazil has had a few pretty darn good strikers in their past (R9, Romario, Pele just to name a few). They made it easy for me to rate them in the role not because they were taller or faster, but because they commanded that position more than anything else.

Jesus will never be as good as those mentioned, but he still has not put his own stamp on the striker role, so teams have a hard time using him there. City can plug and play with almost anyone, they are that good. The system and the players around you there will help elevate your game, yet still, Jesus was not fully used.... Why do you think that is???

Once City figures out how to really use Haaland, the league is done. If he can stay healthy, City will run away with the league this year. He adds a dynamic that teams can't deal with. Even if they take him away, City will work the ball around and still score. You play high up, you get beat on the through ball. You play deep, they work the ball around quickly and still score. I would not be surprised to see City go over the 100pt mark this season unless injuries or the WC just disrupts everything.

I believe Saliba is the best defender in the league.

@Footy_watch Lets not get crazy, I mean, he's good, full of potential but I consider he'll need some time to create a cohesive defensive unit with Ramsdale and Gabriel. Don't forget the league has some monster at CBs like Van Djik and Ruben Dias just to name a few.

Otherwise, I'm pretty happy to see Gabriel Jesus getting a brace already for Arsenal (even he could have potentially gotten more...). I do really see Sun point on Ramsdale giving out soft goals.

I've never thought of him as a real striker or a #9 striker. I'm not sure why, but he's never in the talk about going to #9's for me. We all know that Brazil has had some fairly strong attackers in the past (R9, Romario, and Pele just to name a few).

@Footy_watch what are you smoking? He is talented but definitely not the best.

@Algerino who has been better than him in the league this season?

Hes been good this season I dont deny that. But good form doesnt translate to best in the league after 9 games. Id take for example Van dijk over him even if Liverpool is lagging

he hasn't been good. he's been excellent. to have a defender who's playing so well defensively and insanely calm on the ball like that at such a young age.. form wise he's right up there and I'm not gonna bother with an argument about BEST when its so subjective but, but you can't say that players who are in form aren't the best just because it seems just like form.

Time for a quick return on this thread to see how our prediction ended up compared to the truth:

Manchester City: Was mostly right, in the end Calvin Phillips didn't adapt so well though and City didn't had to worry too much about becoming dependant of Haaland to score goals for them as they usually end up finding a way even if he can't seem to score.

Liverpool: Was wrong about them getting a CL spot, thats for sure. Darwin immediate effect didn't last long as well and Liverpool ended up being much worse this year. I guess the one part I got right is expecting them to have trouble competing for the title, they were never close sadly.

Chelsea: Once more, completely wrong about them getting a CL spot, but I was right about the whole negative atmosphere they had before the season start. Only thing is that it was much, much worse than I thought it would be.

Tottenham: Was completely wrong about them, they actually started well, even if it was in a bit of a unconvincing manner but in the end, the theory their season might not go well if Conte fought with the board ended being the one thing I said which ended up being closest to reality.

Arsenal: The reverse of Chelsea, while I was right that thing looked good for Arsenal, I never expected them to have such a good season, yes, they ended up failing to win the league but I think not a lot of us expected them to have a such a run for the title in the first place.

Manchester United: I think Ten Haag mostly proved me wrong, I think he did a really good job taking the team to a new, better level. Though I think most of the signing from Netherland weren't as good as he might hoped they be, Lisandro Martinez being the exception. Anthony was a tad dissapointing in particular, especially for his pricetag. But anyway, CL football + League Cup victory is an amazing first step in the right direction for him and United.

I was right about Saliba, he took the place of van djik as the best defender in the league. Although he wasn't himself since the world cup but still the best in the league.