WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Arsenal can’t defend, Liverpool can’t defend, Chelsea play better when down to nine men and Manchester City find it difficult against a ten man defence.

You may be forgiven for thinking that the top clubs, having had a two and a half months break from competitive football, time to work on their style of play and money to buy new players where needed, would return to Premier League action with all guns blazing.

If Friday’s game was supposed to be an example of that then Arsenal didn’t stick to the script. They did, however, manage to achieve something which has been rare in the last few years. They won their first home game. They were lucky to do so as it would have been no surprise had their woeful defending resulted in more than the three goals they conceded.

Their 4-3 win was unconvincing and better teams than Leicester shouldn’t have any major problems in beating them.

There is no easy solution as their main problem remains the fact that Arséne Wenger is still in charge and has now proven that he is bulletproof by signing his new two year contract.

Liverpool looked just as bad defensively but their 3-3 draw with Watford was a marginally better result than was Arsenal’s against Leicester because it was away from home.

Again, little appears to have changed from last season and, bearing this in mind, little change in position at the end of the season should be expected.

Chelsea had Gary Cahill sent off after 14 minutes and imploded. Unlike Arsenal and Liverpool they left their major signing on the bench until the second half and managed to look worse than they did last season!

Burnley, unbelievably, were three up at half time and, despite a Chelsea improvement in the second half which included a first goal for new signing Alvaro Morata and another sending off for Chelsea, this time Fabregas, went on to win 3-2 even though they were hanging on a bit by the end.

The sendings off can be no excuse for the loss as they were both merited and, therefore, their own fault.

Judging by this performance Antonio Conte is correct that his squad is too small but he also appears to have overestimated it’s quality.

The later kick-off saw Brighton hosting title favourites Manchester City and, after a day full of goals, this one was also expected to provide a few.

The first half was largely uneventful due to Brighton playing with ten men behind the ball and City being unable to break them down, rather surprising when considering the talent on show.

Another team who left a new signing on the bench, City huffed and puffed without creating anything of real danger and the half ended 0-0.

The second half provided much of the same but, eventually, class came through and City scored a couple of goals. Nothing more than they deserved having dominated the game from start to finish.

So of last season’s top six, four have now played their opening game and have picked up, between them, a grand total of 7 points out of a possible 12.

In other unusual news, Wayne Rooney scored the winner for Everton at Goodison and Huddersfield Town are top of the Premier League!

Roll on Sunday when Manchester United and Tottenham get their campaigns under way!