Swansea City v Manchester United
So another half of a weekend rides off into the distance and, for the second week running, the football gods have been kind to Manchester United by allowing them to score four goals again.
This one could have proven to be slightly more difficult as it was away from home at the club who should be playing in the Welsh league, also known as Swansea City.
The home side did manage to resist for a while and it was only in stoppage time just before half time that United scored their first when Eric Bailly bundled the ball in after Pogba had seen his header pushed onto the bar by the keeper.
Swansea were more open in the second half as they looked for an equaliser and this led to three more United goals from Lukaku, Pogba and Martial, although it was the eightieth minute before the scoring resumed.
On this showing, though yet to hit top form, United should expect to be challenging for the title come May of next year.
As one would expect, José Mourinho was a happy figure at the end of the game but he did point out that, at the same time last season, United had six points from two games and they finished the season in sixth place.
Somehow though, the feeling around Old Trafford is different this season and there is more of an air of expectation about the place.
Liverpool v Crystal Palace
Liverpool also spent large chunks of their game against Crystal Palace struggling to create clear-cut chances which is probably why they have always found Palace to be difficult opposition.
Luckily for them Frank de Boer is still settling in and his team do not yet play with the air of a side who are completely at home with his methods. Sam Allardyce would have taken at least a point from this game!
Things might have turned out differently had Christian Benteke taken a glorious opportunity, presented to him on a plate by Loftus-Cheek, instead of blazing it over the bar from eight yards out.
Shortly after this miss Sadio Mané took advantage of a very fortuitous bounce to put Liverpool ahead and it was a lead they held on to for the remainder of the game.
We don’t know if Liverpool fans are convinced with what they are seeing but the rest of us certainly aren’t, not yet anyway.
Stoke City v Arsenal
According to the experts Arsenal are too easy to play against which explains why Leicester managed to score three against them at the Emirates last week. Apparently they are very good going forward and very bad going backwards, a kind of mirror image of the Italian armed forces.
On a windy night in Stoke, when it also happened to chuck it down with rain, neither team created very much in the first half.
Alexis Sánchez was again missing from the Arsenal line-up with an injury reserved almost exclusively for players rumoured to be leaving their club. Virgil van Dijk and Philippe Coutinho are both suffering from the same knack as the Chilean, whilst Gylfi Sigurdsson is about to stage a remarkable recovery from the identical affliction.
Within three minutes of the restart Stoke had taken the lead with a well worked goal through new signing Jesé. The onus was now on Arsenal to do what they do best, attack and score goals.
Despite doing the “attack” bit, Arsenal were unable to do the “goals” bit and left Stoke with no goals and no points. Another team who look very unconvincing this season.
The London derby
The second half of the weekend will see White Hart Wembley take centre stage as Tottenham play Chelsea at their new home.
Spurs were absolutely useless the last time they were allowed to use Wembley as a home ground for last season’s short stay in the Champion’s League so let’s hope that they have learned something from that woeful experience.
The pitch is bigger and the fans are further away, other than that the fact that it isn’t White Hart Lane appears to be the problem. (By the way, what happens if Spurs reach either the Carabao Cup final or the FA Cup final? Will they be allowed to play at “home“? It’s already totally unfair that these games are always in London so this would just make matters worse!).
Anyway, the game is being eagerly anticipated by both sets of fans and a little old woman in Australia who used to live in Cobham. Everybody else is going fishing!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 