Issue 23 - The Opening Weekend

380 matches. 20 clubs. Nine months of drama, controversy, and the kind of storylines only football can write. The talking stops, the Premier League returns and it all kicks off this weekend. Issue 23. Go.

I’m four subscribers short of my pre-season target of 50, so if you know someone who lives and breathes football, send them this way.

Ten Quick Tackles

A look at the main talking points as we head into the upcoming Premier League weekend.

Liverpool vs Bournemouth

Liverpool and Bournemouth gets things underway in just a few hours. The main subplot from this will be how the defending champions not only get their defence of the Premier League title underway but also how they react to last Sunday’s Community Shield loss.

Aston Villa vs Newcastle

Two teams stifled by PSR meet on Saturday lunchtime and the main takeaway is that Alexsander Isak is unsurprisingly not going to be part of the Newcastle squad. Will all the unease on Tyneside play into Aston Villa’s hands or will they miss Jacob Ramsey who has just signed for the Magpies?

Tottenham vs Burnley

Tottenham were minutes away from lifting the Uefa Super Cup on Wednesday, now they begin Premier League life under Thomas Frank with a visit from Burnley. The North London outfit will be favourites but has penalty pain already taken their wind out of their sails?

Sunderland vs West Ham

Sunderland return to the big time and would love nothing more than to open their account on the opening wekeend of the season. West Ham may be the ideal opposition in which to pick up at least a point. We may learn a fair deal about both sides at the end of this one.

Brighton vs Fulham

Brighton and Fulham have largely flown under the radar this summer and it will be interesting to see what they can offer across the course of the season. Both teams keen to get off the mark on Saturday, it will be interesting to see if this proves to be the case or not.

Wolves vs Manchester City

Rayan Ait-Nouri makes a quick return to his former employers as Manchester City are paired with Wolves at Molineux. Pep Guardiola’s summer recruitment still has some questions attached to it, a win in the West Midlands would certainly offer some early answers.

Chelsea vs Crystal Palace

The big question in this London derby is whether Chelsea are still feeling the effects of their American exploits or whether Crystal Palace are still feeling the effects of their Community Shield win. Time will tell on that front. Time is running out for Eberechi Eze as an Eagle.

Nottingham Forest vs Brentford

Can Nottingham Forest repeat their efforts of last season? Can Brentford get off to a perfect start under new manager Keith Andrews? The new Premier League pantomine villian going up against the division’s newest appointment should make things interesting at the City Ground.

Manchester United vs Arsenal

Treated to a heavyweight clash on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. Thanks fixture computer! With the stress that comes with supporting either club, there is a sense that if there a loser on Sunday that team will be plunged into deep crisis. Nothing like some hyperbole in August is there.

Leeds vs Everton

The first Monday Night Football of the season takes us to Elland Road and the clash between Leeds and Everton. The former back in the bigtime, the latter can now call upon Jack Grealish to provide much needed ammunition. This will not be a bad way to start next week.

Predictive Power

Not only am I offering up the main plotlines before the opening weekend, I am also offering up my predictions - actually some AI predictions that I have asked it to generate.

3800 Premier League results (last 10 complete season fed into the computer), heavier weight applied to more recent seasons than before. Here is what it throws up for Week 1:

How will the might of AI fare? How will you fare? Feel free to get in touch with your predictions as well.

So Bloody Spursy

As a Tottenham supporter it would be rude to completely overlook what took place in Udine on Wednesday night. Minutes away from lifting a second European trophy in three months but unfortunately PSG had other ideas in mind.

Going into the game much was made of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s announcement that he was being forced out of the French capital. Therefore, there was some form of poetic justice for the Italian when his replacement pretty much threw Spurs’ second in.

A 2-0 lead against the recent Champions League winners was beyond any dream state that a Spurs supporter could find themselves. Unfortunately, that dream would turn into a nightmare soon after.

With that two-goal cushion there was always going to be the temptation to drop deep and if you were being critical of Thomas Frank’s setup, you could argue his players went too deep too early.

Beyond Wildest Dreams

Then again, that is easier said than done when you are going up against a wealth of attacking talent and had last season’s Europa League winners had better depth or any depth on the bench, then who knows how the last few minutes would have panned out.

With no extra-time allotted and a fast forward to penalties, it is always going to be a lottery from that point. A lottery where we collected a couple of numbers early on but then wasted our opportunity to choose the bonus ball.

The bonus of winning the Super Cup would have given Thomas Frank a perfect start to his managerial stint in N17 and created something of a party atmosphere before the weekend’s clash at home to Burnley.

However, that defeat should not define the weeks and months ahead. It would have been nice to add another piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet and who knows if we will ever get such an easy opportunity to do so.

Sesko Currency Conversion

After calculating the exchange rate of goals from Portugal to the Premier League after Viktor Gyokeres move from Sporting to Arsenal, it makes perfect sense to do the same for Benjamin Sesko.

The shiny new toy at Manchester United joins from RB Leipzig and scored 27 goals in 64 Bundesliga appearances. If we convert to 68 games that would be two full German top tier seasons.

Let’s say that is 28 goals over two seasons. Split that in half and you have 14 goals per Bundesliga season.

If the exchange rate is 1 Premier League goal is worth 0.780 Bundesliga goals, then the exchange rate for Sesko would be 10.92 goals - let’s say its rounded up to 11 for good measure.

11 league goals set as the benchmark for his first season at Old Trafford. A benchmark that looks like he should be able to beat and if he does that will certainly give a shot in the arm to his new employers.

Listen To The Sister Podcast

Real Football Cast - Season 8 Episode 1

The Real Football Cast returns for its eighth season and that means Dan (me) is once again throwing out the biggest questions of the footballing week.

On the otherside is Stuart who looks back on an action packed Community Shield and plenty more.

TV Deals Kick In

The new cycle of Premier League rights kick in this evening (Friday) and it will be interesting to see what Match of the Day looks like in the post-Lineker era. I would imagine there will be some tweaks but the format is as simple as it should be.

If it is not broke, do not fix it. That’s the mantra that should be followed but whether the BBC will be keen to put a new lick of paint on the show and make changes that are not necessary remains to be seen.

The fact that it will be on the iPlayer from 8pm on Saturday and Sunday is great news - especially from a Sunday perspective (Match of the Day 2 finishing past 11pm was always a push when the Sunday gloom was also kicking in), the action can now be consumed even quicker.

While unless you have been living under a rock, you will be away that Sky Sports have 270 games to show per season. A PR push in the week highlighted their multi-game capabilities on Sunday (basically the NFL Redzone technology) and Mark Chapman also being drafted in.

‘Chappers’ now expanding on the Carabao Cup duties of last season and emulating Kelly Cates in the shape of working for both broadcasters. Slightly strange how the identities of BBC’s and SKY’s coverage is starting to merge together but that is modern media for you.

The Filter Five

Five football choc ices from out of the freezer

Been Here Before

Much has been made of the Morecambe takeover saga (that could be a good name for a band in a few years) and another statement has been released. In a sense the statement alluding to an actual sale of the club is very positive.

Unfortunately, we have already been here twice before. If it does come to fruition, it will be the best news that Shrimpers fans would have heard in quite a while. If it does not, then that surely has to be the last twist in this agonising tale.

Chain Of Events

Has a Bournemouth forward moving to Brentford just begun a chain of transfer events? Possibly. Dango Outtara moves to the GTech Community Stadium, one would imagine as the replacement for Yoan Wissa.

That switch frees up the DR Congo forward to move to Newcastle, which in turn finally frees Alexander Isak to move to Liverpool.

Plucky Little Wrexham

Any suggestions that Wrexham are simply going to make up the Championship numbers this season have largely been quashed after their latest round of transfer activity - one that sees them once again break their own transfer record.

£10m spent on Ipswich’s Nathan Broadhead in the same week that Omari Hutchinson is joining Nottingham Forest for in excess of £30m. Could Wrexham get promoted at Ipswich’s expense?

Passport Left Behind

In the previous article I made a lengthy point about La Liga’s plans to play a league fixture in Miami this December. In all the fallout, Richard Masters of Premier League chairmanship has said there are no plans to take English football on the road.

All I will say is that there are no plans for now.

Fantasy Stuff

FPL deadline is 6:30pm UK time - do not forget to send in your final drafts!

Admin

Right, that’s the end of issue 23 as a new Premier League season begins.

If you liked issue 23, tell a friend. If you didn’t like issue 23 don’t.

46 subscribers collected in pre-season - just shy of 50 but thanks to everyone who is part of the squad.

Also, continual feedback is certainly going to help drive this forward.

Feel free to email me to tell me what you like and what you did not.

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Issue 24 will be out on Tuesday August 19th

Thanks for reading

Dan