5 things we learned: Manchester United dominate, Arsenal disappoint
By Dan Voicescu
It was a bad week for Arsenal, but Manchester United impressed again. Here are five things we learned from the second weekend of the Premier League.
The second week of the new Premier League season was a little more predictable than the first. Manchester United dominated again, Liverpool defeated inferior opponents, Chelsea beat Tottenham at Wembley to get their season back on track and Arsenal lost to their old bogey team, Stoke. Here are five things we learned.
It’s early, but Arsenal’s title challenge appears (very) limp
It seems like it’s never too early to write off Arsenal as a legitimate title contender. The game against Stoke showed quite a number of worrying signs for Arsenal fans: the team is lacking any bite in the midfield, their possession is stale and unthreatening versus teams who are well organized and commit numbers at the back. Without the luxury of operating in open spaces, the Arsenal attacking players seem somewhat impotent.
Perhaps it’s a case of Arsenal’s team showing their limits without a player of Alexis Sanchez’s caliber. Perhaps Alexander Lacazette, fairly invisible on this occasion, requires more time to adjust to the English league. In fairness the Frenchman should have had a goal in this game, after his beautiful strike was waved off for offside.
To add to Arsenal’s issues, the backline doesn’t inspire confidence at all, showing its vulnerability on both set pieces (the likes of Ryan Shawcross winning every header in the box) as well as defending the pacey counter-attacks lead by Xherdan Shaqiri and Jese. Stoke had a limited number of chances, but that was mostly due to their lack of trying and choosing to play a counterattacking style, especially after going up a goal early in the second half, not for their inability to threaten Petr Cech’s goal. For the moment, it appears Arsenal will have a really tough time unlocking well-organized defenses in the Premier League, an issue that will prevent the Gunners from challenging for the title.