We all know that Manchester City loves to spend big, and it has been under the watch of just about every governing body in football as of late. FIFA and UEFA are the big ones, and they have been after City for a while now after exorbitant amounts of spending and the suspicious transfers of youth players since Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016.
For those who watched the Premier League this weekend, I think there were many conclusions to be made after Week 1, but these were by far the clearest:
According to the Telegraph, Manchester City and England star Raheem Sterling has been offered a contract worth $120 million from Nike subsidiary Air Jordan to be face of the company’s upcoming soccer line.
The Premier League is back, and as if that’s not enough to get exited about, so is Fantasy Premier League.
It’s the moment of truth!
Good luck, #FPL managers pic.twitter.com/cUpe8bxa4E— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) August 9, 2019
This past weekend, a photo emerged on Twitter of a bloodied young Liverpool supporter standing next to star attacker Mohamed Salah. That child is 11-year-old Reds supporter Louis Fowler, who’d spotted Salah leaving Liverpool’s Melwood training ground in his car and attempted to keep pace with the vehicle while waving at the Egyptian.
Unfortunately for Louis, in his heightened state of distraction he ran directly into a lamp post, knocking himself out and breaking his nose in the process.
With Chelsea trailing Manchester United 1-0 on an early penalty that was earned largely against the run of play, Frank Lampard subbed on Christian Pulisic for his Premier League debut in the 58th minute to turn the tide. Nine minutes later, United’s lead stood at 3-0.
A meeting between two Premier League sides trending in a dangerous direction proved as insipid as all that on Sunday afternoon at St James’ Park in Newcastle. A quality finish from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang following a pathetic Newcastle United turnover was the difference in a match that felt like preseason and was largely overshadowed by a foul mood permeating from the Gallowgate End of the ground.
The Premier League season is less than 24 hours old, but you can’t escape people complaining about the introduction of Video Assistant Referee. The Man City VAR decisions in particular rankled the British pundits who make a living on arguing about referee calls.
Personally, I’m already tired of people complaining about getting calls right.
Liverpool opened the Premier League season as we all expected: a runaway 4-1 rout of newly promoted Norwich City at Anfield.
The Champions League winners had little trouble with the Championship winners, with the lone downside being losing the clean sheet and goalkeeper Alisson to injury.
But one thing really stood out and bothered me deeply on Friday: those hideous Liverpool socks.
A couple weeks ago, Arsenal’s Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac were held at knife-point in an attempted carjacking. Kolasinac became an instant legend when he fought the attackers off with only his beefy fists.
Now the two Gunners are reportedly at further risk and will be held out of Arsenal’s Premier League opener against Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Sunday.