Chelsea

I have some thoughts on goalkeepers taking penalties. Goalkeepers taking penalties is a net positive from an entertainment standpoint. Goalkeepers taking penalties is a net negative, from a soccer standpoint.

Sure, there have been goalkeepers who double as penalty specialists and they are professional footballers, so they can be expected to have enough skill to score from the spot when called upon. On the other hand, hello Thibaut Courtois in the Community Shield:

ABBA is no longer just the greatest export of Sweden.

Arsenal defeated Chelsea 4-1 in a shootout following a 1-1 draw in the Community Shield on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London. The match itself was nothing special but the ABBA format for shootouts made its debut in England.

Last season, I felt really bad for Paul Pogba. Manchester United's record signing had to play in central midfield partnered with Marouane Fellaini. Pogba never had time or space to do cool Pogba stuff because he was busy putting out fires Fellaini had started.

This season, it looks like Pogba will be free, as Manchester United have brought in Serbian defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic, formerly of Chelsea, who complements Pogba's playing style way better than Fellaini did.

On one hand, preseason friendlies definitely do not matter. On the other hand, preseason friendlies between teams like Chelsea and Bayern Munich definitely matter.

Not for any competitive reason, of course. When Bayern and Chelsea met in the International Champions Cup Tuesday, Munich's 3-2 win wasn't predictive of anything. No, the Chelsea-Bayern friendly definitely mattered because we hadn't seen elite soccer in a while and missed players doing things like what Thomas Muller did.

If the latest reports from Italy are to be believed, Alvaro Morata is about to join AC Milan for 61 million pounds. If the latest reports from Spain are to be believed, he's signing for Chelsea.