England

Maybe Jürgen Klopp saw something on film, but I doubt it. I think Liverpool simply exploited the almighty power of the backheel on a whimsy, as is befitting of the European champions. Klopp’s prematch team talk probably went something like this (sung to the tune of Men at Work):   

We can backheel if we want to, we can leave England behind

Cause Man United don’t backheel and Chelsea don’t backheel

And they’re no friends of mine

West Ham painted an unflattering picture of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Manchester United on Sunday afternoon with a commanding 2-0 victory over the visitors at London Stadium.

Without the injured trio of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw, Man United’s attack floundered and West Ham’s midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Felipe Anderson did a solid number on United’s ponderous pairing of Nemanja Matić, Scott McTominay and Juan Mata.

According to the Independent, the first major signing for David Beckham’s Inter Miami will be Manchester City midfield maestro David Silva.

It’s been an eventful week for building from the back. It began with Mexico’s beatdown of Gregg Berhalter’s longterm vision for the USMNT in East Rutherford, a result which led to a cry for abandoning the philosophy.

Things reached a crescendo yesterday with Arsenal — the masterful architects of their own downfall in recent times. Sokratis Papastathopoulos showed exactly why 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football by passing the ball straight to Gerard Deulofeu in his own area.   

Maybe you were distracted by Neymar’s epic return to PSG or a huge early clash in the Bundesliga between RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich. Perhaps you were watching college football or taking a break after a long morning of Premier League.

First, we gotta get this out of the way: Christian Pulisic was an unused sub for Chelsea against Wolverhampton on Saturday. 

But wait!

Before you leave, you gotta read about this insane Tammy Abraham statistic.

Abraham, Chelsea’s No. 9, became the club’s youngest player ever to score a hat trick. At 21 years and 347 days old, he is the youngest Englishman to score a hat trick in the Premier League since Raheem Sterling four years ago. 

While I don't have the skills of our soccer expert Leon, I thought I'd try my hand at predicting the results of this weekend's Premier League fixtures.

Premier League Predictions Match Week 5 

Saturday, Sept. 14

Newcastle at Liverpool, 7:30 a.m. ET

Prediction: 3-0 Liverpool

In time, the coaching tree that expands out from Pep Guardiola is going to be massive. Some will fail (like if Mikel Arteta had taken the job at Newcastle), but the Spanish tactician’s otherworldly training methods will almost certainly be absorbed and even expanded upon by some future coaching Übermensch that worked under Guardiola for a long period.