Rain & Sunshine (a Premier League write up)

It's hard to say for sure whether my understanding of the game is developing, or if I'm just getting really good at consuming the right things. Last weekend, when I discovered that the North London derby would be taking place the following weekend, I made a note to myself to read up on this storied rivalry. Up to this point, I've spent a lot of time dwelling on the kits of Arsenal and Tottenham but considerably less time on the other aspects of these clubs. Having watched both clubs play a few times each so far this season, I was pretty aware that Spurs were coming in on the heels of back to back 3-0 defeats after starting with three straight victories right out the game and that Arsenal had opened the season with a string of losses but seemed to be crawling forward. Simply put, these teams were meeting one another at a pretty interesting time. 

On Friday of last week, the Athletic put up a video breaking down the derby. They had their Arsenal writer and their Spurs writer on to discuss how each club got to the point where they are. The Arsenal writer acknowledged the the mammoth amounts of money that went into their new stadium, the departure of Arsene Wenger and the search for an identity since but still finished by saying "there seems to be a plan." For his part, the Spurs writer highlighted Tottenham's own wildly expensive stadium and the fact that the pandemic prevented fans from attending matches which in turn really fucked with Tottenham's cash flow. He talked about the coaching carousel of the last few years and how now Nuno Espirito Santo's preferred style of play doesn't work with the personnel that he's been assigned. Harry Kane was mentioned once or twice. Perhaps, most crucially, the Spurs writer from the Athletic kinda sorta said that Tottenham does not seem to have much of a plan. 

The match itself on Sunday was just a lot of fun. As it went on, one of the television announcers kept saying that this was the scene of the rebirth of Arsenal, the renaissance of Arsenal, and at one point I think he called them Arsenal 2.0; it was all a blur, really. After not scoring in play all season, Arsenal hammered home three goals in the first half. The young roster looked positively electric. They reminded me of some of my favorite imperfect NBA teams from years past like the Darius Miles-led Clippers; squads that were on high on potential but that couldn't always get it together. The last time that I wrote I said that I felt bad for Ryan from Stadio for being a Pacers fan since he's also an Arsenal fan. All that I meant by that was these last two seasons finishing eight must have been hard since Arsenal usually compete for top four finishes. Setting those two eighth place finishes aside, there's a lot to really admire about Arsenal. For starters, according to Wikipedia, they have the most diverse fanbase of any football club on the planet. They have also had some really great kits like the bruised banana shirt (which I recently saw listed on Depop for $550) and this year's alternate (which I still maintain will look fire when paired with navy blue socks.) 

It must just be weird to think about a club like Arsenal rebuilding in the first place. Are roster rebuilds common in the Premier League? Do teams blow it up? My suspicion is that this not the case. It seems like the unfathomably wealthy clubs stock talent so that they are prepared for any and all tournaments and then everyone else is left hanging on to whatever they can find while hoping that the youth can develop. My NBA-addled mind looks at the work that Arsenal has put in so far and their recent transfer activity and says "there seems to be a plan."

While the derby got a bunch of graphs here, I also enjoyed the matches on Saturday! Manchester City versus Chelsea already sounded like an awesome matchup, and that was before I discovered that City's schedule for the week was Chelsea, PSG and Liverpool or that one time Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel got together for some hanging out that was so intense it intimidated everyone else in the bar. The match itself did not disappoint. I feel that I finally saw the City that everyone is always talking about. They were a joy to watch at times. 

Speaking of joyous occasions, Manchester United lost to Aston Villa. As with in recent weeks, I found myself actively rooting for a Man U defeat. At around the 80th minute or so with the score still even, I sighed a little bit because recent weeks were fresh in my mind. "Time for the dumb, fucking smash and grab," I thought to myself. It was such a pleasant surprise to see that not take place. It was almost as nice as the Villa kits (which, not sure if this is a hot take or not but I think these away kits are even sharper than the claret and blue. The subtle pinstriping on the shirt really puts it over the top for me.) 

Stepping into this week, I'm most curious to find out whether or not I'll see the City team that I saw take on Chelsea again. I'm also curious to see what shakes out on Attack on Titan but this isn't the blog for that. 

You Can See Your Own Way Out

Everyone finds their own club in their own way. This isn't a hot take, closer to a statement of fact. My cousin had a friend who went to study abroad in Newcastle, and in a show of solidarity, my cousin decided on that day that Newcastle United was his club.

I was thinking about my cousin a lot on Saturday. Most, if not all, Premier League coverage I've read so far this season has suggested that Newcastle are dangerously close to relegation. Amazingly, this may be a sunnier prognosis than what my cousin has described to me in recent weeks. A notoriously cheap owner. A director of operations who literally does nothing except hide. A manager effectively handcuffed by the owner and director of operations. A team without enough talent. A fanbase at their wit's end. Despite all of this, Newcastle United hung with Manchester United for nearly 60 minutes on Saturday at Old Trafford. A football match is 90 minutes, but still. 

It felt inevitable when Cristiano Ronaldo struck first and gave Manchester United the early lead. However, Javier Manquillo's equalizer in the 55th minute was both unexpected and wildly pleasant. It turned the game back into a match. It felt like anything was possible. That being said, this feeling did not last long. Maybe two minutes after Manquillo's score, Ronaldo put one through Newcastle goalkeeper Freddie Woodman's legs (literally) and then the rout began. Apparently, after the match, Newcastle manager Steve Bruce used the post-match press conference as an opportunity to take on ownership, operations and the fans. He may or may have taken his shirt off to hammer home his point, but details are murky. 

According to my cousin, this is the general Newcastle vibe. To me, the weirdest part is how accepted it all is. If an NBA team were this poorly managed from top to bottom, it would come up on television, on podcasts and behind paywalls all the time. Hell, last year, the Athletic did a whole eight-part podcast on James Dolan's tenure owning the New York Knicks (tl;dr: Dolan is a meddlesome asshat with garbage taste.) 

On the pods that I've been spending time with, there's been a lot of talks in recent weeks about everything that's wrong with Arsenal, and on at least one pod, there have been a lot of jokes made about the money Arsenal has spent in the transfer market so far this season. The same pod also likes to shit on Tottenham for kinda the same thing: spending money but not winning. Look, I get it. Only a handful of football clubs can raise a trophy in a given year, and there's always the chance that the same team could take all the trophies. But does that mean all the other teams in the league simply shouldn't try? I've never understood this line of reasoning.

It crept up in the NBA a few years back when the Golden State Warriors were in full-on dynasty mode. When the season began, media outlets started running their annual predictions and every single analyst everywhere gave Golden State the title before a game was even played. Yes, they were overwhelming favorites but you mean to tell me that in the other 28 NBA locker rooms everyone just said "Well, gee, the Warriors are just too good. We may as well pack it in." That obviously did not happen. Teams continued to try. As fans, isn't this what we want? Strong competition throughout the league and then ever tighter races once the postseason begins. 

Part of this may stem from the fact that I live in America and the only soccer fans around throw their support behind Manchester United, Manchester City or Liverpool. Honestly, the one pod that I listen to is based where I live and the dudes on there dunk on Arsenal and Tottenham with so much frequency that I have a feeling that one of them will be the club who I throw my support behind. This idea of dumping on teams for trying to be competitive makes little sense to me. 

In my time reading about Prem, I've been struck by just how much of an outlier Leicester City was when they won the league. Were they mocked on their way to the top too? Are underdogs ever embraced or is all club soccer just awash in some sobering reality where there are only a handful of contenders?

There were some fun matches on Saturday. Tottenham versus Crystal Palace was fun until it wasn't anymore. Truth be told, all the business with Japhet Tanganga really bummed me out. Granted, I've only been a Tanganga diehard for about a month now but still. As mentioned earlier, Newcastle United versus Manchester United was pretty decent for the first 60 minutes or so before it all unraveled. I ended Saturday with Aston Villa versus Chelsea where highlights included: Aston Villa's kits which never get old, Romelu Lukaku scoring a goal with total ease which also never gets old. My football knowledge only goes as far back as the Euros, but in that short time, I still feel comfortable stating that Lukaku is the best goalscorer that I've seen in that time and that Chelsea are the strongest team I've seen as well. That being said, I am still not a Chelsea fan. 

Ocean of Tenderness

On Friday night, Brentford football club returned to top flight action for the first time in 74 years. There was a man in stands who attended that last high match in 1947. He's now 88 years old. There were also plenty of people aged four, seven, 19, 44 and on who were positively joyous as Brentford took it to Arsenal en route to a 2-0 victory. 

It's hard to say how Arsenal supporters might be feeling after this match. A perennial powerhouse, for what feels like all of my life, the club was finished eighth in each of their last two campaigns. On Friday, they spent almost the entire match passing the ball backward and hesitating. Things picked up a little when Bukayo Saka finally entered the competition, but it was a little late by that point. 

There's an argument to be made that it wasn't all bad for Arsenal. Their kits look pretty great, and will look ever better when they're finally able to pair them with blue socks as they had originally intended. Historically speaking, Arsenal kits look anywhere from pretty good to absolutely fantastic 

All in all, the opening match of the season left me with plenty to think about and ruminate on as I made my way through the weekend. I was in New York from Saturday though Monday, but managed to catch Tottenham vs Manchester City live, and then once home, I watched recordings of both Manchester United vs Leeds United and Leicester City vs Wolves. 

Of the three, Sunday morning's Spurs vs City was the standout match for me. In case, you haven't spent the last six weeks reading about footy as I have, there was a fair amount of drama heading into this match. Put simply, Tottenham standout Harry Kane is eager to taste championship glory, doesn't think it'll happen with the Spurs and would like to go suit up for Man City where he will almost assuredly fill up his empty trophy case. Standing in his way is Tottenham's wildly stubborn owner who is vehemently opposed to such a move. The reporting on this comes so fast, furious and frequent but I'm pretty sure that the Tottenham owner said that a Kane transfer to City would only happen over his dead body. I am loathe to take the side of an old, rich, white guy but it'd be pretty boring if Kane went over to the wildly, stacked Manchester City. 

Anyway, the match was blast. Spurs were clearly eager to make a statement, got on the board when the moment struck and then held on to win the match. Simply put, Japhet Tanganga was amazing. Also, Tottenham Hotspur wear some really, truly lovely kits. So clean, they really make me pause. 

This might have come up in the last missive, so apologies if I'm just repeating myself, but my head keeps telling me that Leicester City could be my club. They framed as underdogs .Their manager wears a suit and takes fastidious notes while the match is going on around him. One of their top players is a self-described "mad man" who spent his offseason gardening and drinking beer. His pre-match ritual involves double shots of espresso, three cans of Red Bull and an omelette. How is everyone on the planet not a Leicester City supporter? Objectively speaking, they played well but it was nothing mind-blowing. I could say the same about their kits too. On the other end of the pitch, the old gold and black Wolves kits is highly attractive but I'm having a hard time telling how I feel about the club. 

It's unclear which matches will be on my television this weekend, but I will return. 

Deep Distance Dawn

 The pattern is always the same time after time. An international football tournament, the World Cup or the Euro (and maybe to a lesser extent the Olympics,) takes place and positively captures my imagination. For the entire length of the tourney, I'm rapt with attention on my couch. When it ends, I tell myself that that we keep it going and follow the action on the club level. It happens maybe one Sunday morning. 

On many levels, the Premier League and I appear to be a dynamite match. To put it lightly, I am an NBA obsessive. I spend morning, noon and night pouring over an aggregated Twitter feed of basketball musings and rumors. It's not just the on-the-court aspects of basketball that I love, but also everything that surrounds it. The players. The uniforms. Coaching drama. Upset fans. The whole lot, I'm here for it. I noticed fairly early on that with the more hoops that I watched, the deeper that I got and the more I started to notice. The players are right there in front of you, no helmets or hats or pads. After enough time, you start to get a sense of their personalties (on-the court at least, I'm not trying to speak for anyone.) Correct me if I'm wrong, but everything in this paragraph could be applied to following the Premier League. The only thing holding me back is my lack of affiliation, I reckon. In the past, when I would timidly try to watch, without a real, rooted interest, the whole operation just steamrolled right over me. However, that ends today. The buck stops here, as some like to say. I'm diving in. 

Since this is my first, honest foray into the Premier League, I'm acknowledging this head-on and am wondering in as a neutral. The only teams that I know for sure that I will not be supporting are: Millwall, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. 

Beyond that, I consider myself pretty open and have been conducting a fair amount of research. Admittedly, a lot of my research thus far has centered around who has the most notorious fans and why and who has the best looking uniforms (sorry, kits.) So far, I reckon that there are few early favorites but I still maintain that I will watch for weeks before I truly, know my club. 

Years ago, I used to play FIFA with my brother and always ran with Aston Villa as they have fantastic kits (claret and blue, * chef's kiss *) However, first choice for video game competition doesn't exactly sound like the best basis for picking your football club. What if someone asks me? It's entirely possible that I end up a Villa fan at the end of the day, but I want to do the leg work first. The Crystal Palace home kit might be my favorite of everything I've seen heading into the season, I am enchanted by those slanted lines. 

The other kits that caught my eye also carry a lot of history with them, and concerns two long-time rivals. Both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have exceptionally clean kits. Arsenal has also gone with some exceptional kits in years past too (bruised banana, baby.) 

In terms of competing on the field (sorry, pitch,) Leicester City carries with it a certain amount of appeal. Squarely outside the so-called Top Four except when Arsenal and Spurs are competitive and then it's Big Six, Leicester City has crashed the party before and haven't gone away in recent years. Also, just today, they announced they had acquired my third favorite player from this past Euro, defender and, also giant, Jannik Vestergaard (unfortunately my favorite player from this past Euro, Paul Pogba is on Manchester United and my second favorite player from this past Euro, Raheem Sterling suits up for Manchester City.) Again, it's entirely possible that I end up here but still I need to do my due diligence. 

There's part of me that suspects I may get caught up in Chelsea's march for the title. There's near unanimous consensus that Chelsea, City, Manchester United and Liverpool will finish in the top four of the standings with Chelsea and City duking it out. It's a possibility so I'm not dismissing it. 

Anyway, Brentwood meets Arsenal tomorrow. This blog was (probably) never a blog worth blogging about and now it's a blog about football