Difficult to believe that it is only nine days since Newcastle United kicked off a new Premier League campaign.
It always feels the same, an endless summer without proper football and then once NUFC are playing competitive football once again, it seems like it has never been away.
This is especially so now with Newcastle United, so much more expectation and hopes.
Making the whole experience even more intense.
So much so I think that many Newcastle United fans can get too focused, even obsessed, with the smaller picture, rather than the much bigger one.
Obsessing too much over something like say losing 1-0 at the all powerful reigning champions, instead of getting their heads up and looking at things as a whole.
Anyway, these are some massive very early season boosts for Newcastle United that I have identified, just to cheer up the obsessed:
Newcastle 5 Aston Villa 1
That thrashing of Villa WAS very impressive and NUFC should / could have scored even more goals AND Newcastle United still looked as if they had more gears to move up into if needed.
Easy afterwards for then the media experts who had all bigging Villa up beforehand, to then suddenly claim that looks like Villa just had a lucky half a season blip last year and actually they must be rubbish.
Aston Villa though then hammered Everton 4-0 yesterday. Admittedly, the scouse mackems were woeful and look relegation fodder, still though, Villa did trounce them in some style.
Villa ARE a decent side now and Newcastle did overwhelm and hammer them nine days ago. Plenty more of that lies ahead for other clubs at Newcastle’s hands.
Manchester United
They were terrible against Wolves at Old Trafford, outplayed much of the game, should have lost, scored and won it 1-0 with a rare chance and Wolves had an apology from the referees boss for not awarding the most obvious penalty ever to Wolves. Wolves then got hammered 4-1 at home on Saturday by Brighton.
Man U then rubbish again on Saturday, losing 2-0 to a Tottenham team who are no world beaters.
No guarantees of course that Man U won’t pick themselves up but I have a feeling that they won’t be the force of last season, when they (overly) relied so massively on Rashford and Casemiro.
Chelsea
All the talk from their media mates about how Chelsea would with a blink of the eye change from chaos to title contenders.
Once again, very early days, but like with Man U, I’m not seeing a Chelsea set up that Newcastle can’t finish ahead of.
Even with Pochettino, it still feels like chaos, little surprise with the latest bout of mad spending and squad change.
Especially when so much of this ridiculous spend is on young overseas players that are new to the Premier League. Maybe it will prove a revelation in the future but this Chelsea ‘plan’ certainly doesn’t look to me as equaling instant success.
Chelsea were very average against Liverpool in the 1-1 draw and then lost 3-1 to a West Ham side widely expected to struggle.
Then I read that Chelsea are desperately looking for essential new strikers / goalscorers before the transfer window ends, this despite spending all that cash???
Liverpool
Very much like Chelsea.
Played out that average opening 1-1 fixture and then didn’t look great against Bournemouth. They did win 3-1 but got some serious luck and decisions off match officials, whilst Bournemouth had 13 shots, five of them on target, the visitors even taking the lead after only three minutes.
I see the same defensive frailties as last season and have been knocked back by a number of transfer targets, as they attempt a rebuild.
Yes they may well be up there this season BUT I don’t see anything that suggests they are suddenly the far better Liverpool we were all told to expect pre-season by their media mates.
Elsewhere, Man City have steamrollered on and look the business and whilst Arsenal struggled to a 2-1 win over Forest, I suspect we will see them back into their stride tonight at Palace.
Much as I thought before the season kicked off, Man City to win the title, Arsenal very likely second, but then after that all to play for.
Fair play to Brighton for their couple of 4-1 wins but at the same time, in Luton and Wolves they have surely faced two of the weakest teams, so it is impossible to read too much into their form until they play some stronger opposition.