Premier League Review: A Kane-less Spurs shock Manchester City with a narrow win over the Premier League champions

The Premier League finally returned at the weekend, with Brentford getting the campaign started with their first ever Premier League fixture as they hosted Arsenal on Friday night.

Elsewhere, Leeds United travelled to Old Trafford to take on their old rivals and were hoping they could improve on last season’s trip to Manchester where they lost 6-2.

Meanwhile, Manchester City were facing a Kane-less Tottenham Hotspur as they continue to express interest in the English striker, while Aston Villa were beginning a life without the £100 million man Jack Grealish.

We have taken a closer look at the opening weekend’s matches below…

Brentford 2-0 Arsenal

I don’t know whether this makes sense, but Arsenal losing to newly-promoted Brentford was an extremly unsurprising surprise.

Arsenal have been extremly underwhelming for a while now and it appears that this season isn’t going to be any different. However, it was the first day of the season and fans are finally making a return. The Gunners should be raring to go – not playing as if it is their first game of pre-season (which they also lost, may I add). I expected a tough game for Arsenal, but never did I think they would roll over so easily. Another spineless performance from Mikel Arteta’s side and the Spaniard should be concerned.

For Brentford and their supporters however, this was brilliant. They certainly didn’t look like the team that had never reached the dizzy heights of the Premier League. The Bees were full of energy – of course helped by the twelve man in the stands. It is been a while since I was that entertained by a team and it showed us football fans exactly what they have to offer this season.

Manchester United 5-1 Leeds United

Leeds United failed to redeem themselves after last season’s 6-2 loss at Old Trafford, while Manchester United put an unbelievable performance for the home crowd.

Bruno Fernandes definitely hasn’t felt the effects of a disappointing Euros tournament, bagging a hat-trick, while Paul Pogba stole the show with four assists.

All this and new signings Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane didn’t even start the game. Big things to come for Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s team.

Bar a fantastic equaliser from Luke Ayling, the Whites were rather disappointing and were clearly missing their star man Kalvin Phillips. However, I am pretty certain this won’t reflect how Leeds United perform for the rest of the season. Similar to the 2019/20 campaign, Marcelo Bielsa’s side could go from losing 5-1 to their rivals to winning three in a row with a clean sheet in each.

Burnley 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion

Burnley will be very disappointed with this result after initially taking an early lead through James Tarkowski. The home side had plenty of opportunities to double their lead in the first half but failed to take their chances and were punished.

A fixture like this is one that is extremly hard to predict and could go either way – with teams like Burnley and Brighton needing to win these type of games if they are to avoid the drop.

Chelsea 3-0 Crystal Palace

Chelsea’s opener was pretty much a breeze for them – and Romelu Lukaku hasn’t even had a chance to feature yet.

Prior to the match I was expecting a little more from Crystal Palace following the arrival of Patrick Vieira and the players they have brought in, however with Joachim Andersen on the bench and Michael Olise and Conor Gallagher absent from the squad, it isn’t quite as surprising.

This Chelsea team under Thomas Tuchel are electric and were obviously in very high spirits following their UEFA Super Cup victory last week.

The victory was topped off with a heartwarming moment for Trevoh Chalobah who scored an absolute stunner to put his boyhood club 3-0 up, followed by the 22-year-old dropping to his knees in tears of joy. A perfect start to the season for Chalobah and his Chelsea teammates.

Everton 3-1 Southampton

With the departure of Carlo Ancelotti and the controversial arrival of former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez, I was quite surprised to see Everton kick off the season with a convincing win – especially after going 1-0 down.

The Toffees struggled in the first half but Everton’s Brazilian star Richarlison shone in the second, grabbing a goal and assisting the third.

It was vital Benitez got off to a good start with his new club because it’s going to take a lot of convincing for these fans to warm to him.

Meanwhile, Southampton’s life without Danny Ings and Jannik Vestergard isn’t looking very promising. One positive was definitely Adam Armstrong however, who quickly scored his first Saints goal and looked bright throughout.

Leicester City 1-0 Wolves

Jamie Vardy is back again! The striker continues to shine every season and, despite a tricky end to last season, doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down.

Meanwhile, Adama Traore is yet to improve on his finishing and decision-making that he has struggled with in previous seasons and should have probably helped himself to a goal against Leicester.

With 19 shots compared to the Foxes’ nine, Wolves will definitely be disappointed that they didn’t return to Molineux Stadium with the three points.

Watford 3-2 Aston Villa

It looks like Aston Villa are missing Jack Grealish already after losing to newly-relegated Watford.

Despite scoring two goals late on, Watford ran rings around Dean Smith’s side in a particularly worrying performance.

However, there are positives to take in Danny Ings’ first goal and Leon Bailey’s assist for their first.

Meanwhile, I was quite surprised by Watford who looked very impressive in comparison to the side we saw get relegated a couple of years ago.

Although, it is a bit of a cheat code when they still have Ismaila Sarr in their team.

Norwich City 0-3 Liverpool

Perhaps the least surprising scoreline of the weekend, Liverpool eased to a 3-0 victory over Norwich in Virgil Van Dijk’s first game back since injury.

Mohamed Salah was also in his unusual fantastic form, making it five consecutive opening day matches that he has scored in for the Reds.

While it would have been a huge shock for the Canaries to beat Liverpool on Saturday, they still looked rather underwhelming with their Championship-standard squad.

Todd Cantwell couldn’t save them from the drop last time and I don’t think he will be able to this time either.

Newcastle United 2-4 West Ham United

A result that shows exactly why we have missed football!

Despite taking the lead into half-time, West Ham came from behind twice to take the three points back to the capital in a particularly exciting clash.

The Magpies shouldn’t be too disheartened by the loss however, with Callum Wilson getting off the mark and Allan Saint-Maximin once again showing why he will be the first name on the teamsheet for Steve Bruce.

Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Manchester City

After signing Jack Grealish for £100 million and also causing Harry Kane to be dropped from their squad due to their interest in bringing him to the Etihad Stadium, Man City fans would definitely have been expecting a lot more than they got on Sunday.

Son Heung-min scored the only goal of the game for Spurs, met by chants of “Are you watching, Harry Kane?” from the home crowd.

It wasn’t a dreadful performance from the visitors, however there are no excuses when you put out the most expensive starting XI in Premier League history.