The Premier League returned to action on Wednesday night after more than three months, with the match between Sheffield United and Aston Villa. While the game itself finished goalless, there was a huge flashpoint in the first half, when Aston Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland carried the ball into his own goal, but the referee’s watch failed to buzz and thus Sheffield United were robbed of a clear goal. HawkEye, the company which provides the goalline technology for the league, put out a statement saying that this sort of freak occurrence was the first instance in over 9000 games where the technology had been used, and that they apologize to Sheffield United and the Premier League for this. Nevertheless, this occurrence only goes to show that there are literally no dull games in the league, and it was almost refreshing to see the debate and discussion all over social media regarding this mistake. It was apt that we had a refereeing error in the first game back since football was suspended in March; nothing could have been a better harbinger for Project Restart.
Nevertheless, the second match of this mini-season was even more eventful. Manchester City and Arsenal locked horns at a deserted Etihad stadium (yes, the joke writes itself), with this being a clash between master and protege in Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta. While most fans would have probably bet on Manchester City winning, and some would have had the opportunity to use this betfair promo code to get a better deal, nobody could have predicted the actual events of the match, even if the 3-0 scoreline flattered City to an extent.
Arsenal lost Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari to injury within the first 20 minutes or so of the first half, forcing Arteta to bring on Dani Ceballos and David Luiz, and thus using up two of his three permitted substitution windows in the first half itself. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg for the Gunners, as Luiz gave a display for the ages. The Brazilian glanced on Kevin De Bruyne’s cross with his thigh rather than clearing it, putting the ball on a plate for Raheem Sterling to score, and he then bundled Riyad Mahrez over in the box early in the second half to concede a penalty and get himself sent off. All of this in about 25 minutes of action on the pitch; talk about having an impact from the bench. City also had an injury scare, with rookie centre-back Eric Garcia, who was a surprise pick by Guardiola, suffering a serious-looking injury, but overall they coasted through this match, with Arsenal failing to get a shot on target. Their winless streak against ‘Big Six’ teams has now been extended to 26 games, and Arteta has a lot to figure out if he wants his team to mount a late run for the Europa League spots.
This was a classic Arsenal display though, with their spinelessness and ineptitude clearly on display, and in that regard, we can truly say that the Premier League is back. Next up, Jose Mourinho takes on his former club on Friday night, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hoping that his returning talisman Marcus Rashford can fire Manchester United up the table and into the Champions League spots.
