LEICESTER VS BRENTFORD – Written by Max Robertson
It’s been a long summer for Leicester fans, with no incomings and top players being linked away, but a 2pm kick off vs Brentford could change this, with a new enforced singing section and the clappers gone, it was set to be a good day for the Foxes.
LEICESTER : With the amount of injuries sustained by Leicester last season, (31 players injured), fans thought it couldn’t get worse, but Leicester were left without Harvey Barnes and Ricardo Pereira, who picked up injuries in their final pre season game vs Sevilla.
GK : Daniel Ward
CB : Wesley Fofana
CB : Jonny Evans
CB : Daniel Amartey
RWB : Timothy Castagne
LWB : James Justin
CDM : Wilfred Ndidi
CM : Youri Tielemans
CM : Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (73’)
CAM : James Maddison
ST : Jamie Vardy
SUBS : Daniel Iversen, Luke Thomas, Çaglar Söyüncü, Nampalys Mendy, Dennis Praet, Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka (73’)
BRENTFORD : After surviving comfortably last year, Brentford came to Leicester hoping for a win, and with a pretty much full strength lineup, it left Brentford fans confident.
GK : David Raya
RB : Aaron Hickey (84’)
CB : Pontus Jansson
CB : Ben Mee (59’)
LB : Rico Henry
CM : Vitaly Janelt
CM : Christian Nørgaard (73’)
CM : Mathis Jensen (59’)
LW : Yoanne Wissa
RW : Bryan Mbeumo (84’)
ST : Ivan Toney
SUBS : Thomas Strakosha, Finley Stevens, Mads Bech Sørensen (84’), Frank Onyenka, Mads Roerslev Rasmussen, Joshua Da Silva (59’), Keane Lewis-Potter (59’), Shandon Baptise (73’), Halil Dervisoglu (84’)
FULL TIME : Leicester 2-2 Brentford
A performance which left Leicester fans angered, the season didn’t get off to a good start, 5 minutes before kick off 2,000 Leicester fans were stuck outside in queues, due to the new mobile tickets system. After the iconic ‘When You’re Smiling’ was played, the Leicester faithful really came to life, despite being at home, they outsung Brentford who took 2,700 fans to the King Power, despite the 3,200 allocation given. The deadlock was broken in the 33rd minute, James Maddison’s corner was whipped in onto the head of Timothy Castagne, who fired it home passed David Raya, Leicester fans absolute jubilant in the stands, some sort of unexpected, due to the Foxes problem in converting and defending corners. Into Half Time, Leicester were 1 up and in control of the game, the action resumed and straight away Academy graduate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fired one in to the bottom corner, right infont of the Kop with fans even falling 2 rows down celebrating. With Leicester in control, the system working perfectly, manager Brendan Rodgers decided to sub on Zambian international Patson Daka, for Dewsbury-Hall, a change which Leicester fans didn’t understand. Brentford hit back with just over 30 minutes to go, Daniel Amartey got the wrong side of Ivan Toney, who smashed it in passed Daniel Ward. With Leicester under pressure, Joshua Da Silva levelled the scoring in the 86th minute, after Daniel Amartey’s error once again lead to a goal, after he failed to close him down. Absolute pandemonium in the away end, despite being quiet all game. Boos were heard at full time, after another underwhelming performance. Leicester fans were promised a rebuild after a 4-1 loss away to Nottingham Forest, which fans presumed as signings, but when going into the opening pre season game vs Nottingham County, Brendan Rodgers claimed it was a mentality rebuild, such as seeing out games, but this wasn’t on show today, once again and not for the first time this season.
Looking at the 2 teams, Leicester look to have an other underwhelming season, despite a great first half, there is no consistency in the team. The changing room doesn’t look a good place to be in right now, with star players Wesley Fofana, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans being linked away. Leicester fans were left angered with Wesley Fofana who’s been linked with Chelsea in recent weeks, after he headed straight down the tunnel at full time, unlike the rest of the players who stayed out and clapped the fans.
For Brentford, it looks like another mid table season for them, with the likes of Ivan Toney being able to score goals, they shouldn’t be pulled into a relegation battle, but you never know… it’s the Premier League at the end of the day.
Controversial comments were made by Brendan Rodgers at full time, speaking to BBC Leicester, he claimed players were fatigued. If this was the case, he wouldn’t have only made 1 substitution, we could see lots of these excuses from him this season, but that may not be the case, he’s the favourite to be sacked first by the Bookies, and isn’t a popular figure around Leicester fans at the moment.
MANCHESTER UNITED VS BRIGHTON – Written by Olaniyan Israel
What looked like a great season ahead for Man Utd fans across the globe, with a solid pre season start, winning all of the first 3 to not winning the final 3, ended up being a poor pre season. Now, it’s looking like a real life nightmare for the fans of the club with the first loss of the season already on the opening day to Brighton who lost their two key players already this window, in Marc Cucurella moving to Chelsea for a record fee for a left back (£62M full package), and Yves Bissouma to Spurs.
MANCHESTER UNITED: Considering the same set of players who achieved a bad record in results last season, with not really much backing by the owners, Erik ten Hag, the new Man Utd manager has had no other choice than to go with most of the same players that played for the club last year. He’s still looking for more investment by the club, ex temporary manager Ralf Ragnick suggested the club needed maybe 10 new signings this window, but only 3 have arrived, and we have less than a month left in it. Tyrell Malacia arrived from Feyenoord, Christian Eriksen signed on a free transfer, and Lisandro Martinez reunited with ten Hag, after he signed from Ajax. Two of them started vs Brighton, and Malacia made an apperance off the bench.
GK : David De Gea
RB : Diogo Dalot
CB : Harry Maguire
CB : Lisandro Martinez
LB : Luke Shaw (90’)
CM : Fred (53’)
CM: Scott McTominay (78’)
CM : Bruno Fernandes (90’)
CF : Christian Eriksen
LW : Marcus Rashford
RW : Jadon Sancho (90’)
SUB: Tom Heaton, Tyrell Malacia (90’). Raphael Varane, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Donny Van De Beek (78’), James Garner, Alejandro Garnacho (90’), Cristiano Ronaldo (53’), Anthony Elanga (90’)
BRIGHTON : After losing their two best players in Yves Bissouma to Spurs, and Marc Cucurella to Chelsea who only signed for them in 2021, and won their Player of The Season last year, Graham Potter wasn’t left with much, but he’s a tactical magician, as proven before.
GK: Robert Sanchez
CB: Adam Webster
CB: Lewis Dunk
CB: Joel Veltman
RWB: Solly March (90+1’)
LWB: Leandro Trossard (75’)
CM: Moisés Caicedo
CM: Alexis MacAllister
CAM: Adam Lallana (76’)
CAM: Pascal Gross
ST: Danny Welbeck (90+5’)
SUBS: Jason Steele, Tariq Lamptey (75’) Levi Colwill (90+1’), Jan Paul Van Hecke, Enock Mwepu (76’), Kaoru Mitoma, Deniz Undav (90+5’), Neal Maupay, Jeremy Sarmiento
FULL TIME : Manchester United 1 – 2 Brighton
Expectations were high for Man Utd, as always but the result today once again prove that nothing will advance with this current group of players if they don’t replace them, most of these gave Man Utd their worst season record ever. As always the new manager Erik ten Hag is facing the same problem every Man Utd manager has been facing since the Glazers Family’s takeover of the club back in 2005. While rival clubs are investing heavily, signing world class players, such as Liverpool with Darwin Nunez and Man City with Erling Haaland, Man Utd are still yet to finalise their priority signing in Frenkie de Jong, with the saga lasting over 90 days now. Looking into the game itself it shows their is signs of good patterns of play but the players ten Hag has available currently don’t have the ability to interpret it during the match. With most of the the build ups starting with the goalkeeper David de Gea, who isn’t very good with his feet and with Fred who’s playing as the deepest midfielder not being comfortable on the ball enough to link both the defence and attack so it’s so easy to press the team since it’s clear both of these players panick under this situation and give the ball away easily, which isn’t the type of football Dutch manager Erik ten Hag wants to play. What looked like an absolute genius of a move move with Christian Eriksen one of the 3 summer signings, today playing as a False 9, he looked an absolute mess since there is no quality to the build up. This then changed in the second half with Eriksen now employed as the deepest player progressing forward the ball, with his vision and great passing ability, this was one of the reasons for the goal that was scored for Man Utd . Bruno Fernandes once again was not up to the standards set by ten Hag, same applied with Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, who pressed well today, but on the ball couldn’t do much due to the lack of quality. Overall, it was clear it was a terrible first half and an average second half for The Red Devils, which means the board need to invest more into the team and back the manager, especially in the midfield and attack which lack major quality.
WEST HAM VS MAN CITY – Written by Joaquín Sánchez
The first Premier League match for superstar Erling Haaland, with the game being played at the London Stadium vs West Ham United, with a 4:30PM kick off.
WEST HAM UNITED: West Ham seem like they will lose some players on their attack front, but their playmaking abilities are still positive, having bought good players, they are hopeful to qualify for European Football for the 3rd season running.
GK : Lukasz Fabianski (29′)
RB : Vladimir Coufal
CB : Ben Johnson
CB : Kurt Zouma
LB : Aaron Cresswell
CDM : Tomas Soucek
CDM : Declan Rice
RM: Jarrod Bowen (90′)
CAM: Manuel Lanzini (57′)
LM: Pablo Fornals (90′)
ST: Michail Antonio (57′)
SUBS: Alphonse Areola (29′), Darren Randolph, Harrison Ashby, Conor Coventry (90′), Armstrong Oko-Flex, Flynn Downes (90′), Nikola Vlasic, Said Benrahma (57′), Gianluca Scamacca (57′)
MANCHESTER CITY: With lots of outgoings for Man City this summer, and a positive net spend, something that you’d never think of a club like them, but this doesn’t mean to be worse for the Cityzens, fans believe that they have a better squad than last year, with arrivals of top quality players around the globe. The club is hopeful to retain their Premier League title, and push on and win the prestigious Champions League trophy, for the first time in their history.
GK: Ederson Moraes
RB: Kyle Walker
CB: Rúben Dias
CB: Nathan Aké
LB: João Cancelo
CDM: Rodri Hernández (89′)
CM: Kevin de Bruyne (88′)
CM: Ilkay Gundogan (78′)
RW: Phil Foden (88′)
LW: Jack Grealish
ST: Erling Haaland (78′)
SUBS: Stefan Ortega, John Stones, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Rico Lewis, Kalvin Phillips (89′), Bernardo Silva (78′), Cole Palmer (88′), Riyad Mahrez (88′), Julián Álvarez (78′)
WEST HAM UNITED 0-2 MANCHESTER CITY
In terms of stats, the match was clearly dominated by Manchester City, with 76% possession, compared to West Ham’s 24%, also noting down 14 shots it was clear who the better side was. From the get go, it was clear to all that West Ham wanted to play counter attacking football, but the insane amount of pressure of Pep Guardiola’s side, with most of the time 2 Man City players on a single Hammer, this made it close to impossible for West Ham to achieve this. On his Premier League debut, Erling Haaland scored twice. The first after coming from a penalty he won, after being taken down by Alphonse Areola, he converted the penalty, smashing it bottom left hand corner, sending Areola the wrong way. His 2nd was from an assist off Kevin De Bruyne, a link up we’ll see a lot this season, not just on this occasion.
On paper, West Ham look like they’ll achieve Conference League football this season, they could end up in the Europa League, if they win the Conference League, which they’re participating in this season. On the other hand, Man City look the clear favourites to retain their Premier League title.
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