Premier League 21-22 Round 1 is a review of the first weekend of matches in the 30th edition of the Premier League, season 2021 – 2022. A brand new feature where Power of Pop returns to a sports focus – viz. football – in our musings on pop culture. This weekly review will feature our observations of the various encounters amongst the twenty English clubs that make up the Premier League.
Premier League 21-22 Round 1 provided football fans with the first major shock of the season, with Tottenham Hotspur’s deserved victory over defending champions Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Sunday, 15th August. Much had been written about the transfer saga between the two clubs over Tottenham’s talismanic striker, Harry Kane, whom City coveted. However, even without Kane in the squad, Tottenham proved that there may well be life after Kane, as the team put in a determined performance to blunt City, with South Korean Son Heung-Min filling into Kane’s boots brilliantly, to doom City to an opening day loss – something the Manchester club has not experienced for a decade!
Manchester City’s main rivals viz. Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, all achieved emphatic successes on the first day out and demonstrated to City that retaining the Premier League crown, will not be an easy task. Against the likes of Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Norwich City, these big three clubs had too much quality to be denied the points.
The other standout result was Arsenal’s defeat at newly-promoted Brentford, which signalled collective hand-wringing from the Arsenal faithful, with boss Arteta’s job security already under threat. Elsewhere, Brighton and Hove Albion, West Ham United, Watford, Leicester City and Everton all registered wins to provide their faithful with hopes and dreams of a successful 2021-2022 season.
No draws and an avalanche of goals greeted the return of fans to stadiums after the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in the UK – a promising start which hopefully will continue as the world recovers from the global pandemic.
… still there’s more …