It's a lot to take in, honestly. The action flows from end to end uninterrupted. The slightest touch can create chaos and heartbreak in an instant. Any and all storylines contain layers. Watching Premier League long enough in one sitting, and it all really does start to feel like that one Lord of the Rings meme. You don't just simply turn the television on and watch Prem; it's more of Matrix type thing. The only way to really do it is to plug in and immerse yourself. Or at least, that's how it feels after following this for the first month.
Watching West Ham versus Manchester United this morning, I was struck by how technically foreign all of this is to me. In some respects, I can feel my understanding and familiarity go up each week and I'm now able to connect some dots and fill in some blanks. However, a lot of the context continues to elude me. And to quote Tom Scharpling, from his memoir It Never Ends, "So many of the world's problems stem from a lack of context. If you can't understand who someone is, you will struggle to understand why they do the things they do." He's rather obviously not talking about football, but I think it's still applicable here. I can try and follow the ball as it moves up and down the pitch, but in most cases, I know precious little about the pitch itself. The history of the grounds and the tales that are told about classic matches from years past; that information isn't readily available, you have to dig for it. It's the same thing when it comes to the clubs. I can look at all the kits and listen to the crowd reaction and use that to try and find my squad, but in doing so, I run the risk of stepping over so much history. Most of these clubs have existed in some shape or another since the late 18 or early 1900s. Now, I don't expect to learn everything there is know about all of it, but at the same time, I do think that I should, at the very least, know the last 30 years pretty well. And it's bigger than the Premier League too; there's the Champions League, the FA Cup, the Europa (plus, a few that I probably don't even know about.)
Anyway, these thoughts were rattling around my head while I watched Premier League this morning. This was actually my first actual Premier League morning watching all of the matches live. After the other week against Leicester City, I was quite ready to watch Michail Antonio and West Ham take on Manchester United. He has been an absolute joy to watch, and while I may be new, at the same time I can say quite comfortably that Manchester United is my least favorite club in all of soccer. If I didn't already feel this way then I definitely did after the match was over. They snatched another one! This one was even more of a gut punch when you learn that Jesse Lingard, who hit the winner, spent last season on loan to West Ham and is still much beloved by their fan base (they gave him a standing ovation when he checked into the match.)
Another thing that I kept wrestling with all day while watching was the atmosphere of the crowds. Yesterday, the energy at Villa Park rose to a level normally reserved for Evangelion Unit 01 to grab the forks and bring about the next impact. The opening goal from Matty Cash was nice enough on its own, but it stirred something up in the Villa supporters. Then Leon Bailey checked in and took everything to another level. It sure look like he scored on that corner kick, but it was ruled an Everton own goal. Since he didn't get credit for it, Bailey went ahead and hammered home a beautiful, undeniable goal minutes later. The crowd was rapturous and the vibes were high.
That was the only match that I caught yesterday. After the West Ham versus Manchester United match ended, I threw in a load of laundry and got ready for Tottenham versus Chelsea, which by my count is my first derby. Based on the way they are talked about other places, I find myself pulling for Spurs, at least a little bit. This is definitely informed from watching the documentary series and learning about their squad. At the same time, though, as the guy I share a workspace with will tell you, I've caught every Chelsea match so far this season and think pretty highly of them too.
Today, Chelsea appeared inevitable. Like Thanos who came before them, they moved forward according to their own plan. Things were pretty close in the first half, and the broadcast team said that if there were an edge then you would have to give it to Spurs, who were playing without Japhet Tanganga who had to serve a one-match suspension for the red card from last week against Crystal Palace.
However, the second half was a different story. Thomas Tuchel put N'Golo Kanté into the match and things changed. Romelu Lukaku had a relatively quiet today, aside from the times that the commentators called attention to the fact that he wasn't dominating the game, and despite that, Chelsea still walked with relative ease out of Tottenham today. It's hard to say what went wrong for Spurs exactly, aside from Delle Ali not jumping when Tiago Silva went up for that first goal and then the ball careening off of Eric Dier for the second one. I can confirm that Heung-min Son and Harry Kane played and were active today, but am having a hard time recalling any real quality shots on goal.
So, that's how it went down this weekend. Somehow, I'm still no closer to a squad of my own. At my most honest, I would say that I have narrowed the league down to a handful of clubs but I still feel that I have a long way to go. Next week already looks strong with Manchester City and Chelsea locking up on Saturday and then a big North London throwdown on Sunday when Arsenal and Spurs meet.
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