What a start to the Premier League season we have seen so far. Goals galore, incredible football being played and a huge amount of drama too. But none more so than in the games with the top teams this term, something that has differed greatly from previous years. Gone are the days of the tight, tense affairs between the teams roaming the top of the Premier League. Welcome the attacking style and flair of the best teams in the league, battling it out for 90 minutes. But the question on so many people's lips is, why are these games so open now?
There could be a lot of reasons why and I have heard a lot been said already from journalists around the country. More attacking players in teams, better attacking quality in teams, poor defensive performances are all reasons that have been mentioned and all of which are valid. In my view though the main reason is that teams are so desperate to win these games and to make a statement to the rest of the league, that they put a large emphasis on attacking football. The battle for the Premier League and the Champions League places are more competitive than ever, and teams want to ensure that they not only beat their rivals, but induce a level of humiliation on them by concentrating on beating them heavily.
The first of which we saw at Old Trafford with Manchester United's 8 vs. 2 humiliation of Arsenal. This was certainly not a tight affair and Arsenal earlier on had a lot of chances to get very quickly back into the game, including a penalty miss by Robin Van Persie. There was so much open attacking play from both teams, but especially United, who were not satisfied with defending a lead, but wanted to attack throughout the 90 minutes. They inflicted a defeat on Arsenal that left the Gunners confidence trounced for future games and it showed.
It didn't end with that game though, last week we saw Manchester City offer Arsenal some payback on Manchester United, by beating them 6 vs. 1. Nobody would of predicted this, but Manchester City's quality and attacking football certainly played a big part. Both teams went all out for the win, playing a very open form of football to ensure they won the game, rather than having the mentality of ensuring they didn't lose, which is a very different mind set. City were never satisfied with 3 goals and continued to attack, running riot at the end of the game.
Yesterday's game summed it up more than any other, Chelsea 3 vs. 5 Arsenal. The game had so much attacking prowess on show by both teams not performing very well defensively. But the main reason the game was so open again was pure and simple down to their want to win the game. Both teams were not afraid of losing the game or keeping things tight at the back to protect their leads. We saw that as both teams lost the lead during the game and they continued to look to go forward throughout. There were plenty of chances for both teams and at the end of the day it was Arsenal who took their chances. On another day it would have been Chelsea that came out on top.
I hope we continue to see these games between the top teams, as for fan's it becomes much more exciting than the close defensive 1 vs. 0 score lines that we have been used to in previous years.
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