GOAL US unpacks the main weekend storylines from the Premier League, La Liga and other top competitions in The Euro XI
The first round of matches after an international break always feel a bit weird. Most players have been away for a couple of weeks. Their brains are still whirring back into gear. Some tactical ideas are filed away, while new ones are brought back to the fore. Not everything clicks. It's all a little disoriented.
The good news is that it usually leads to one of two things: either, the games are really good and entirely silly. Or, they're frightfully boring, 22 guys just playing it safe. This weekend yielded a bit of both.
Serie A (usually bad) was good. Liverpool (usually very good) were bad – but got away with it, anyway. Arsenal (usually boring) were very exciting. And Erling Haaland scored two very good goals. It all offered quite a bit of content – which is ultimately what this sport is for.
GOAL US presents The Euro XI, with 11 key observations from the weekend.
Getty Images Sport1Liverpool and immaculate plot armor
The cool kids call it "plot armor." Basically, it means that a certain character or team in any given story will be able to survive whatever adversity is thrown their way in order to uphold a narrative. They are, in effect, immune to the kind of thing that would derail others.
And the Liverpool plot armor is strong these days. They beat Newcastle late a couple of weeks ago, with a 16-year-old (!) burying the winner in stoppage time thanks to a wonderfully crafted move. Last weekend was perhaps even more fortunate – and absurd. The Reds were, well, a bit rubbish against Burnley – who defended wonderfully for 93 minutes.
A 0-0 draw seemed a fair result. But then a foolish handball in stoppage time gifted Liverpool a penalty. Mo Salah stepped up and smashed it home. It was absurd and somehow predictable at the same time. The plot armor is immaculate.
AdvertisementGetty/GOAL2Erling Haaland is still a really good goalscorer
It was fun to make fun of Erling Haaland for a while. It's easy to see why. He's a big, plodding goalscoring robot who just kicks the ball into the net really hard. There are nuances to being a professional footballer at the elite level – dribbling, passing, defensive work rate.
Haaland strips all of that nonsense away and kicks the ball hard. It led to some criticizing the striker last season. Such were City's struggles that we forgot he was basically scoring a goal per game.
Well, if there were any doubts about his quality, they are gone. Haaland scored twice and could've had at least two more as Man City battered Man United 3-0 in a frighteningly comprehensive derby win. Turns out the robot is really good at one thing, and that's just fine.
Getty Images Sport3Arsenal have depth now
It was every Arsenal fan's favorite excuse last year, the old "We don't have enough depth to win the league" adage. And sure, that might have been true. But they also finished well off a Liverpool side that were spending the last month of the season in Ibiza after they wrapped up the league.
Depth be damned, they perhaps just weren't good enough? Well, there's an excuse gone, as Arsenal showed they can call on some guys off the bench. With Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli all out, they turned to Nono Madueke, Victor Gyokeres and Ebere Eze against Nottingham Forest. The result? A 3-0 win.
Complain about depth now.
Getty Images Sport4Brentford, the most charming club in soccer
Brentford really should get relegated every year, but they especially should be relegated this year. Here's a club that operates on pretty much no budget, using players you've never heard of, relying on a mixture of lumbering veterans and unknown gems to stay alive in th emost unforgiving league in the world. It sounds a bit unfair, really.
And after losing manager Thomas Frank, it seemed that they might be heading that way. But there is fight in the Bees yet, something they proved with a glorious last-minute equalizer to earn a draw with Chelsea on Saturday. They will need every single point they can get this season, and that was truly a lovely one.