Teams Looking to Get Things Right After the International Break
With the September international break upon us, five Premier League sides enter the pause with plenty to think about.
Here’s a closer look at how each side got here, and what they’ll need to fix when football resumes.
Arsenal
Premier League champions Arsenal fell to their first Premier League defeat since losing 2-1 to Manchester City in April, this time going down 3-0 to Brighton.
The result proved that they are probably not as unbeatable as thought, and they will need to regroup to defend their Premier League title, as other teams look to catch them off guard.
Still, with 4 wins in their first 5 games, they clearly have a strong grip on the title race.
Chelsea
Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea have 2 wins, 2 losses, and a draw from their first 5 Premier League games of the season.
While their attack has impressed, scoring 10 goals in 5 games, their defence has conceded even more, making it a worrying issue as they try to outscore opponents rather than shut them out.
Much of the blame has fallen on the injury to their key defender, Caicedo. But if the team is this dependent on one man, isn’t that itself a serious underlying problem?
They’ll hope to have Caicedo back after the international break, but they’ll also be hoping to concede far less, as they haven’t kept a clean sheet in the Premier League since January.
Manchester United
The Red Devils, after a promising end to last season that secured a Champions League place, made Carrick’s role permanent soon after.
But following a fairly quiet summer, they now find themselves back where they were early last season, with things looking bleak from the outside.
With just 5 points from 5 games, questions are being asked about whether Carrick’s appointment was a mistake, or whether the board simply failed to back him sufficiently.
With nearly two weeks off for the international break, they’ll be hoping to return to the form they showed at the end of last season.
Tottenham Hotspur
Bottom-of-the-table Spurs were among the biggest spenders in the summer transfer window, having survived relegation by the narrowest of margins.
One of the board’s promises to De Zerbi was strong backing in the transfer market if the club stayed up.
Despite big signings like Matheus Fernandes and Tonali, they have failed to win a single game in 5 matches, and were unable to score in their first 4 before finally netting in a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa.
With the international break here, Tottenham will need to rethink their approach to climb off the bottom of the table and ensure their spending pays off. If it doesn’t, De Zerbi’s job could be at risk.
Aston Villa
Emery’s Villa underwent a near-total squad overhaul, with key first-team players like Rogers and Konsa among those who left.
Despite notable additions like Nicolas Jackson and Leon Goretzka, the changes have had little impact on their campaign so far with just one win in 5 games and 4 points, leaving them 16th on the table.
With their only win coming in their last match against bottom-placed Tottenham, they’ll look to build on that form after the international break.
