Yes: the rumors are true. The Premier League, which was never really gone, has returned. And it felt pretty good on a muggy Friday night to watch an Arsenal team do an excellent job with eager new moving parts to inspire some tender pre-season hopes at Selhurst Park.
It was 24 degrees in south London as kick-off approached, the earliest date the English top flight has ever started. It was a parched heat, the grass scorched white, the sky a deadly blue. The English summer at least has a sense of irony. To avoid the Gulf sun, the Premier League will play through a heatwave in England instead.
Despite all that, it was a fun and brisk start to the season. If last week’s Community Shield felt like a visit of sorts, football reimagined as a 90-minute Sopranos dream sequence, it had a familiar flavor. A London derby. A tightly-coiffed system manager. That pale summer sun. Maybe that was real.
It’s a question that could also apply to Arsenal in a season that will define Mikel Arteta’s work to this point. They started with a brave starting XI, the kind of 11 that gets passed around in fan chats, the hopeful 11, the breakfast cake 11. Saliba! Martinelli! No filling material! Except maybe Granit Xhaka! But that’s okay, he’s good now too!
At the end of a hard-fought 2-0 win, a score that doesn’t reflect Crystal Palace’s resilience between goals, it felt like something was stirring here. Gabriel Jesus was good. Oleksandr Zinchenko was good for a while. William Saliba was very good and will draw the most attention.
Saliba made seven clearances without ever having to make a tackle. His death was solid. He didn’t look nervous or even very tired by the end, a cut above the tense, snot-stained performances of Arsenal’s former centre-backs. He was freaking out here, teasing things in his head a few seconds in advance. It’s good. Where was he again?
While the game was reassuringly lively, there were some worrying developments in Sky Sports coverage for opening day TV viewers. Before kick-off, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were dispatched to do vox-pops with the fans, taking it a notch higher than milk but a dilution of the expert analyst’s role. Why not go all the way and just stick them in a pub somewhere?
Oleksandr Zinchenko escapes on Jordan Ayew’s safe debut. Photo: David Klein/PortalGaz and Carra did their best. But frowning dudes in replica shirts abound outside of the paywall. Forensic, graphics-packed content is what people pay their subscribers for.
Then there was the odd, claustrophobic prospect of Patrick Vieira being forced to utter breathless platitudes at half-time. This was uncomfortable for everyone involved. Viera doesn’t want that. He is not part of the spectacle at this point. This isn’t American wrestling yet. Stop overproducing this thing. The game is good. trust.
And both teams were good, Arsenal right from the start. Gabriel Jesus did something great when he stole the ball 40 yards from goal with three minutes remaining, producing a nutmeg and a fling. For a long time, those pink away shirts, the color of heat-damaged processed ham, found neat nimble little triangles. Zinchenko was excitingly mobile, scoring more than anyone else on the pitch in the first half hour.
He had a hand in the first goal and found five yards of unguarded space by looping from the edge of the box. He headed the ball back. Martinelli dozed off.
Jesus was also quick on his feet and desperate to dribble and turn. He’s basically exactly what Arsenal needed: pressing, edge, authority. Maybe people have forgotten how good he is or how good he should be. Together, Jesus and Martinelli had eight dribbles and four shots in the first half hour of the season. They played together for Brazil against Japan in Tokyo in June. They should be that good.
Palace have been drained by injuries and the loss of players. Expectations are low, which might be a useful place to be, but Vieira really seems to know what he’s doing and which players to trust. They pushed Arsenal back on either side of half-time and used Wilfried Zaha as a weapon against Ben White. But it was also a chance for Saliba to show his qualities. Arsenal also have Saka, who scored the second goal and forced Marc Guéhi to deflect a hard cross into his own net.
For Arteta the way is clear from here, a time to fulfill the investment of time and resources. But they have a playstyle and a blueprint. The shadow of the great Arsène has passed. The mistakes here are this team’s mistakes, the strengths Arteta has grafted onto. Whisper it, but that was actually quite encouraging.