“Outside the Tollington Arms, Steve Chandler is in full flow. On the back of his replica shirt is the number 26 and a single word, “Champions” and, on the front of his head, lips are flapping overtime. Pint in hand, Steve is telling anyone who will listen that the first word he spoke as a kid was ‘Gooner’ (a slang term for an Arsenal fan). … After a brutal summer, London is parched, but the Tollington specialises in quenching and the mood is just as it should be: loose and liquid. Over the opening weekend of the Premier League season, versions of this conversation are ubiquitous across the country — in pubs, queues at burger vans, stadiums, online, at home. We are hopeful and fearful and excited precisely because, in this moment of not knowing, you can invest in possibility. …”
NYT/ATH
Our League: Tasting love, spite and a sense of living on Premier League opening weekend
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“First things first, this isn’t the official Premier League table. It’s a performance one that will be updated weekly, which means you can go from top to bottom, and vice versa, in the space of seven days. There’s a clean slate at the start of each gameweek, which will be good news for some clubs — Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at this rate. Results matter, but when deciding where to rank teams from one to 20, we’ll be looking primarily at how well they played last time out, which means dissecting (or, in the case of this weekend, watching) every Premier League game. If nothing else, it will provide you with a snapshot of how each team performed in the 2026-27 Premier League, week by week. And, naturally, you’ll be in full agreement with every summary, given that it’s a totally subjective process. …”
Scissors Kick 