The opening Premier League weekend tells us absolutely everything we need to know, like Steven Gerrard being sacked and Frank Lampard staying.
10) Ralph Hasenhuttl will be the first Premier League manager to leave his post
There are sexagenarians who discuss retirement less frequently and fragrantly than 55-year-old Ralph Hasenhuttl, whose public proclamations that he doesn’t wish to be like Roy Hodgson are quite frankly starting to feel personal.
Hasenhuttl has two years left on his Southampton contract and the suggestion is that upon that deal’s expiration, he will walk away from the game after almost two decades as a manager, a quarter of which would have theoretically been spent in England.
But the Premier League’s fourth longest-serving Premier League coach, behind Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and former Championship dugout prowler Thomas Frank, might not make it that far. Southampton have won one Premier League game since March – obviously against Arsenal – and a chastening opening defeat at Spurs means their record over the last 14 matches is W1 D2 L11 F11 A38. It is beginning to feel like the only real variable is whether he walks before he is pushed.
9) Erling Haaland will break the record for most goals in a Premier League season
‘HAALAND: ‘I WANT TO HAVE FUN AND SCORE GOALS’ shouts the headline on the Manchester City website. And it turns out the Norwegian is all out of fun, which was presumably had in the aftermath of a Community Shield performance which encouraged some truly peculiar takes about whether a prodigious centre-forward with no discernible weakness can actually fit into the best attacking side in the world or not.
So that leaves him with only goals, two of which were plundered against West Ham in the ultimate tease of many more. Haaland might have been forced into a rivalry with Darwin Nunez but it is another Liverpool player he should soon find himself competing with. Mo Salah’s marker of scoring 32 times in a single Premier League season is about to face the toughest challenger.
8) Brighton will qualify for Europe
“Why not?” was Paul Barber’s answer when the Brighton chief executive was asked in summer 2021 whether European qualification was realistic for the Seagulls within the next five years.
It is testament to Graham Potter, the boardroom, his squad and everyone connected to Brighton that such proclamations now seem conservative. Brighton were only five points behind Europa Conference League…
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