De Gea, Cech and Courtois all under spotlight in Premier League opener

De Gea, Cech and Courtois all under spotlight in Premier League opener

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was careful not to criticise the match officials following Thibaut Courtois' sending off against Swansea.
The Premier League has returned. First impressions have been made -- some good, some bad and some comical -- a few preseason bubbles have been burst and other expectations have been raised.

David De Gea's replacement, Sergio Romero, kept a clean sheet as Manchester United beat Tottenham 1-0.

The opening weekend of the 2015-16 campaign produced a number of themes; among them is the emergence of Reece Oxford, the 16-year-old West Ham midfielder who strolled around the Emirates at an age when most of us were growing unconvincing facial hair to try and get served in pubs.

Elsewhere, the Chelsea medical staff discovered there is literally nobody Jose Mourinho will not throw under the bus to distract from a bad performance. Aleksandar Mitrovic sensationally got himself booked in seconds, and Sir Alex Ferguson's "Lads, it's Tottenham," team talk still holds true for Manchester United.

Another theme was goalkeepers. There has been much talk about them over the summer, with David De Gea's on/off move to Real Madrid becoming a tedious transfer saga. It of course carries the knock-on effect such a move might have, with Tottenham's Hugo Lloris pegged as a potential replacement.

Then there was Chelsea allowing Petr Cech to move across London and strengthen a potential rival, seemingly the most un-Mourinho of decisions. That meant Asmir Begovic made that most curious of decisions to forego regular football at Stoke and instead sit on Chelsea's bench for a season, or else he genuinely thought he could displace Courtois simply via his own excellence.

The opening weekend picked up the elements of this talk and thoroughly ran with it. The most curious scene came from the stands at Old Trafford. At some point during United's stodgy 1-0 win over Tottenham, the camera found three men sitting in the directors' box who had almost 1,000 league appearances, eight league titles and three major European trophies between them.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was careful not to criticise the match officials following Thibaut Courtois' sending off against Swansea.

They were watching rather than playing and what was strangest was that none of De Gea, Victor Valdes and Anders Lindegaard were unable to play. They were simply omitted by Louis van Gaal for assorted reasons.

"If he is still here on Sept. 1 we will look again," said Van Gaal of De Gea.

"But he cannot play before that because as a goalkeeper you need the highest concentration, and it is difficult when you are in a position like David. We saw in preseason his focus was not quite there and we made the decision on Wednesday not to play him."


David De Gea's replacement, Sergio Romero, kept a clean sheet as Manchester United beat Tottenham 1-0.
Sergio Romero performed perfectly well on Saturday but the Argentinean is not always the most sturdy of presences, so it would have been tempting to play De Gea despite his lack of focus.

However, Van Gaal is right to omit the Spaniard until this saga is resolved one way or another. You could draw rather reductive comparisons with  Everton defender John Stones, himself subject to a transfer chase and who appeared for the Toffees without complaint against Watford, but the situations are rather different.

There are enough examples of players being pushed out on the field and proving distracted liabilities for their team amid transfer talk, like when Joleon Lescott was all at sea in Everton's 6-1 defeat to Arsenal on the opening day of the 2009-10 campaign when he was in Manchester City's sights.

One man who did get his desired move was Cech and it was a transfer that has convinced many that Arsenal are viable title contenders this season. It had reached the point where some delirious fans made it sound like he would never concede a goal -- a bubble that was burst by an erratic performance against West Ham.

Cech could perhaps escape some of the blame for the Hammers' second goal from Mauro Zarate because of the pathetic way the rest of his defence dealt with their threat. There's little that could be said in mitigation for him flying out and missing the cross for their first, however.

You could easily argue that Cech's performance masked a potentially even more serious problem for Arsenal, namely that they barely seemed able to create a clear-cut chance against West Ham. While nobody really thought their goal would be impregnable with the Czech keeper, he was supposed to make spineless defeats like this less common.

"He will save them 12 or 15 points a season," said John Terry as Cech's transfer was going through.

Perhaps this now means he will have to save 15-18 points in the remaining 37 games, having let three slip on the opening day.

And then there was Cech's successor at Chelsea, who had quite the weekend. You could argue that Courtois was unlucky to be sent off against Swansea, either because his foul on Bafetimbi Gomis may not have been inside the box or that the striker was heading away from goal. The point remains that he made a brainless, high lunge at the Frenchman and could have been reprimanded for dangerous play.

Mourinho, of course, could not resist having his say, hoping the powers-that-be "understand that it's not a red card and they clear the suspension," but it is clearly Courtois's fault. As things stand, he will miss the crucial game against Manchester City this weekend.

It's often said that goalkeepers are an eccentric bunch. Last weekend appeared to prove the point.

Nick Miller is a football writer for ESPN FC, The Guardian, Eurosport and a number of other publications. Follow him on Twitter @NickMiller79.

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