Seven Truths: Have Chelsea and United both dropped the ball already?

United’s summer recruit from PSV Eindhoven didn’t score a hat-trick on debut like Wayne Rooney; nor did his first proper outing in a United shirt induce the same kind of excitement that an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo’s did. But a bright display from the Dutchman was one of the highlights of the first match of the Premier League season. He looked bright in the No. 10 role behind Rooney and was keen to participate at every opportunity.

Some players wear the red of United and shrink; others puff their chests out and fill it. Memphis is clearly from the latter camp. There is something about the confidence which drips off him that tells you there is little chance he will fade away without making his mark on this club. A few little tricks, some ambitious shots and a gorgeous pass for Ashley Young in the first half suggested the 21-year-old has all the right qualities to excel at a club of United’s stature. Now let’s enjoy watching him prove it.

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Arsene Wenger called it “completely unexplainable” and “a massive mistake”. Jose Mourinho bemoaned the fact that his players were denied “proper holidays and a proper pre-season.” And traditionalists were horrified at the fact that the Premier League season kicked off on August 8th, the second-earliest it’s ever started.

But when the whistles blew around the country at 3pm, all those grumbles disappeared. Blazing sunshine, cloudless skies, temperatures in that delicious hot-but-not-too-hot high-20s zone... the Premier League looked absolutely glorious in every way. And when the goals started flying in, it almost felt like it was a sunshine-filled day of World Cup football rather than the opening day of the English season.

Okay, so there was a downside to the early start to the season. Several players across the league went down with cramp, probably from insufficient rest and training – among them Juan Mata, and Chelsea v Swansea man of the match Jefferson Montero. But when you’ve got your shades on and everything feels fine, that sort of thing seems a small price to pay.

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Given the manner in which they romped to the title last season, Chelsea can be forgiven for not going overboard with their summer spending. The side looked settled, confident and assured by the end of the campaign, and many observers suggested that they could have won by more points but had taken their foot off the gas in the closing weeks of the campaign.

That may be true, but on Saturday's evidence Jose Mourinho's side may find that standing still has been tantamount to going backwards. While they controlled much of the game against Swansea, they didn't look unbeatable, as they so often have at Stamford Bridge. And in many ways it was a strange match, with the red card and penalty incident overshadowing the final half hour. But Swansea were already well in the match even before Thibaut Courtois got his marching orders, showing complete disdain for Chelsea's fearsome reputation on home turf.

With Manchester United unconvincing against Tottenham, and Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City all yet to play, we might reassess things next Tuesday morning and simply conclude that the early start to the season has left the title contenders a little rusty. But when Mourinho retained the title with the Blues 10 years ago he brought Michael Essien into the side during the summer to help him do so. As of now, it feels that Chelsea do need someone else in the first team squad, if only to give their superb stable of players the sense that they're part of a group who are still improving.

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There was a bizarre moment during the Manchester United match when the cameras picked out three United players sitting together watching the game: David De Gea, Victor Valdes and Anders Lindegaard. Three international keepers exiled to the stands while a somewhat shaky Sergio Romero made his debut. It is a barely believable situation for a club which has spent as much as United to find themselves in.

If De Gea’s mind is not in the right place for him to perform then it surely means his time at the club is nearing an end. United would do well to accelerate the process and give themselves enough time to get a suitable replacement on board as having the De Gea situation drag on is surely asking for trouble. Romero made a couple of decent saves but United will want a more commanding name if De Gea does get his move to Real Madrid. Hugo Lloris, on the bench for Spurs, would be a decent option. This is an unacceptable mess.

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If you were going to make a set of Top Trumps cards for football managers, you’d probably include things such as tactical nous, motivational skills and (yes, Tim Sherwood fans) win ratios.

But one thing you absolutely couldn’t miss out is a ‘Pantomime Villain’ rating.

Now, before anyone gets on their high horse about us labelling this manager or that a villain, we’re not: by pantomime villain all we mean is a larger-than-life figure who comes out with all sorts of inflammatory quotes, outrageous antics and ludicrous pronouncements that are big on entertainment and low on sober facts.

And it’s a fact that managers who score highly on the pantomime villain scale tend to do best in the Premier League. Saturday was a near-perfect demonstration of the fact, as you can see from our highly-scientific table. Only the draw at Chelsea messed up our system.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present the inaugural Eurosport Seven Truths Pantomime Villain Rating Index:

In the words of the philosopher – okay, so it was George Michael – you’ve gotta have faith. And that’s exactly what Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe showed on Saturday when he left his high-profile new signings on the bench.

That’s right: club record signing Tyrone Mings was a substitute as the Cherries kicked off their first ever season in the top flight, as was veteran top flight defender Sylvain Distin. Instead, Bournemouth’s young boss stuck almost exclusively with the men who got him into the Premier League in the first place.

The one exception? Josh King, a 23-year-old Norwegian striker. And even he, like the rest of the Bournemouth side, was also a Championship player last season, having just arrived from Blackburn Rovers.

Sadly for Howe, the experiment didn’t work. It never does. It’s a bit like assuming that you can print off your GCSE history essay and submit it as A-level coursework, or entering a GP2-winning car in an F1 race. Newly-promoted clubs who stick with their Championship approach in the Premier League are following a tried-and-trusted path to relegation.

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Somehow you forget about this sort of thing over the summer. But like a recurring nightmare that goes out of your mind until your head hits the pillow, it all came flooding back: that feeling of a pit opening up in your stomach when you witness a real travesty of justice.

And no, Chelsea fans, we’re not talking about the sending off of Thibaut Courtois. The victims on Saturday were Norwich City.

Crystal Palace had been well worth their 2-0 lead at Carrow Road, but the Canaries pulled one back and then appeared to have equalised when Cameron Jerome produced a magical overhead kick from what was more of a quarter-chance than a half-chance.

Yet somehow the referee’s assistant raised his flag and deemed it dangerous play – for a high foot – and had the goal chalked off.

Replays from behind the goal showed that Jerome’s foot wasn’t really anywhere near the Palace defender’s head, denying Jerome the goal of the season so far. Even Alan Pardew admitted that if it had been one of his players who’d had the strike disallowed that “I’d feel hard done by.”

Then, to compound the error, the same team of officials failed to spot what seemed a clear penalty in injury time as Connor Wickham shoved over Sebastian Bassong in the box. With Norwich’s players still fuming, Palace went up the other end and eventually scored their third – but the Canaries will feel that it all could have been very, very different.