EPL Match Week 1 - CleanSheet Recap

• Transfers. Biggest news of the weekend came from off the pitch as Harry Kane left Tottenham to join Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga. Spurs get $110M, Kane gets a new contract through 2027. Many expected Kane to stay at Spurs having grown up through their youth program. Also, Kane is only 47 goals away from beating out Alan Shearer’s record of 260 goals scored in the PL.

• Transfers II. Liverpool Drew 1-1 with Chelsea on Sunday but lost 2-0 to them over the weekend as Moises Caicedo, BHA Midfielder, was set to move to Liverpool for a record $146M transfer fee, the announcement had been made. In a Lee Corso “Not So Fast My Friend” moment, Caicedo made it clear he preferred Chelsea, who had also been in the running. Chelsea matched Liverpool's offer. Then on Monday, Liverpool’s second choice, Romeo Lavia from Southampton also spurned Klopp and Liverpool for Chelsea and $65M. The dominos are now moving - expect a lot of action over the next week.

• Speaking of Chelsea. Since the summer of 2022, Chelsea have spent over $1B (with a B) in transfers. Completely new team and on manager #3. Boehly is not half in.

• Best Result of Match Week 1. 5-1 Newcastle over Villa. Both club’s looking to challenge the top 4, this could’ve been more - 7 or 8 to 1. Eddie Howe has them firing on all cylinders. Up next, at Man City.

• Biggest Disappointment. Everton. After back-to-back seasons on the brink of relegation, Everton has high hopes for a less-stressful end of season run. That looks to NOT be the case as they fall to Fulham 1-0 at home. The Toffee’s - the PL’s lowest scoring team last season - saw more of the same to start this campaign, generating over twice as many chances (20-9) but not being able to convert.

• No VAR Drama, Until There Was. In the final minutes of the last match of week 1, after a clean ref-ing/VAR weekend, there appeared to be a clear Penalty on United’s Goal Keeper Onana (video - 5 seconds on YouTube, 1 min in Spanish on twitter), but it seems home cooking applies to England as well, no Penalty called. Definitely disappointing for Wolves fans. It’s been a rough week overall for Wolves losing their manager 4 days ago and having bettors move their odds into the relegation zone for the season. However, if they play like they did at Old Trafford Monday, they’ll be fine. Wolves outshot Man United and had the best chances to score. Forward Matheus Cunha was often in the right place at the right time but was unable to finish.

• Rude Welcome. All three newly promoted teams lost (2 at home) by a total score of 8-1. Welcome to the PL.

  

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EPL - Current Situation

For a deeper dive into Week 1 storylines…..

• 10 Good Next Level Insights from NBC Sports

• PremierLeague.com - Premier League weekend review: What we learned 

• Superstar Injuries. Two big knee injuries, most likely season ending for Jurrien Timber, Arsenal and Tyrone Mings, Villa. And, to demonstrate how short the off-season is for these guys, Kevin De Bruyne, Man City injured his hamstring in the Champions League Final last season. He gave it a go Friday but had to come off in the first half with that same injury still lingering.

Off Island

With the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A not kicking until next weekend, let's talk America. NOT MLS, USMNT, USWNT or The NFL. Let’s talk about American’s buying into English Soccer in a very visible way.

• 10 of 20 PL clubs are owned (majority or minority) by Americans.

• Head to the CleanSheet for write-ups on all 20 ownership groups in the PL.

• 12 of 72 clubs in Levels 2-4 have American ownership, Click here for 3 min read.

The latest is Tom Brady buying a minority stake in Birmingham City (3-10 min read depending on how deep you dive). Brady’s ownership seems to be similar to Kealia and JJ Watt’s role and ownership of Burnley, part financial investment and part marketing/influencer (2 min read).

This comes on the heels of Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds very public purchase of Wrexham, and the Welcome to Wrexham series. Highly recommend watching season 1, with Season 2 coming out 9/12 on FX (2 min trailer).

CS Best Bets Tracker

Good Start to the betting season, hitting on two longer shots and missing on the two shorter shots.