Brentford relegation and more kneejerk reactions from opening Premier League weekend revisited | OneFootball

Arsenal looked like a trophy-winning team from the opening weekend, but some early kneejerk reactions did not pan out quite so well.

It was obvious that Leeds and Sunderland would stay up, but it does feel like Brentford won’t be relegated.

Look back at those kneejerk reactions from August in full if you so wish.

10) Liverpool will break the goal record

As tempting as it is to pretend the ‘goal record’ in question Liverpool were tipped to break was the most they have ever conceded in a Premier League season, in reality it was Manchester City’s mark of 106 scored in one campaign a few years back.

The Reds had just beaten Bournemouth 4-2 after spending an arseload on forward players in the summer, with Arne Slot boasting about their attacking tendencies. But unless Liverpool put 45 past Brentford on the final day, the current fourth-highest scorers will fall slightly short.

9) At least one of the four out-of-contract managers announce their exit before the end of the season

Marco Silva is the only one still desperately clinging on.

Vitor Pereira was sacked by Wolves within a couple of months. Oliver Glasner briefly flirted with the idea of derailing Crystal Palace’s entire season before realising he might as well bow out with another trophy. Andoni Iraola revealed he would be leaving Bournemouth, prompting them to become the best team in Europe.

Silva is reported to be heading to Benfica, but an official announcement on his future is still pending.

8) Parker and Potter are sacked

It unfathomably took until late April, making Parker’s supposed mutual consenting one of the latest managerial departures in a Premier League season. But both men met their ultimate fate for having their fingerprints all over relegation battles.

7) Leeds and Sunderland will stay up

Bit embarrassing not to have foreseen a final-day European qualification push from Sunderland after they started with a battering of West Ham, but still.

6) Brentford will go down

Ah, that’s not great. That defeat to Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest did happen on an alternate timeline but it no longer feels ‘difficult to envisage Keith Andrews making much sense of the hand he has been dealt’.

And Jesse Marsch was not appointed as the firefighter to the potential Manager of the Year.

5) Erling Haaland will break his own goal record

Aston Villa will have enjoyed celebrating their Europa League win, but not enough to grant Haaland the ten goals he needs to break his own single season Premier League scoring record.

4) Arsenal will win a trophy

Just like Jose Mourinho and Tim Cahill, we believed. It was described as ‘a side designed to excel in knockout football’ but the Premier League title has already arrived for the Champions League finalists.

3) Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace will reign in Europe

Genuinely so annoyed that we went for the narrative hilarity of Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace winning the secondary and tertiary European competitions after their summer-long tiff, instead of foreseeing that Aston Villa’s winless, goalless start was actually just the precursor to Champions League qualification and Europa League glory.

Take your pick from that reported squad. Nico O’Reilly probably best fits the usual ‘bolter’ criteria. Ivan Toney is a shout. And there was a tip back in August for some lad called Elliot Anderson; he really has established himself as crucial for England awfully quickly.