First Impressions and Second Thoughts

First it was just Chelsea piling on the goals (OK, Blackpool did it too) in Week 1 but this week was a goal-fest that included some of the usual suspects (Chelsea and Arsenal) and another promoted team who announced that while they may not be ready for ManYoo at Old Trafford, they are most definitely ready for anyone outside of the league's elite with a 6-0 thumping of Aston Villa.  Here's a quick look at what we learned this weekend:



Title Race

• Favorites - We know for sure that Chelsea can put up a lot of goals on bad teams and we also know that Wigan is definitely going to be one of those bad teams now that they're a cumulative 0 for and 10 against for the season with one of their most "winnable" matches already played.
• The Difference - All you need to know about the difference between Man United's spending and Chelsea's spending over the last few years is that Chelsea's winger who looked like a bad purchase until mid-season last year (Malouda) has evolved into one of the best attacking midfielders in the league while ManYoo's similar purchase (Nani) STILL hasn't put together a string of outstanding performances and forced SAF to keep him in the line-up. 
• The Artists - The jury is still out on Arsenal after missing their best two players in the 1-1 draw away to Liverpool and just crushing Blackpool.  We probably won't know much about their title hopes until they play Chelsea in September - unless they trip up and drop points they SHOULD get between now and then.
• The New Money - I'm also a bit at a loss as to how to evaluate Citeh's formation.  It was pretty leaky against Spurs but they managed the draw but it was very effective against Liverpool other than one brief flurry of attacks in the second half that Hart rebuffed.  What we do know is that fantasy managers are going to get headaches trying to figure out who is going to play week-to-week.

Elsewhere in the Table

• The fun Wolves storyline continues with a valuable road point at Everton.  They're playing scrappy football in addition to having more talent this time around.  Now if they can just get all of that attacking talent healthy at the same time, life will be good.  If Ebanks-Blake is going to contribute this season, they're going to contend for mid-table.
• Elsewhere, all three newly promoted sides have their first wins of the season which will make clubs like Wigan and West Ham who have both looked pretty rotten even more worried about the severity of their situations.
• Villa looked horrible on the road - how could all of the good feelings of last weekend be erased that quickly?  Is Milner really that good? Is WHU really that bad?
• There is misery in all quarters of Liverpool with both the red and blue halves yielding only 1 point from two matches.  The red half can take some solace in the fact that they've played strong competition in both of the first two weekends.  The blue half? They have to be wondering if they are going to suffer through another year like 05/06 where - after making the Champions League as the fourth place team the season before - they stumbled out of the gate for nearly the entire first half of the season despite a lot of talent.

Players

• England Midfielders - Gerrard and Lampard were both pretty invisible as fantasy players.  Lampard will get some goals if Chelsea continue to win 6-0 but Malouda and Drogba are the two best attacking players and Lampard is really no better than neck-and-neck with Anelka for 3rd best.  With the new attacking additions at Liverpool, Gerrard seems to be playing further back on the pitch and just not getting the chances fantasy managers are used to.
• You Gotta Have H(e)art - If Citeh are going to keep clean sheets then Joe Hart is going to be the fantasy player of the year.  He's getting a lot of saves and if wins and clean sheets follow, his production is going to be massive.
• The Old Master - How long can Paul Scholes last trying to be ManYoo's best player? It is more a testament to how ineffective others have been thus far but he's far and away their best after two matches (and he's cheap).
• The New Midfielders - Neither Charlie Adam nor Graham Dorrans have shown much thus far despite their teams each having a win.  With so many inexpensive players in midfield right now, we probably need to see more from both.  Adam is a little hard to judge because he was lying pretty deep in Blackpool's formation against Arsenal, especially after they went down to ten men.
• As Citeh Turns - Silva and SWP on the bench, Barry scoring, Milner the fulcrum, not much from Yaya, and AJ with a modest 5 points from a start.  The formation still odd to say the least.  Balotelli injured.  Jo as the first striker off the bench over K2.  Both matches so far against strong competition so we don't know if Mancini will play a more attacking line-up against lesser opponents.  Basically, a big mess for fantasy managers to deal with so far.  Throw in trying to figure out when Boateng and Kolarov might come back and it's enough to want to make you pull your hair out.
• Debuts of Note
• Ireland for Villa - Anonymous
• Milner for Citeh - Strong
• Dembele for Fulham - Promising
• Walters for Stoke - Not bad