Joe's Woes

Premier League Week 1

By
David An

The first week of the Premier League brought goals and lots of them.
It was a good week to be a forward and not a goalkeeper.

Club new boys Lukaku, Lacazette, Morata, Salah, Mounie and Rooney (new/returning) all started their journeys into the hearts of their new fans. With established cult heroes Vardy, Vokes, Aguero and a host of others joining the goal scoring action.

The win by the biggest margin in Game Week 1 came at Old Trafford.
With the two teams that arguably had the most successful recruitment season.
After a season to forget last season for West Ham, further investment was needed in the right areas.
West Ham have signed quality and experience in Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez.
Giving their fans reason to be cheerful going into season 2017/2018.

That sense of positivity and enthusiasm was quickly dispelled by a relentless display from Manchester United.
Although Lukaku took his two goals well Marcus Rashford was just as impressive by setting up a goal and hitting the post.
His pace and precision causing the West Ham backline nightmares. With Paul Pogba and Matic dominating the midfield it was nothing short of an onslaught. Future visitors to Old Trafford will now look to take a more pragmatic approach and park the bus in front of goal. West Ham have shown if you are ambitious this Manchester side can carve you to pieces. They'll need to shrug this one off and put together a steady campaign.

You couldn't fault one Joe Hart for the goals that West Ham conceded. They weren't really goalkeeping errors he was left exposed by a mixture of poor defending and rampant aggression.

However it does seems like football can be a cruel game at times. Not so long ago Joe Hart was England's no.1 goalkeeper, winning trophies with Manchester City and things looked set to stay that way. Until he was exiled to lowly Italian club Torino by Pep Guardiola. His crime? Not being a ball-playing goalkeeper that can dictate the next attack of the team. He has found his way back to English football at the right time. The World Cup will begin at the end of this season and it's good to be present in England under the gaze of the National team manager.

His first match back in England obviously didn't go quite as planned. Ironically against Manchester City's greatest rivals he had to pick the ball out of his own net more than he would have liked.

However it's only the first week and there's plenty of time for Hart to remind England, Guardiola and the rest of the football world of his quality. Football can be cruel but it also gives plenty of rewards and he'll be hoping that when his team faces the other team from Manchester he will have a better day.