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The Premier League kicked off with a bang, as Arsenal and Leicester City played out a thrilling opener to the season, with the Gunners ultimately triumphing by a 4-3 scoreline.
Alexandre Lacazette and Shinji Okazaki were on the scoresheet with barely 4 minutes gone, before Jamie Vardy gave the visitors the lead midway through the half, only for Danny Welbeck to grab an equalizer on the stroke of half time. Vardy then gave Leicester a shock lead in the second half, only for late goals from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud to give Arsenal the win.
Here are the major talking points from the game
#1 Arsene Wenger's magic hat
45 minutes into the season, and #WengerOut had already begun to trend on Twitter - it's under this volatile climate that Arsene Wenger operates, and given the abuse the Frenchman willingly tolerates, he should soak in the plaudits when things work out for him.
What Wenger has quietly managed to assemble is a frontline with varied options, and he had the luxury of bringing on Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud with Arsenal chasing the game in the second half, while also switching to an extremely attack-minded 4-3-3 in the later stages.
2 goals from two substitutes late, and all was rosy in Wenger's world. Familiarity may very well breed contempt, but even after two decades Wenger deserves more than his share of the credit for changing the game.
#2 Debut masterclass
It really shouldn't have been a surprise to Arsenal fans that Alexandre Lacazette scored 94 seconds into his Arsenal career - the Frenchman has now scored in a stunning 5 consecutive seasons on the first day, racking up 7 goals in 5 games since his streak started in 2013.
The Frenchman's second touch of his Arsenal career was a wonderfully guided header that reeked of a striker's instinct, and the nonchalant celebration brought back memories of a similar French forward. Lacazette was brilliant in his hold up play as well, holding off Leicester's defenders for the second goal.
The Frenchman showed the versatility in his game when Giroud came on, switching to the left and putting in some telling crosses. Arsenal may very well have found a complete striker.
Leicester City have a fair few positives from the game, but what may go under the radar is how well Harry Maguire played on his Foxes debut. The centre-back popped up all over the pitch in Leicester's counter-attacks and made a couple of crucial interceptions as well. The Englishman may be disappointed at being outmuscled by Giroud for the winning goal, but his ambition of an England call up is very reachable if he continues in this manner.
#3 Jamie Vardy loves Arsenal... sort of
Jamie Vardy has made public his decision to reject the Gunners on multiple occasions - it's only fair he receives some stick from the Arsenal fans from time to time. The Englishman does know how to silence them though...
That Leicester City experienced a fallow year last season was expected - what wasn't expected was that Vardy would contribute more that Riyad Mahrez. The striker has become integral to the Foxes, and Kelechi Iheanacho has his work cut out if he wants to replace the Englishman.
Vardy leads the race for the Golden Boot after the first day of the season, and he's likely to be in the top echelons if he continues this way.
#4 Defensive concerns remain for Arsenal
"You pay for the education of young players with points. If I play a young central defender who is 20-years-old, I know he will cost me points in the season - and I have to stand up for that. If I play a less talented 28-year-old centreback, he'll cost me less points, but I'll not give a chance to that young player. At some point, as I manager I have to stand up for that young player because he deserves it."
Wenger's words just a few days ago looked incredibly prescient when Rob Holding had a bit of a nightmare start to the season, with his confidence visibly dropping at every skewed pass. The youngster had two left-backs alongside him though, so perhaps could be excused.
Petr Cech and Arsenal's defence copped plenty of criticism from the game, but the goals that Arsenal conceded came from situations that can be corrected, although that seems a familiar refrain. Still, with players like Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Gabriel, and Shkodran Mustafi still to come back, perhaps judgements on a defence that ended up with two left-backs in the middle, a right winger, and a right-back playing at left back should be held off.
#5 The Premier League is back!
This game was madness.
If Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac were wondering if this was standard fare for the Premier League... they'd be right. La Liga is the better league in terms of quality, as is evidenced in the UEFA Champions League, but for sheer entertainment, the Premier League has no match.
The entirety of the game was played at breakneck speed, with neither of Arsenal of Leicester slowing down, or even attempting to tactically kill the game. What resulted was some very poor football in a tactical sense, but oh so beautiful for the fans.
And that is what football simply is, entertainment. Keep your Messis and Ronaldos and Ney...oh, I'll have mad 7 goal thrillers full of bad defending anyday.
