The Gunners kicked off the season in style last week by picking up their second trophy in 3 months, but now it's back to serious business as the EPL season takes over the futbol world's attention with an opening slate full of intriguing matchups. Everyone's favorite disciplinarian stepdad Louis Van Gall will have the honors of taking his squad out first, with a visit from a Swansea team that has had a busy summer with enough moves (Gomis, Sigurdson) to make up for the loss of Davies and Worm to Spurs. At least in theory. Nerves will be aplenty, not least by new boys, but look to United to try to replicate the 4-1 thumping they put on the Welsh in last year's opening game. Which makes it about the only thing they'll try to emulate from last year. Mauricio Pochettino will start his new job at Spurs with a very winnable game against a Hammers team whose owners have promised their fans more entertaining play this season. I guess they forgot the part where Big Sam is their coach. Although they did make a couple of potentially interesting signings, such as Diego Poyet or Mauro Zarate. Arsenal will be looking to keep up their good vibes from the Community Shield win by hosting Crystal Palace, a task that looked like a potential test, but Pulis' shock exit looks like very bad news for Palace.
Sunday brings on the LaLaLo Bowl as Liverpool bring out their recruits from Southampton (though Lallana will be out) against their old team. No doubt everyone will be watching to see how they cope without Bitey Mouse; my guess is pretty fucking well, at least on the offensive side. City will close the weekend against Newcastle who are already dealing with Ben Arfa headaches, but who had themselves another sneakily decent recruiting offseason. Remi Cabella could be one of the best pickups of the summer IMO. On Monday we'll close the opening round with Chelsea and Burnley, a game which has already generated 1 million references to that time Burnley beat United 1-0 in their first game, but sadly for them I'm not sure the title juggernaut that Mourinho has built will let that happen.

France: Claude Makelele will make his first return the Parc des Princes when his Bastia team take on PSG tomorrow. They had a feisty encounter with Marseille (unfortunately the feistiness was not limited to the pitch, as there was a violent encounter between some supporters and riot police before the game. Corsica gonna corsica), so PSG will have their hands full if they want to improve on last year's tepid start to the season.

EPL
Saturday Aug 16
07:45 Man Utd v Swansea
10:00 Leicester v Everton
10:00 QPR v Hull
10:00 Stoke v Aston Villa
10:00 West Brom v Sunderland
10:00 West Ham v Spurs
12:30 Arsenal v Crystal Palace
Sunday Aug 17
8:30 Liverpool v Southampton
11:00 Newcastle v Man City
Monday Aug 18
2:00 Chelsea v Burnley

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For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets