Are Chelsea Premier League contenders? | Weekend Review

**Ryan Bailey** (0:20)
Welcome to the Total Soccer Show Weekend Review!
Chelsea fans ended the weekend feeling ecstatic, even if the new Alonso wearer is a little bit erratic. The Blues had a new shirt sponsor and a new keeper, but are they a Premier League title sleeper? Elsewhere, Tottenham Summer is showing some poor ROI, while on Tyneside, Matthias Jesler seems to be that guy. We should pay tribute to our unstoppable overlords at Hull, and Liverpool's start has been anything but dull. In Syria, Inter, Milan, Juve and Lazio all have looked statuesque, while Como are riding high under the stewardship of SESC. And we also saw the Bundesliga begin. Would it shock you to learn that Bayern got a big win? My name's Ryan Bailey, joining me today, Taylor Rockwell's here. Hi Taylor, how are you?

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:08)
I am doing well, Ryan Bailey. A big win for Bayern Munich. What has the world come to? I cannot believe that's how this weekend played out.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:14)
I know, a day ending in y and Bayern got a win. Whatever next, is the sun going to come up tomorrow? I don't know.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:19)
I don't know. Crazy.
I appreciate Chelsea being good to start the season, because I still feel like after our previews, I thought I knew a lot and then I feel like a lot of what I thought I knew has gone wrong. But Chelsea, pretty good, pretty fun.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:33)
That's an analogy for life though, isn't it? The growth, the journey, Taylor, I'd say. Well said.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:39)
An optimistic Ryan Bailey to start the Monday. I'm not used to it.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:42)
Indeed. Joining us, Optimism's very own personification, Graham Ruffin. Hi, Graham. How are you?

**Graham Ruffin** (1:48)
Hello, Ryan Bailey. Yeah, quite the belly. Not sure I'm so optimistic about a thrilling Bundesliga season after watching that opening game on Friday night where Bayern just stomped all over Stuttgart. I appreciate, I quite like the ceremony of having the defending champions open the season. That just always feels like the right thing to do.
I'm not sure it really works with the Bundesliga because Bayern open the season, demolish another team, and then I turned that game off and went, well, I'm not sure how much of the Bundesliga I'm going to watch this season. It's like that every single year. I'm joking. I probably will watch some of the Bundesliga because I can't help myself, Ryan Bailey. But nonetheless, I think it's probably going to be another year for Bayern Munich.

**Ryan Bailey** (2:28)
Yes, indeed. They'll close the season in March. Don't worry, Graham, after opening it.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:32)
This past weekend, will they not be top of the table this season?

**Graham Ruffin** (2:40)
Probably not, no, because they won 5-1 in the first game. So no, from start to finish.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:47)
I would love to disagree. I don't know if I will. I'm sure people who love the Bundesliga and know more about it than we do are tearing their hair out because there's reason for optimism for other clubs. But yeah, 5-1 win to start, Freiburg second on a 4-1 win. So maybe Freiburg beat Paderborn by worse than Bayern beat Schalke, and then it's Freiburg on top. Seems unlikely.

**Ryan Bailey** (3:07)
Very good. More Bundesliga coming later in the episode, including Elversburg getting a big old win this weekend. We'll touch on that a bit later. Before we get to all the big stories of the weekend, we have a Patreon. patreon.com/totalsoccershow is where you'll get our bonus episodes, including weekend review extra. We can have a lot of Premier League games on the extra feed this weekend, including but not limited to Man United's big comeback win over Ipswich, Liverpool's draw with Forrest, and much more on the bonus feed weekend review extra. All the goodness we can't fit in the weekend review. You'll also get access to our Discord server. All of the... some of the... few of the... No, it's all of the cool kids. All the cool kids are hanging out in our Discord. patreon.com/totalsoccershow. Please come and join us. We thank you to everybody who's already in our community. Shall we get started, Graham, with a little trip to Stamford Bridge? Chelsea, are they brilliantly chaotic and a title contender? Let's get into it. It was a 4-3 win over Brighton.
We had some chaos from the JP Morgan front three, which is my favourite nomenclature banking-related, financial institution-related nomenclature for any three-person partnership in a soccer team. They went 3-0 up in 32 minutes. Cole Palmer got the fourth goal, which was lovely as well. They're in at Alonso for 3-4-2-1, excuse me, with Eddie Martinez playing in goal like minutes after he signed his contract apparently, which was nice to see as well. That's the Argentine goalkeeper, not the Cavapoo, just to be clear. Graham, what were your impressions of Chelsea so far?