It takes around 90 days to build up, but the optimism of a football fan can just as easily be dashed in the space of 90 minutes these days.
A summer spent dreaming of glory can quickly turn into a season spent fearing the worst; such is the “need it now” nature of the modern game.
Accordingly, much of the build-up to the eagerly-awaited Premier League kick-off will centre on the need for sides to make a good/solid/strong/flying start to the campaign. Liverpool will entertain Arsenal at Anfield on August 15 hoping to hit the ground running under new manager Roy Hodgson.
But just how important is it to do so?
Last season, the opening weekend brought with it talk of a title-challenge, but ended in little more than a rude awakening.
Liverpool went down 2-1 at Tottenham – the side who would eventually elbow the Reds out of the top-four. A poor pre-season was allowed to leak into the new campaign; the Reds’ flat, lifeless display at White Hart Lane was an alarming precursor to a season which never got going, and ended with them languishing in seventh place.
Aston Villa would leave Anfield with victory a fortnight later and Rafa Benitez’s side – despite a six-game winning streak in September – never truly recovered.
The strange thing is Liverpool under Benitez traditionally enjoyed reasonable starts, often struggling more throughout late autumn and winter. The Spurs reverse was the only time in the Spaniard’s six years on Merseyside that the Reds lost their opening league fixture.
In 2007 they began the season with a run of 14 games undefeated, before a 3-1 reverse at Reading in early December triggered a collapse. They would record just two league victories between December 2 and February 2.
A year later, it was a similar tale. Benitez’s side went ten games unbeaten until a defeat at struggling Tottenham on November 1, but would see their title challenge unravel with a string of costly draws – especially at Anfield. They ended the season four points behind Manchester United – who had begun the campaign slowly, with just one win in their opening four games.
Indeed, strong starts seem to be something of a Liverpool forte; last season’s opening day defeat was only the fourth time the Reds have been beaten on the opening weekend in the last 34 years. Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish and Roy Evans were all unbeaten in opening day fixtures. But there is little guarantee that a strong start can be maintained.
In 1990/91 for example, Dalglish guided his reigning league champions to a record-breaking eight straight wins to open the season. Liverpool’s first defeat came on December 2, in their 15th game.
Ominously, however, that defeat came at Arsenal, who would go on to overhaul the Reds in the second half of the season, winning the title by seven points. Dalglish would resign in February of that season, and Liverpool, of course, has not won the league since.
Three years later, Dalglish’s replacement – Graeme Souness – would also depart mid-season, despite a strong start in which the Reds won four of their opening five games; hinting at a title challenge before imploding as autumn turned to winter. If a bad start should not be treated as a disaster, then equally a good one should not be met with too much euphoria.
Obviously the alternative scenario is that a strong start enables a side to gain momentum and confidence, which can see them through to a successful season. Liverpool in 1987/88 equalled a top-flight record (then set by Leeds in 1973/74 but since beaten by Arsenal in 2003/04) of 29 games unbeaten at the start of a season. Ultimately it would be, of all teams, Everton who would bring an end to that run, but Liverpool would have the last laugh as they romped to the title, despite a late wobble.
How Roy Hodgson would love a similar start to his reign at Anfield. The former Fulham boss has been dealt a tricky set of fixtures to begin with; after hosting Arsenal in the opening weekend’s standout clash, Liverpool must travel to free-spending Manchester City the following week, and face big games with Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea in their opening ten matches.
Hodgson would do well to take heart from the early results of some of the Reds’ greatest ever managers; Bill Shankly, for example, lost two of his first three fixtures – and heavily, too – after taking over from Phil Taylor in December 1959, whilst Liverpool started so slowly under Kenny Dalglish in 1985/86 that Alan Hansen claimed the side was the worst he’d played in. They went on to win the Double that season.
It will give Hodgson heart to note that history shows a sluggish start need not be fatal to a side’s chances. After all, you get nothing for being top of the table in August.
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