大象传媒

Premier League 2018-19: Five funnies as the new season begins

Manchester City Players lift the Premier League trophyImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Can Manchester City retain their title this season?

It's been a long summer without football since the World Cup ended (well at least a long four weeks).

Fear not though football fanatics - the Premier League is back!

It's been another busy off-season with Liverpool spending big, Chelsea hiring ANOTHER new manager and a very grumpy Jose Mourinho asking to spend more money.

Despite all this, football should be about having fun - so here are five funnies that you may have missed as the new season gets underway.

Morata turns 9 into 29

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Morata starts a new season with a new number

Chelsea's Alvaro Morata decided against wearing the traditional strikers number 9 shirt this season.

Instead, the Spaniard will wear number 29 as a tribute to his family after his wife gave birth to twins on 29 July.

Morata had been linked with other clubs over the summer, but after switching shirt numbers, he looks set to stay in London for a while.

Everton go goal crazy in Austria

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Everton played ATV Irdning high in the Austrian mountains

Marco Silva became the new Everton manager at the start of the summer and as opening games go, you can't ask for more than a 22-0 win!

Yes, you read that right, the Toffees really did win a pre-season friendly by that scoreline.

They were playing in the Austrian mountains against local team ATV Irdning and were 10-0 up at half-time.

Kevin Mirallas scored five, whilst Cenk Tosun and Oumar Niasse both grabbed four goals each. Let's hope they haven't used up all their goals!

Holes in socks - the latest craze?

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Kyle Walker's socks caught the eye at Wembley during the Community Shield

Kyle Walker did it last season and then again in the Community Shield at Wembley. Danny Rose also did it at the World Cup.

What are we talking about? Cutting holes into your socks of course!

A number of players have been spotted doing it, allegedly to relieve tension from tight socks and avoid pain in the lower leg.

Whatever the reason, it's safe to say that spotty socks are not a fashion trend that anybody wants to catch on.

Forget signing shirts, it's all about signing yellow cards!

Image source, Twitter/@_MrWong
Image caption,

Mesut Ozil appears to sign the referee's yellow card before the match against PSG

Fans are always desperate for a signed shirt from their heroes, but when Arsenal went to Singapore for a pre-season tour this summer, things were a little different.

Gunners midfielder Mesut Ozil was waiting in the tunnel ahead of Arsenal's match with Paris Saint-Germain when the referee approached with a strange request.

He appeared to ask the midfielder to autograph his yellow card! A confused Ozil was a good sport and signed his autograph for the ref.

Arsenal went on to win the game 5-1 and Ozil scored. Maybe he'll be signing cards more often!

"Lucky lucky Man United"

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Jurgen Klopp may have had good reason to be so angry

Everybody likes to moan about decisions that go against their team, but it seems Liverpool fans have grounds for complaint.

A study conducted by ESPN, Intel and the University of Bath found that Liverpool were the 'unluckiest team' in the Premier League last season whilst Manchester United were the 'luckiest'.

The researchers teamed up with an ex-Premier League referee and reviewed footage from every game last season to spot mistakes and predict a new outcome.

The results found that Manchester City would still have finished top of the 'luck league' - not many could argue with that!