The Premier League is back and the new season was kicked off by Fulham and Arsenal.It was so recently that the 2019/20 campaign concluded after being de-railed by coronavirus... but we go again. The Cottagers were only promoted to the top-flight 39 days ago but had a tough task of hosting Mikel Arteta's in-form Gunners on matchday one. Arsenal were made clear favourites, but their preparations for the fixture didn't exactly go to plan. During the warmup, two players were involved in a heated exchange. After Dani Ceballos went in a little hard on Eddie Nketiah, the pair squared up to each other and there was a bit of shoving before the situation was cooled. It could probably best be described as 'Handbags'. Check out the video below:
Some will describe that as 'passion' and something you'd like to see between players ahead of a match. Others would call it 'stupid' and 'unnecessary'.
BT Sport pundits also discussed the incident, with Jake Humphrey saying:
"I guess this is passion right, is this what you want to see or is it a bit much?"
"At the end of the day, sometimes things get heated. You probably get that two or three times a week at the training ground," Rio Ferdinand said.
"It's just we happened to be here to see it. I'm sure Arteta won't be too disappointed with that."
Arsenal certainly took that fight and passion into the match with Fulham and actually took the lead very early on.
Alexandre Lacazette tapped home after some questionable defending to score the first goal of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign.
What a start for the Gunners. If they do go on to brush Fulham aside, it will be a real statement of intent.