Erik Lamela shows signs of stardom for Spurs; Navas surprises for Pep: PL talking points

Thomas Woods offers his insights from the opening day's play in the Premier League, where Erik Lamela looked like he could take a step up for Tottenham and Pep Guardiola received an unexpected gift.

Tottenham's Erik Lamela celebrates scoring their first goal agains Everton in their Premier League match on Saturday. Jason Cairnduff / Action Images / Reuters / August 13, 2016

With the first Saturday of the 2016/17 Premier League season in the bag, Thomas Woods runs down some of the main talking points so far.

Palace badly need Benteke

Crystal Palace look like a top-10 side on paper, but they rarely seem able to put it together on the pitch. Last season, they finished 15th, only five points clear of relegation. They lost almost half their games (18) and 10 of those were at Selhurst Park, giving them the worst home record except for bottom-placed Aston Villa.

It’s pretty clear that improving their home record is key to them finishing higher in the table. Over the last three seasons they’ve lost eight, 10 and 10 games at home, scoring 19, 21 and 18 goals at home each season – the lowest total in the top 15 on each occasion.

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Palace need goals and they need a proven goalscorer. They had 14 shots against West Brom on Saturday, couldn't put anything away. Liverpool's Christian Benteke is manager Alan Pardew's main transfer target and the club should go all out to sign the Belgian.

Palace have plenty of creative talent – the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Andros Townsend – to supply Benteke. He has never scored 20 goals in a season, but that is surely possible if he plays a season up front in this Palace side.

Navas surprises at City

Pep Guardiola's masterplan at Manchester City is going to take time to get rolling, that's clear. He's a fantastic manager, but he doesn't have a magic wand. City stumbled to a 2-1 win over Sunderland on Saturday but some of the signs of what Guardiola wants to do with his team were evident.

Former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry has talked in the past of his role in Guardiola's Barcelona team, being told to hug the left touchline in a 4-3-3 to create as much width as possible. Nolito did that job for the first 60 minutes, with Raheem Sterling on the right and City always had an option when switching the ball.

One of the few areas of criticism in both Guardiola's Barca and Bayern Munich teams was that they could be left with just one target in the area, the central striker, for the widemen to hit.

Even when his full-backs got to the by-line, they would often be under instructions to turn back and retain possession rather than put in a hopeful cross.

That might be how Guardiola also wants City to play usually, but in the Premier League, especially when you’re chasing the game, sometimes you just have to stick a cross in.

At 1-1 with three minutes left to go, substitute Jesus Navas was in such a situation as he was played in down the right and his wicked ball forced the own goal that won the game for City. The quality of the delivery was a major surprise – Navas made hitting the first man with his cross an art form last season – and perhaps it shows that Guardiola’s coaching has already had an impact.

Either that or Navas is feeling the pressure to perform with his place in the squad under threat from new arrivals.

Erik Lamela might be Tottenham’s star this season

Tottenham haven't made the big-name signings of some of their title rivals, but they also seem to be the team who needed the least work doing from last season.

Unlike champions Leicester, Tottenham retained every member of their squad, added Vincent Wanyama and Vincent Janssen. They also have age on their side and almost every player could be reasonably expected to improve again this season.

One of those is Erik Lamela, who scored the equaliser at Everton on Saturday. The Argentine is still only 24 but heading into his fourth season with Tottenham. At one point it looked like he might not have a future in England, but Mauricio Pochettino deserves credit for having patience with the talented midfielder.

Lamela's best season, the one that prompted Spurs to spend more than £25 million (Dh118.6m) on him, saw a return of 15 goals in 33 league games at Roma.

He was dangerous against Everton and could have scored more than one. If it is a sign of things to come, Lamela could become an absolutely integral part of this Tottenham side. If he gets 15 goals, then Spurs will surely be in the mix for trophies at the end of the campaign.

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