Elite’s weekend stroll looks ominous for chasing pack

LONDON — There will be no seismic shifts in the balance of soccer’s richest competition if the first weekend of the new Premier League season is anything to go by.

Last season’s top five all won, most of them comfortably; none of the three promoted clubs could manage victory and no team beat a side that finished above it last term.

It all made Leicester City’s 5,000-1 title triumph in 2016 seem more unreal than ever.

Since then the same six clubs have finished at the top for two years running and they are widely expected to do so again.

Had Arsenal not found itself playing champion Manchester City in its first game under new manager Unai Emery, it might well have been a clean sweep for those half-dozen sides.

As it was, City was a straightforward 2-0 winner in London to Emery’s disappointment, following Liverpool’s 4-0 romp over West Ham United in an earlier match on Sunday.

On Saturday, Chelsea, also under new management in Italian Maurizio Sarri, easily won 3-0 away to one of the relegation favorites, Huddersfield Town, and Tottenham Hotspur, runner-up two years ago and third last season, won 2-1 at Newcastle United.

The opening act on Friday was Manchester United’s 2-1 triumph at home against Leicester.

The newcomers to the big time were shown what a task they face.

Cardiff City, with the shortest odds for relegation, lost 2-0 at Bournemouth, which despite having a stadium capacity of just under 12,000 could still fork out a clubrecord $32 million on Colombian midfielder Jefferson Lerma this summer.

Fulham, owned by Pakistani-American Shahid Khan, who also own the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and wants to buy Wembley Stadium, became the first newly promoted club to spend over $130 million in an offseason. However, the Cottagers were still beaten at home by London rival Crystal Palace.

Wolverhampton Wanderers were the only one of the promoted trio to score a goal or earn a point, drawing 2-2 at home to Everton, which played with 10 men for the last 50 minutes.

The consolation for all the former Championship clubs is that they are guaranteed about $120 million for one year in the top tier.

Fulham and Wolves were among the biggest five net spenders this summer, but not even their most optimistic fans will expect them to finish high in the standings — where the names at the top are likely to be the most familiar ones yet again.