A year ago, Britain was in full mad-for-it Oasis mode.Sixteen years after the band’s breakup, Liam and Noel Gallagher had finally reformed. They had played a string of shows in the United Kingdom to huge acclaim and were about to take the tour global. Almost everyone had something to say about the tour — aside from the brothers themselves.Presumably saving themselves for the upcoming documentary about the reunion, neither agreed to any interviews throughout the tour — with one exception. Noel happily went on UK radio station Talksport because he wanted to discuss Manchester City’s opening game of the season, a 4-0 thrashing of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The only on-the-record quotes about Oasis’ reunion, therefore, were sandwiched between his thoughts about City.“I was amazed at how good and fluid it looked,” he said. “The new lad, Tijjani Reijnders, looked amazing. The ‘keeper (James Trafford) looks solid, Rayan Ait-Nouri looked great, Rayan Cherki looked great coming off the bench. No one’s talking about Oscar Bobb, who was as big a miss for us as anything last season. He was brilliant. So all the signs are good.”Reijnders looked the business against Wolves in the August sunshiiiiine (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)Reijnders has since been shipped off to Al Qadsiah after an underwhelming campaign. Bobb was sold to Fulham midway through the campaign. Trafford was relegated to a backup status and has also departed.It’s a reminder that first-day impressions can often be misleading: City eventually fell short, and Pep Guardiola left after a decade in charge. This season there has been no shortage of excitement or panic after a lively opening weekend. So what other nonsense did we think after the opening game of last season, and indeed previous seasons?2025-26Well, Tottenham Hotspur looked particularly good in a 3-0 victory over Burnley. Coming shortly after a commendable performance in a UEFA Super Cup defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, the Thomas Frank era started positively. Come the end of the season, Frank had been sacked and Tottenham only just stayed up. In fairness to Tottenham supporters, even if the results were decent, they never seemed convinced by the new regime.In turn, it seemed like Brentford might struggle without Frank. In Keith Andrews’ first game as a manager, Brentford were 3-0 down to Nottingham Forest by half-time, eventually losing 3-1. New Forest signing Dan Ndoye was particularly impressive down the right, scoring the second. It was the only league goal he scored all season. Brentford ended up challenging for Europe, and striker Igor Thiago finished as the league’s second-top goalscorer.Granted, not everything was misleading. Arsenal won 1-0 at Manchester United courtesy of a set piece, and Liverpool looked far too open in a 4-2 win over Bournemouth, for whom Antoine Semenyo starred.