The conclusion of a long opening weekend drew some of our league's themes together as Fulham took on Chelsea, albeit in a wholly unholy manner. Derby fixtures — meetings between teams brought together by geographical proximity and driven apart by rivalry — have their own twisted tempo and warped logic.

There was a minute's ovation for Kevin Keegan, who was chief operations officer and then manager at Craven Cottage in the late 1990s, there was an unchained melody of bedlam and the creation of chaos. A summer condenses: a head coach goes and another comes, you buy players and report for pre-season, you drill the details, you study the opposition. Fans look forward and fantasise, hope and wait. They get to the ground early to soak up the sunshine, the flamethrowers spew fire, the music erupts — and then it's 32 seconds gone and you are losing. And you think: all that, for this?

A Monday night maelstrom

Yet there is little time for the thought to curdle, because this game is a Monday night maelstrom. Chelsea attacked with venom; Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers were darting flashes of blue steel. At the other end, Robert Sanchez elicited blue murder and the combination was riotous and compelling. Fulham were outplayed but given encouragement, going behind, clawing back, with Josh King a dervish, behind again, edging back, seeing more of the ball and pushing for a draw.

It was not a derby of bile and loathing, like Newcastle versus Sunderland, when history and the air weigh heavy. It was more fraternal than that, like bickering, badgering siblings. At various points, both groups of fans claimed "There's only one team in Fulham," and both were factually, knowingly wrong because Stamford Bridge and the Cottage sit inside the same borough. By the end, Chelsea were singing it louder.

Old friends in opposition

There were other ties that bind. Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa are close friends now coaching nearby competitors for the first time in anger, and both had cause for pleasure and consternation. They will have to get used to this particular, parochial drumbeat because, across the season, there will be 30 London derbies. Chelsea do not play a league match outside the nation's capital until October. Later, Alonso called it a "good first day."

The targets shift

Down by the riverside, a Fulham choir sang "Stamford Bridge is falling down" and "You can stick your blue flag up your a***." When Enzo Fernandez came on for Chelsea, targets shifted. Fernandez's Argentina beat England in the World Cup semi-final and celebrated with a flag referencing the Falkland Islands, and so now it was "Enzo, Enzo, you're a c***" and "Enzo Fernandez, the Falklands are ours." This is football, somehow. Match-week one gave us 10 games, 30 goals, one red card, two victories for the three promoted teams, a few shocks, nine new managers and a narrowing of possibilities. The Premier League, our league, is a bulldozer, flattening anything and everything.