With the the Euro’s in the quarterfinals and ManU and Chelsea spending some big money it seems like the right time to start a new thread for this season’s English Premier League.
Last season was perhaps the craziest season in the history of the Premiership with Relegation targets Leicester City managed by Claudio Ranieri winding up as champions by 10 points over second placed Arsenal. Arsenal themselves seemed destined to finish below rivals Tottenham and would have but for Tottenham inexplicably self-destructing in the last few games of the season.
The season saw Newcastle United, Norwich City and an absolutely terrible Aston Villa wind up relegated to the Championship, while Burnley, Hull City and Middlesbrough were promoted to the Premiership for this season. This season is also the one in which the new TV deal kicks in which gives all the clubs a ludicrous amount of money where even Crystal Palace is putting in transfer bids over 30 million pounds.
The season opens on Saturday, August 13 with the following fixtures:
Arsenal v Liverpool
Bournemouth v Man United
Burnley v Swansea (Go Swans!)
Chelsea v West Ham
Crystal Palace v West Brom
Everton v Tottenham
Hull v Leicester City
Man City v Sunderland
Middlesbrough v Stoke
Southampton v Watford
Nice summary marquac. I remember paying attention briefly last year when Leicester City was doing well coming from the division below to suddenly win the Premier league. I’m happy to see they were able to do that. But it is shocking to see Newcastle United and Aston Villa regulated to the league below. When I used to watch English soccer during the 90s, they were absolute mainstays.
From those list of games, I see several new names I wasn’t familiar with during the early 90s.
Bournemouth? Burnley. Swansea. West Brom. Hull. Leicester City (reigning champions!). Stoke. Watford. Wow, lots of new names. That’s pretty cool. I always thought the relegation system would mean lots of teams would over time enter the premiere league but that didn’t seem to happen when I used to watch. Not much. But I guess it did over time.
As an Everton supporter this could be a make or break season.
Martinez gone, new manager in place. Stones and Lukaku to be sold and 150 million to spend.
Three or four quality signings and a world class keeper and we could be up for top 6 again.
It will also be interesting to see if Southampton can keep Pelle after losing Wanyama and Sane and also West Ham with Payet after his great performances at the euro’s so far.
Jose will kick on with Utd and Pep at City will spend big as well.
This season could be great.
I live in Bournemouth and qualify for 2 tickets this season not 1 so hoping to see so good games as well.
I believe that they are making sure to get in games because the Champions League and Europa League are now on a break until February or so. The FA Cup is just about getting to the rounds where the Premiere League teams will start to compete so that leads to even more possible match congestion. Christmas time is also one where they play a heck of a lot of matches, especially the two weeks starting at Christmas where there are very large amount of games.
Midweek match days are also used to make up games the get postponed due to weather or to cup ties.
My team Tottenham still remains the only unbeaten team but we are not playing particularly well and are drawing too many. Hopefully our lucky victory over West Ham will give us some momentum.
I have tickets to our home game against Swansea in two weeks, looking forward to it.
Another question, based on my only loose following of the EPL from playing FIFA16, and catching a game or two each month here in the States.
Do teams in the EPL deliberately play for ties sometimes? For instance, let’s say that Middlesbrough has to go play an away match at Man City. That’s a lopsided matchup, so does Boro play a heavily defensive game there, basically clogging their side of the pitch with defensive-minded players to try to come out of the game nil-nil if they can?
And as a followup, is it at all common for a team playing a game to switch tactics to play for a draw after the match has started? I know that happens if a team goes down a man to a red card and they’re playing with just 10, but does it also happen if a team is worried about relegation and they lose a 1-nil lead just before halftime to a tie score? Like, would that team come out and play to hold the game at 1-1 just to get the point out of the match?
(Basically, I’m trying to learn as much as I can about tie game dynamics in the EPL, especially because I think that relegation, team management style, etc. all may play a part in frequency or whether teams may play to just get a tie game.)
Ideally Liverpool will win this year, but I’ll be happy so long as no Manchester team takes the title. Also, I hope that the Swans can avoid relegation.
As with all soccer, everybody wants to win - but sometimes not conceding a goal against a team that’s totally outgunning you is the single priority with the defensive team hoping to score from the few chances (e.g. set pieces) you get. Worked for Greece in 2004. If a low-tier team makes it draw against a top team in an away game, that certainly can feel like a victory to seem because the odds said they’ll lose.
The dynamic can be strange sometimes and it definitely changes as the year progresses and teams start to solidify if they are in the top or bottom of the standings. One thing you’ll want to take into consideration is where the teams are in the standings and who specifically they are playing.
But to answer your questions:
In that instance Boro will normally play a very defensive oriented game. with 10 men behind the ball when City has it and only looking to grab a goal on the counter or due to a set piece. Even if Boro go down a goal they aren’t likely to start playing a wide open style due to the importance of goal differential and not wanting to get blown out.
Later in the season however, Boro might open up the game a little more if they are down a goal even to a big team if they are relegation threatened and need to get a result from the game.
Oh yes, this can certainly happen, although it might not happen right at the half, you are more likely to see that happen around the 60th minute or so when the manager can see if one team is clearly dominating the other. At that point you might see the manager substitute an attacking player for an additional defensive midfielder or outright defender.
The threat of relegation or Champions League spots can make teams play more or less cautious than they would in the equivalent North American sporting league without relegation or continental cups.
The threat of relegation now is a huge one for teams as the money is just crazy now and you are looking at losing close to $100 million if you wind up relegated from the Premiership.
Fantastic performance by the mighty spurs today. Ending Chelsea’s 13 match winning run and stopping them beating Arsenal’s record. Spurs up to 3rd now. Chelsea still 5 points ahead of Liverpool in 2nd but hopefully they will go on a run of defeats.
After 20 games potentially any of the top 6 could win the title although Chelsea have to start dropping more points.
So Week 28 of the Premier League schedule is, frankly, higgledy-piggledy.
It looks as if FA Cup matches have resulted in 5 of 10 games being “postponed”. These will be made up at some point, right? We still have two matches from week 26 to make up as well, right?
Also, I notice that Stoke City at Man City is listed as “postponed” for Saturday, but is on the schedule for Wednesday. So that’s the same match, right, and the Wednesday match is the re-scheduled game from Saturday, right? (If so, I’m not sure the Premier League knows the meaning of the word “postponed.”)
That is correct. Match congestion for the Premier League clubs can get pretty bad if they are still alive in a cup competition or two. It can be especially bad if they are still involved in the Champions League or Europa League and can lead to players being rested when they otherwise would have been playing.
The matches will all get played though, but you might find some clubs winding up playing 3 matches in 6 or 7 days which is going to hurt.
I am going to take it in a little different direction and suggest you maybe try the video game Football Manager. You can see it clearly when you manager a team.
I am not a smart person, but this whole situation is part of what explains why a lot of the top tier clubs seem to be hoarding more prime or post-prime talent than they seem to need (versus hoarding young talent which every sports team ever wants). Having acceptable or solid extra players can come into play a lot if they stay in the other cups.
Exciting finish to the EPL this season. 5 games left and it is between Chelsea and Tottenham. Tottenham are 4 points back but with a better goal difference and playing some lovely stuff right now having won the last 8 games. Sunday sees Chelsea go to Everton who have a very good home record and the North London Derby between Tottenham and Arsenal at White Hart Lane. Tottenham have the best home record in the league winning the last 12 games in a row. If they beat Arsenal on Sunday then mathematically they are guaranteed to finish above Arsenal for the first time in 22 years.
If Chelsea fail to win and Tottenham beat Arsenal then with a point difference of only 1/2 points going into the last 4 games then Tottenham could win the league for the first time since 1961!
