So with the start of the Barclay's Premier League less than 24 hours away, i was wondering if anyone on here follows the league, and if so which team(s) do you follow.

 

Im personally pulling for Tottenham to make a big jump up the table and possibly finishing 3rd in the league. Theyve made some big signings this summer and during the winter (Hutton from my Rangers and Woodgate from Middlesbrough) and i do believe they have one more to go (Andrei Arshavin). Juande Ramos is too good of a manager for this team to finish any lower than 5th in the standings.

^is this soccer?

yeah...you think i should put that in the heading?

shouldn't we all be aston villa fans being randy lerner owns them?

 

or maybe not if he puts money into them that he takes away from the browns!?! heh.

 

no wait, maybe we can be blackburn rovers fans as bay's brad freidel plays for them?

 

 

 

 

Friedel actually transferred to Villa this summer, even more reason to support them.

I also thought i read an article not to long after Lerner bought the club that one of the stands behind the goal flew a browns flag to show their support for Lerner and the Browns. 

Lerner is one of the best owners in the Premier League.  He chose a manager in Martin O'Neill and backed him with money to spend like $4 million for Friedel and also for another promising American goalkeeper Brad Guzan.  With all the money Lerner has wisely spent for Villa they could potentially make it into the Champions League. 

 

Although Villa are a promising side I still remain loyal to Everton! :-D 

There's a couple of stories in this season's English Premier League that UO readers might find interesting.  So I thought I'd dust off and re-title this old Premier League thread to post them:

 

The interesting story on the negative side involves the team owned by Randy Lerner, former owner of the Browns - Aston Villa:

 

Aston Villa is a founding member team of the Premier League in 1992 (they finished 2nd that year).  Their wikipedia page calls them "one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in the history of English football."  Since Lerner purchased them in 2006, they started with an 11th-place finish, followed by 6th, 6th, 6th & 9th-place finishes.  But in the past four seasons, they've had 16th, 15th, 15th & 17th-place finishes.  Just barely avoiding relegation by one spot last season.

 

This season, everything has fallen apart for Lerner's Aston Villa club.  With three games left in this season, they have clinched a dead-last 20th-place finish in the Premier League and will be relegated into English's second tier football league for next season.  And it wasn't even close.  They are currently 17 points below the relegation line and hold a historically awful 3-25-7 record.

The interesting story on the positive side involves a team with a 132-year history and zero championships - Leicester City FC.  Leicester needs one win in their final three games to clinch 1st-place in this season's Premier League:

 

Leicester City: Premier League triumph to be sport's greatest triumph? - http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/29/sport/leicester-city-premier-league/

 

Last season, Leicester had a terrible start and looked to be headed to relegation.  But a new coach was brought in at mid-season and they rallied to finish in 14th-place.  But no one expected Leicester to compete for the Premier championship this season.  Going into this season, the oddsmakers gave Leicester a 5000-1 shot to win the Premier League.

 

To put that into perspective, the U.S. Miracle on Ice team that won in the 1980 Winter Olympics was a 1000-1 underdog.  And according to the above CNN article, the Cleveland Browns are 200-1 to win the 2017 Super Bowl.

 

So, the sports world is on the brink of arguably the most amazing underdog win, ever.

I was shocked they have sustained the success the whole year, I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall.  Good for them, if it can happen to Leicester, it can happen to anyone

Leicester hasn't clinched the championship yet - they tied 1-1 at Manchester United today.

 

But they might clinch the title tomorrow - if second-place Tottenham doesn't win at Chelsea.

Tottenham goes up 2-0 at halftime against Chelsea today.  Then Chelsea gets two goals in the second half to deny their London rivals the win and eliminate them from the Premier League Championship race.

 

So, Leicester City completes their miracle year and clinches the crown: 

 

  Leicester City. Champions of England. 

An incredible achievement that won't be equaled for a long time. What's more, they thoroughly deserved it. They rode their luck at times, but anyone who wins out over a 38 game season does. This from a hardcore Manchester City fan.

Crystal Palace will travel to the US to play 3 American teams. They will be at Nippert Stadium to play FC Cincinnati on July 16!

Randy Lerner (yes, the old owner of the Browns) sold Aston Villa to a Chinese businessman, http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2016/05/18/aston-villa-sold-china-randy-lerner-tony-xia

When I was in college I lived in the international student dorm sophomore year and they got some sort of special cable channel for the lounge TV that ran English soccer games and nightly sports news.  It came on at like 2am but these guys would stay up to watch it pretty often.  I watched it a few times with them and they didn't understand why I thought the team names were so funny. 

 

Funniest of all was Sheffield Wednesday, a team pathetically named after the lamest day of the week:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Wednesday_F.C.

 

Reading up on their history, it looks like they've been stinking it up over the past 15 years and aren't in the premier league anymore. 

 

The good thing, I imagine, about this league is that even though it is dominated by just a handful of teams, there are only 20 or 22 total.  US pro sports have way, way too many teams in each of the leagues.  The talent is diluted and many cities with multiple pro teams go decades without a championship or even a playoff appearance by any of their teams. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^ thats not true for the big three sports, although they are probably at their limit, but it is most certainly true for pro hockey and the nhl, which has far out extended the talent pool with their ridiculous franchise fire sale over expansion.

It doesn't work when a team will only win, on average, 3 championships per century.  That means that many will win zero.  There are still many MLB teams -- even ones that have been around for more than 100 years -- who haven't won a World Series, or even gotten to one. 

It doesn't work when a team will only win, on average, 3 championships per century.  That means that many will win zero.  There are still many MLB teams -- even ones that have been around for more than 100 years -- who haven't won a World Series, or even gotten to one. 

 

This is not correct.  Every team that has been around anything close to 100 years has won a World Series.  The only teams that have not won a World Series yet are:

 

Texas Rangers (founded in 1961 as the Washington Senators)

San Diego Padres (founded in 1969)

Tampa Bay Rays (1998)

Colorado Rockies (1993)

Houston Astros (1962)

Milwaukee Brewers (1969, as the Seattle Pilots)

Washington Nationals (1969, as the Montreal Expos)

Seattle Mariners (1977)

 

 

Note, of course, that there are other "new" teams (the Royals, the Marlins, etc.) that have already won the World Series.  The only two teams never to even appear in the world series are the Expos/Nationals and the Mariners. 

And if the number of pro sports teams in NA were proportional by population to the premiere league, there would be 150 hockey teams.

And if the number of pro sports teams in NA were proportional by population to the premiere league, there would be 150 hockey teams.

 

Even more than that with all the relegation leagues. Even MLBs minor league system can't compare. And that's only one country being represented in the Premier League. Who's the best team in professional soccer? It's never settled even with the Euro Champ. I think that's why the World Cup is popular because at least there's an agreement on who is the best.

 

I understand ye ancient tradition but there are way, way, way, way, way, way too many clubs.

the league i follow, the argentine primera, went nuts a couple years ago and brought up a bunch of b league teams, so now they have freaking 30 teams. its very controversial, but it could happen to the premier league too if they get greedy. the premier only has 20 teams, which seems to be just right from a fan perspective. the uk has like 60m pop and argentina 40m, however, no doubt everybody enjoys soccer, so i dk it that if that is really too many teams or not for england. it sure is for following the primera league in argentina though, even given they are all soccer crazy. the scheduling is just madness and its highly unlikely every team ever wins the copa if they keep it as is, unless they keep it like this for a very long time.

Those who don't follow international club soccer/football are likely unaware of just how differently those leagues operate from the 'North American Sports Model' (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL - plus MLS more recently): http://www.mesgo.org/session-8/

 

The North American Sports Model (linked above) generally favors competitiveness within the league over dominance by a handful of teams.  This is fostered by a league system of salary caps (or luxury tax in MLB) and a league system to improve the rosters of the weakest teams (aka: player draft system).

 

The rest of the world generally doesn't operate this way.  And its especially true of the elite European soccer/football league, like the English Premier League.  In the EPL, the teams with the most resources can spend freely on top players.  There's no salary cap or luxury tax.  Teams can even purchase players from teams having lesser resources using money alone (i.e. no prospects or draft picks need to be given in return).  In fact, there's not even a draft to assist the weaker teams from which to use draft picks.  And not only that - because there are multiple tiers in their soccer/football leagues - the three weakest teams in EPL get demoted thru the promotion/relegation system.

 

Which is why Leicester City's 2015-2016 championship was so improbable and amazing.  Unfortunately, the 2016-17 Leicester City season is showing the dark side of the international system that the EPL uses.  In 2016-17, Leicester City stands only a single point above this season's relegation line going into this weekend's games:

 

It is exceedingly rare to be relegated in the next season after winning the EPL title.  In fact, its only happened once - to Manchester City in 1938.  Normally, only the top teams with the most resources have a realistic chance to win an EPL title.  Leicester City caught lightning in a bottle last season - but now the lightning's gone and LC fired their head coach last week:

 

http://www.espnfc.com/leicester-city/story/3067466/claudio-ranieri-sacked-by-leicester-298-days-after-premier-league-title-win

The 2016-17 English Premier League ended today with a minimal amount of drama.  Chelsea clinched the title a week ago and finished seven points ahead of Tottenham.  The three relegated teams clinched their demotion going into today's final game.  And last season's championship, Leicester City, rebounded to finish 12th and well-above the relegation line.

 

Chelsea's win returns the EPL to its previous big-team dominance.  Since the EPL was formed in 1992, only twice has a team outside the Big Four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City failed to be crowned league champion (Blackburn in 1995 and Leicester City last year).

The 2017-18 English Premier League began last weekend.  And the opening week's theme could be "Are You Not Entertained?":

 

-- Friday's opening game featured Arsenal hosting Leicester City. It was a goalfest with the lead switching four times before Arsenal got two late goals in the 83rd and 85th minutes to win 4-3.

 

-- On Saturday, Watford (who finished 17th last season) hosted Liverpool (who finished 4th last season). It looked like mighty Liverpool would hold off Watford, after being down a goal two times in the match. But a 93rd minute goal by Watford ended the match 3-3 instead.

 

-- But as bad a result as that was for Liverpool, it was nothing compared to the opening game for last season's champion Chelsea. With Chelsea celebrating their 2016-17 championship and hosting 16th-finishing Burnley, Chelsea likely expected an easy cakewalk. Instead, Chelsea lost a player to a red card in the 14th minute and were down 3-0 at halftime! Chelsea got on the board in the second half before losing yet another player to a red card in the 81st minute - clinching a shocking opening defeat for the defending champions!

 

-- Wayne Rooney scored a goal, which should not be a surprise for Man U's all-time leading scorer. The surprise was that he did it for a new team, Everton, leading them to a 1-0 victory.

 

-- Of the three teams promoted from the lower division into the EPL for this season, only Huddersfield got points (a convincing 3-0 win over Crystal Palace). The other two (Brighton and Newcastle) saw 2-0 defeats against 3rd-place Man City and 2nd-place Tottenham.

 

-- And the final game of the opening weekend saw once-mighty Manchester United treat 11th-place West Ham United like a lower-level club with a dominating 4-0 victory. After finishing a disappointing 6th-place last season, Man U revamped their club with some new players and a new manager. After a strong preseason and this 4-0 opening result, Man U could be back on top this season.

COYS!!!!

Manchester City is THE story of the 2017-18 EPL season.  Man City hasn't lost in their 18 EPL games this season.  Their only non-win was a draw on week 2.  Since then, Man City has won 16 straight games (an EPL-record winning streak).  This winning streak record was set last weekend with a home win over Tottenham (sorry YABO713).

 

Below is the top-five of the EPL table going into this weekend's matches.  Man City has opened such a commanding lead that many believe they've got the 2017-18 title won only halfway into the season:  https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/12/16/manchester-city-tottenham-city-continue-winning-streak-home-spurs-premier-league

 

Manchester City is THE story of the 2017-18 EPL season.  Man City hasn't lost in their 18 EPL games this season.  Their only non-win was a draw on week 2.  Since then, Man City has won 16 straight games (an EPL-record winning streak).  This winning streak record was set last weekend with a home win over Tottenham (sorry YABO713).

 

Below is the top-five of the EPL table going into this weekend's matches.  Man City has opened such a commanding lead that many believe they've got the 2017-18 title won only halfway into the season:  https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/12/16/manchester-city-tottenham-city-continue-winning-streak-home-spurs-premier-league

 

 

Yeah but Spurs won the UCL group of death... so whatever

Manchester City's 18-game winning streak ended today with a 0-0 draw at 17th-place Crystal Palace.

 

But don't weep for Man City - they're still unbeaten at 19-2-0 and lengthened their leads over the 2nd and 3rd-place EPL teams.  Chelsea is now second but 14 points behind MC.  And in-city rival Manchester United is now third and 15 points behind because of two-straight MU draws.

The historic Manchester Derby is always interesting for EPL fans.  But last Saturday's Derby held even more interest than usual.

 

Man City entered the Derby with only one loss in their previous 31 EPL games this season (27 wins - 3 draws - 1 loss) and held a 16 point lead over second-place Man United.  With a win last Saturday over Man U, Man City could have clinched the 2017-18 EPL season title.  At 6 games remaining, this would have set a record for earliest clinched title.

 

With Man City hosting Man U, Man City got two goals in the first half and looked to be on their way to clinching the title on their home ground.  But then Man U scored three unanswered goals in the second half to win 3-2!

 

According to ratings info reported by the Washington Post's Steve Goff, this Manchester Derby last Saturday was the most-watched Premier League match in U.S. history: 

 

And interestingly enough, two Ohio cities were listed among the top 10 markets for the Derby:

 

Bad week to be a Man City fan. Three big losses in one week - feels like the 90s all over again!  ;D

^Hoping Spurs can hold them off from the clincher for one more week

And interestingly enough, two Ohio cities were listed among the top 10 markets for the Derby:

 

 

This list reminds me of the Kansas City Comets, Baltimore Blast and Tulsa Roughnecks.

 

Indoor soccer, the legacy!

Man City couldn't clinch the 2017-18 EPL title last week against Man U.  But they did clinch it today - in the most improbable way - with some help from Man U!

 

EPL 2nd-place Manchester United hosted dead-last 20th-place West Bromwich Albion today.  Going into this match West Brom had only 3 wins in 33 EPL matches - and a horrific 1 win in their last 31 matches!  Sitting in last-place and 12 points below the regulation line, West Brom was the longest of long shots to give Man U a good game.

 

But that's just what happened.  The game stood scoreless until the 73rd minute when West Brom scored on a header off a corner kick.  Man U tried and tried for an equalizing goal, but it never came.

 

And because of that, Manchester City clinched the 2017-18 Premier League title - Man City's 3rd EPL title in the past seven seasons.

The 2017-18 EPL season wrapped up today - and the historically dominant Manchester City club finished it with a flourish.

 

Man City had already set EPL records for wins, points and goal difference going into today's final match of the season.  But they needed one more win to reach the 100-point mark.  It looked like they weren't going to get that win at Southampton.  The gritty Southampton squad (who narrowly avoided relegation) played mighty Man City to a 0-0 draw with mere seconds remaining in second half extra time.

 

But then the charmed 2017-18 Man City season had one more moment of magic left in it.  Man City got a breakaway and scored in the 93rd minute to win 1-0 and reach that mythical 100-point mark.  Man City set records for wins (32), GD (+79) and points (100):

 

 

At the bottom of the 2017-18 standing, the aforementioned Southampton club made a late season run of 2 wins and 2 draws with a new manager to narrowly avoid relegation.  Southampton's late surge was coupled with Swansea losing their final five games.  The decisive game coming in a 1-0 Southampton victory at Swansea in the penultimate season match on May 8.  That result saved Southampton and relegated Swansea after 7 seasons for the Swans in the EPL.

Opening weekend of the 2018-19 Premier League -- Man City are the defending champs.  But the most exciting news for 18-19 is the return of The Wolves:

The Wolverhampton Wanderers join Cardiff City and Fulham as the newly promoted clubs in the EPL.  They replaced West Brom, the Swansea Swans and Stoke City who were relegated after last season.

Speculation that Brexit will enable another league somewhere else on the globe to usurp the English Premier League:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/12/opinions/brexit-and-english-premier-league-globalization-martinez/index.html

The biggest threat the national leagues (including EPL) is the potential for a European Super League.

32 minutes ago, ryanlammi said:

The biggest threat the national leagues (including EPL) is the potential for a European Super League.

 

That's no where near happening, though. 

 

Look at Serie A and La Liga's biggest clubs. Most of them carry CRIPPLING debt that would not be kosher for most English and German sides that would join the league. 

Tottenham is finally in their new stadium on White Hart Lane - after multiple construction delays pushed back the original plans to begin the 2018-19 season in the new stadium - they hosted their first EPL game on April 3rd.  The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium cost $1.3 billion to build and at 62,000 (nearly twice the 36,000 capacity of the previous White Hart Lane stadium) only Manchester United’s Old Trafford has a larger capacity in the Premier League.  It is also the first new stadium built in the Premier League since Arsenal's Emirates Stadium opened in 2006.

 

More about its opening at https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2019/04/03/tottenhams-incredible-new-stadium-a-game-changer/

 

The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is state-of-the-art in every way - and in one new way.  The new Tottenham stadium features a removable soccer pitch that can be rolled away to expose an artificial turf field underneath that will be used when the NFL plays games in London (at least two NFL games are scheduled to be played in this stadium each season for the next 10 years).

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/03/tottenham-hotspur-stadium-football-club-design-populous/?li_source=LI&li_medium=rhs_block_2

Tomorrow is Championship Sunday for the 2018-19 season - where all 20 teams play their final game at the same time.

 

There is no relegation drama for the final day - Cardiff City, Fulham and Huddersfield Town (after a horrific 3-28-6 season) have all clinched demotion to the second tier.  But there is drama at the top of table.

 

Manchester City is first with 95 points, while Liverpool stands at 94 points.  Man City plays at 17th-place Brighton tomorrow - while Liverpool hosts 7th-place Wolverhampton.  Liverpool needs to win tomorrow and hope for a Man City draw/loss against Brighton in order to claim their first top division title since 1990.  The odds are decidedly against Liverpool that this will happen.  But after Liverpool's improbable four-goal comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League earlier this week - anything is possible!

2 hours ago, Columbo said:

 

The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is state-of-the-art in every way - and in one new way.  The new Tottenham stadium features a removable soccer pitch that can be rolled away to expose an artificial turf field underneath that will be used when the NFL plays games in London (at least two NFL games are scheduled to be played in this stadium each season for the next 10 years).

 

 

 

 

Oh OK, ready for the Jaguars to move in then.

4 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

 

 

Oh OK, ready for the Jaguars to move in then.

 

NFL in Europe isn't going to work unless they put a whole 4-team division over there.  Plus, the playoff issues are massive.  The time change from England to California is much more profound than to the East Coast. 

 

HOWEVER, I wouldn't put it past them to put THE SUPERBOWL in England in about five years, right when they're making THE PUSH. 

 

 

On 5/11/2019 at 11:48 AM, Columbo said:

Manchester City is first with 95 points, while Liverpool stands at 94 points.  Man City plays at 17th-place Brighton tomorrow - while Liverpool hosts 7th-place Wolverhampton.  Liverpool needs to win tomorrow and hope for a Man City draw/loss against Brighton in order to claim their first top division title since 1990.  The odds are decidedly against Liverpool that this will happen.  But after Liverpool's improbable four-goal comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League earlier this week - anything is possible!

 

It looked like we might get some Championship Sunday drama when lowly Brighton got the first goal of the game against Man City.  But Man City showed why they are defending champions when they got the next two goals to go up 2-1 at halftime and added two more goals in the second half to win 4-1 and clinch the 2018-19 Premier League with 98 points.

 

Liverpool defeated the Wolves to finish at 97 points - normally enough for the championship - but not enough this season when Man City nearly duplicated its 100-point record of last season.  Back-to-back EPL Championships for Manchester City.  Four EPL championships in the last eight seasons for them as well.

^ As befits ‘typical’ City, we couldn’t do it without some drama, but luckily it was only for 10 minutes or so.

Despite what their average fan might think, practically no-one in England wanted Liverpool to pull it off. They’re a great team, but you won’t find a more insufferable fan-base in world sports. 

City go for the domestic treble next Saturday in the FA Cup final against Watford. Then it’s the Champions League final on June 1. 

C’mon Spurs!!

Edited May 13, 20196 yr by roman totale XVII

So Manchester City became the first team to ever win the English domestic treble; League, League Cup and FA Cup with a 6-0 win over Watford in the FA Cup final. The margin of victory matching the record win from 1903 when Bury beat Derby County. That game was played at Crystal Palace so City’s win is the biggest ever at Wembley Stadium. 

1 hour ago, roman totale XVII said:

So Manchester City became the first team to ever win the English domestic treble; League, League Cup and FA Cup with a 6-0 win over Watford in the FA Cup final. The margin of victory matching the record win from 1903 when Bury beat Derby County. That game was played at Crystal Palace so City’s win is the biggest ever at Wembley Stadium. 

But Spurs knocked them out of the UCL #COYS

7 minutes ago, YABO713 said:

But Spurs knocked them out of the UCL #COYS

 

As long as Spurs finish the job and ensure Liverpool get nothing from this season I’m ok with that!

The 2019-20 EPL season kicked off last weekend:

• This season's three promoted teams are Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa.  Aston Villa's return to the EPL is notable as this Birmingham-based club has one of the longest histories in English football.  Aston Villa was one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888 and of the Premier League in 1992.  But they got driven into the ground under the ownership of former Browns-owner Randy Lerner.  Aston Villa finished dead-last in 2015-16 with a horrific 3W-8D-27L record.  Lerner sold the team in 2016 and new ownership has rebuilt the team in the second-tier Championship league until they earned promotion last season.

• This season will also be the first season the EPL will use video review and a VAR.

15 hours ago, Columbo said:

The 2019-20 EPL season kicked off last weekend:

• This season's three promoted teams are Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa.  Aston Villa's return to the EPL is notable as this Birmingham-based club has one of the longest histories in English football.  Aston Villa was one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888 and of the Premier League in 1992.  But they got driven into the ground under the ownership of former Browns-owner Randy Lerner.  Aston Villa finished dead-last in 2015-16 with a horrific 3W-8D-27L record.  Lerner sold the team in 2016 and new ownership has rebuilt the team in the second-tier Championship league until they earned promotion last season.
• This season will also be the first season the EPL will use video review and a VAR.

 

So happy to see Villa back up where they belong - happy Spurs dispatched of them though ?

 

The EPL is better when the traditional clubs like Villa, Newcastle, Birmingham City, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, and Leeds are up and competitive.