11 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.

 

That's not really true about Lerner.   The team was on the verge of relegation when he bought it in 2006, and they had a resurgence of sorts.  He hired Martin O'Neill and they did quite well for several years.  Both Browns and AV fans online saw them as sister teams, so it's kind of fitting that both are coming back up at the same time.

4 hours ago, E Rocc said:

That's not really true about Lerner.   The team was on the verge of relegation when he bought it in 2006, and they had a resurgence of sorts.  He hired Martin O'Neill and they did quite well for several years.

 

Aston Villa Premier League Seasons

2005–06 - 16th

(Team purchased by Lerner)

2006–07 - 11th

2007–08 - 6th

2008–09 - 6th
2009–10 - 6th

2010–11 - 9th

2011–12 - 16th

2012–13 - 15th

2013–14 - 15th

2014–15 - 17th

2015–16 - 20th (relegated)

(Team sold by Lerner)

The EPL is a bit past its halfway mark with most teams having played 21 of their 38 matches.  But this weekend marks the traditional start of the "second half" with the completion of the Boxing Day to New Year's Day "Holiday Fixtures".  Unlike last season - when Man City and Liverpool were neck-and-neck at the top of the table - there's very little top spot drama.

 

Liverpool is running away with the title this season.  They've only dropped points in one of 20 matches - a 1-1 draw against MU in October.  Otherwise the lads from Liverpool are an unbeaten 19-0-1 in their first 20 matches and stand 13 points ahead of 2nd-place Leicester City and 14 points ahead of 3rd-place Man City.  Barring a horrific late season collapse, the title is Liverpool's - and the only drama is what EPL records Liverpool might break in 2020.  Not the least of which is the season points total record of 100 (set by Man City in 2017-18).  If Liverpool wins all their remaining matches, they would finish with 112 points.

 

While Leicester City and Man City battle for second-place, there is an eight-point drop-off to Chelsea in fourth-place.  Then a five-point drop-off to a clot of teams from 5th to 8th:  Man U is at 31, Tottenham is at 30, the Wolves are 7th at 30 (another good showing in their second season after promotion) and Sheffield is 8th at 29 (in their first season after promotion).

 

Although Sheffield is having a strong promotion season, the same cannot be said for the other two promoted teams, Norwich City and Aston Villa.  Norwich City sits dead last in 20th-place at seven-points below the regulation line.  Aston Villa is hovering one slim point above the regulation line in 17th-place.

On 1/10/2020 at 12:44 PM, Columbo said:

Liverpool is running away with the title this season.  They've only dropped points in one of 20 matches - a 1-1 draw against MU in October.  Otherwise the lads from Liverpool are an unbeaten 19-0-1 in their first 20 matches and stand 13 points ahead of 2nd-place Leicester City and 14 points ahead of 3rd-place Man City.  Barring a horrific late season collapse, the title is Liverpool's - and the only drama is what EPL records Liverpool might break in 2020.  Not the least of which is the season points total record of 100 (set by Man City in 2017-18).  If Liverpool wins all their remaining matches, they would finish with 112 points.

 

So, it turned out that there was some Liverpool drama beyond what EPL records they might break in 2020.  There was a little thing called COVID-19 that shut down sports worldwide(!)

 

When the EPL was shut down back in March, Liverpool was 27-1-1 and 25 points up on second-place Man City.  Liverpool was within two more wins of clinching the 2019-20 league title.  There was some question if the league could reopen to finish the season.  And if Liverpool were awarded the title, would that place an asterisk on it?  (Not that Liverpool fans might care since they've been waiting 30 years since their previous title in 1990.)

 

But it looks like the EPL might finish out their 2019-20 season.  Today they announced the league is set to resume on June 17, with the aim to complete all of their scheduled games by Aug. 1:

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4102936/premier-league-to-return-on-june-17-amid-coronavirus

 

Which will be a great relief to one of Liverpool's biggest fans, John Oliver:

 

The EPL restarts their 2019-20 season today when Aston Villa hosts Sheffield United and then Man City hosts Arsenal later today.  These four teams are making up a one-game deficit with the other EPL teams before the league does a full schedule reopening this weekend:

 

EPL 2019-20 overview:  https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4111982/premier-leagues-project-restart-liverpool-set-for-gloryman-united-seek-momentumbattle-at-the-bottom

NBC has started calling this the Premier League Summer.  And they aren't far off on that promo.

 

There will be a Premier League game played and broadcast on NBCSN or NBC every day between now and July 13 (except on Fridays for some reason).  Next week has one game on Monday, two games on Tuesday, five games on Wednesday, and three games on Thursday before a pair of games on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Then the final three EPL gamedays feature all 20 teams playing on the same day July 15, July 18 and a final decision day on July 26 when all 10 games begin at the same time.

Liverpool has ended their 30-year wait for a first division title after clinching the Premier League championship following Man City's 2-1 loss at Chelsea today.  Jurgen Klopp's team defeated Crystal Palace 4-0 yesterday and the Man City loss left the second-place team 23 points behind with seven matches remaining.

Today saw the final games for the 2019-20 EPL season (aka Championship Sunday).  However, the league championship was clinched by Liverpool seven games ago - so no final day drama there.  Liverpool finished with a win and 99 points - just short of the record 100 points set by Man City in 2017-18.  Blame the lengthy COVID break and the early clinching for taking the razor-sharp edge off the lads from Liverpool.  But they still set a record for the earliest championship clinching ever - and they topped 2nd-place Man City by 18, plus 3rd and 4th-place Man U and Chelsea by 33 points(!)

 

There was some decision day drama for the Top Four Champions League qualifying spots.  Man U, Chelsea and Leicester were vying for the 3rd and 4th-place spots.  Chelsea won to secure their spot.  Then Man U beat Leicester in a head-to-head to secure their spot.  Leicester finished 5th and Tottenham finished 6th.

 

Just outside those Top Six spots were a couple of newcomers.  The Wolverhampton Wanderers (aka The Wolves) finished their second season in the EPL at 7th.  The Wolves were in the 5th position after Christmas and in 6th every week after the June restart before losing their final game and falling to 7th.  Newly promoted Sheffield United had an amazing first EPL season.  The Blades were 5th just before Christmas and were 7th at the June restart, before losing their final three games to drop into 9th-place.

 

Sunday's real drama was in the relegation zone.  But not 20th-place Norwich City, who clinched their relegation weeks for a dismal one-and-done EPL season.  No, the drama was with Aston Villa, Watford and Bournemouth in the 17th, 18th and 19th places going into today.  Watford lost today to finish 19th (after firing their coach with two games remaining and the team safely above relegation at 17 - if the coach's firing was meant to goad the team, it failed, because they lost their final games and were relegated!).  Bournemouth won today and made up their 3 point deficit with Aston Villa.  But Aston Villa got a 1-1 draw today to obtain the one standing point necessary to avoid relegation (and to avoid a humbling one-and-done season after just being promoted).

 

So celebrate Liverpool:

 

And also Aston Villa:

 

Are you ready for some (english) football?

 

The 2020-21 Premier League begins tomorrow.  And if it seems like the previous season just finished - its because it only ended a little over a month ago.  But that's the COVID adjusted sports world in 2020.

 

The top 17 teams from last season plus three teams promoted from the second-division Championship League comprise the 2020-21 EPL lineup.  The three promoted teams are Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham, after respective EPL absences of sixteen years, two years and one year.

 

The defending champs Liverpool return with an intact lineup from last season and a target on their backs.  Two teams that finished behind them, Man City (2nd) and Chelsea (4th), spent heavily for some new players.  Which prompted Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp to chide them by saying that Man City and Chelsea are owned by "countries" and "oligarchs" in the below linked article:

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/liverpool-engliverpool/story/4177559/liverpools-klopp-on-chelsea-man-city-spending-some-clubs-owned-by-countries-oligarchs

 

Klopp is actually not wrong.  Man City is owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which is a United Arab Emirates based private equity company owned by a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family.  Chelsea is owned by Roman Abramovich, who is a British-based Russian billionaire businessman.  Liverpool is owned by the Fenway Sports Group, an American sports company that also owns the Boston Red Sox.

 

Meanwhile, 21-year-old American forward Christian Pulisic was given a rare honor by Chelsea going into this season:

 

Man City will reclaim the title this season. Klopp’s ‘gangenpress’ style burns out players after a season or two (as happened at Dortmund). He’s also a huge moaner (very on brand for anything Liverpool). As soon as the Bayern job is up for grabs, he’ll be back off to Germany. 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4278513/premier-league-and-covid-19-anxiety-over-scheduleburnout-and-long-covid-for-playersclubs

 

The English Premier League just finished its Festive Fixtures around the Christmas and New Year's holidays - the traditional halfway point to its season.  Unlike last season, no team is running away with the title this season.  Liverpool and Man United are tied at the top, with Leicester City one point behind and four other teams four points behind.

 

But of greater concern is that covid is beginning to impact the EPL.  After a nearly flawless restarted season in 2020, recent months have seen the UK's rising covid numbers postpone three matches in December and one in January.  And with the 2020-21 season starting a month later than normal, teams are concerned that make-up games, champions league games and World Cup qualifying games might pile up later in this season.

Sunday's Manchester United game against Liverpool was postponed after fans stormed into the stadium and onto the pitch during a protest against Man U's American owners.  Thousands of people had gathered outside Old Trafford to demand the Glazer family sell the storied club.  The incident even has it's own wikipedia page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Old_Trafford_protests

The Man U faithful have a love-hate relationship with the Glazer family since they took over ownership in 2005 (The Glazer family also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).  But this latest protest had to do with the Glazer family leading a scheme two weeks ago involving six of the biggest EPL teams (Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Cheslea, Tottenham & Arsenal) plus two Spanish teams and two Italian teams and eventually German and French teams to form a European Super League.

 

This Super League would basically replace the UEFA Champions League outside of EPL play.  However, the big change from the Champions League was that these "founding clubs" of the Super League would automatically qualify to play - instead of the current format of Champions League clubs needing to qualify by finishing in the Top 4 of their country's top league.  The Super League scheme was essentially a money grab by these teams and an upending of the promotion system in European soccer.

 

The Super League scheme was immediately and almost universally condemned by EPL fans, commentators and the league itself.  This condemnation was joined with threats of sanctions from the UEFA and FIFA international organizations.  As a result, the Super League scheme collapsed within 48 hours and the teams involved (including the Glazer family) issuing apologies to their fans.

 

But on Sunday, the Glazer family felt the full fury of their team's fans prior to this first home match since the Super League scheme collapsed:

Because the protest delayed both teams and game officials from reaching the stadium - and because English covid protocols still prevent fan attendance at EPL games, which would have required additional time to ensure a covid-free environment - the Man U/Liverpool game was postponed.

 

Man U fans protested outside Old Trafford ahead of today's rescheduled game against Liverpool, which was postponed two weeks ago due to unrest.  There was a stronger police presence outside the stadium today then on May 2, when fans (who are not allowed in the stadium per British covid restrictions) managed to get inside and stormed the pitch.  They got the game played this time.

 

MORE:  https://www.espn.com/soccer/manchester-united-engman_utd/story/4384568/manchester-united-fans-protest-ahead-of-postponed-liverpool-match

On 9/11/2020 at 5:14 PM, roman totale XVII said:

Man City will reclaim the title this season. 

 

When you're right, you're right.  Man City's third title in four years under Pep Guardiola:

 

Only two games remaining in the 2020-21 EPL season - a mid-week match followed by Championship Sunday.  Not an overabundance of drama for these final games, because:

• At the top of table, Man City has already clinched the championship.
• At the bottom of the table, Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield have already been relegated.

The biggest remaining question is whether Liverpool will work its way back into the Top Four and qualify for the next Champions League.  Liverpool was in 1st-place after the Holiday Fixtures.  But from January 4 to March 7, Liverpool went into an extended down stretch, bottoming out at 8th-place after a 1-0 loss to a soon-to-be-relegated Fulham(!)

 

Since then, they've stabilized to 5th-place and are now only one point behind 4th-place Chelsea.  But Liverpool needed some end-of-match dramatics yesterday at relegated West Brom to get there.  Below is the final play of Sunday's Liverpool at West Brom game.  It is tied 1-1, and with Liverpool desperately needing all three standings points, they made a desperate move and brought up their goalkeeper into the West Brom box for the corner kick:

That "goalie goal" was only the 6th time a goalkeeper has scored since the EPL was formed in 1992(!)  And it kept Liverpool alive for the Top Four race.

That was an awesome goal. It's always exciting to see a goalie score the game winner. I don't follow much Premier League, and was casually rooting for the underdogs (West Brom), but can't be mad at that

32 minutes ago, Columbo said:

 

When you're right, you're right.  Man City's third title in four years under Pep Guardiola:

 

As a lifelong fan (I was born 300 yards from Maine Road), I am biased, but it was inevitable.

City have the best squad and manager by far. Klopp can't help but burn his teams out (they were astonishingly lucky all last season) and United are still in disarray from the departure of Ferguson (it's only been eight years!) 

The 2021-22 EPL season began today (snuck up on me too(!)

 

The three teams promoted from last year's second-tier English Championship League are Norwich City, Watford (who both return to the top flight EPL after a year's absence) and Brentford (who return to the top flight EPL after a seventy-four year absence(!)

 

To honor the Brentford Bees return after 74 years, the EPL had them host the opening game of this 2021-22 season.  The team Brentford hosted was their cross-London rivals, Arsenal.  Also, Arsenal was the last team Brentford played as a top-tier team back in 1947(!)

 

So, instead of playing in mighty Arsenal's 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium, the EPL opener was in 17,250-seat Brentford Community Stadium in London's West End.  But the Bees were buzzing today and they got the first goal of the match in the first half, then added another late in the second for a 2-0 win:

So with the rest of the Premier League yet to play over the weekend, the returning Brentford Bees are at the top of table for 2021-22.  Take a screenshot Bees' fans, Ted Lasso dreams can come true(!)

 

Before the Summer Transfer Window closes - Man U makes their team much more handsome:

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-transfers/story/4462369/cristiano-ronaldo-agrees-stunning-man-united-return

Ronaldo scores twice in his return to Man U:

 

Even the crazy-looking Ronaldo bust thinks that's crazy:

Holy Crumpets!!!

2 hours ago, Columbo said:

Holy Crumpets!!!

 

Manchester City Premier League Champions 2022/23. 

I’ve had this discussion in some of the other threads about possible soccer team options for Cleveland, and trying to straighten out the different levels of the US soccer pyramid.  The biggest thing I am having trouble processing right now is not who won the EPL, but apparently a team that was four leagues lower in the English minors just nine years ago just moved up into the EPL.  I’m still reading stories about this, and still trying to figure out exactly how this works. But considering how there aren’t even five levels in the US soccer pyramid, what this Luton Town story basically reads like to an American audience is that Saint Ignatius High School moved up into the MLS. 🧐😱🤯

^ This explains it all. The pyramid system isn’t unique to England either, it’s basically the way Soccer works the world over outside of the US. Any club, through constant promotion can climb all the way. Conversely, any club can also fall through the divisions. 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_league_system

If you really want your mind blown, consider that Luton not only came up from semi-pro, but actually fell to that level from the top. Back in the late 70s and early 80s they played in the old First Division (well before it became the Premier League). Lots of other clubs have made that ascent from the semi-pro to the top division over the years. Wigan Athletic and Wimbledon are two that spring to my mind immediately. 

God’s own team coming to the Horseshoe this summer, playing against Chelsea. 
https://www.nbc4i.com/sports/announcement-soon-on-possible-manchester-city-chelsea-soccer-game-at-ohio-stadium/

Four in a row for the best team in all the land and all the world. 

I'm getting sick of Man City. So when I go to the Horseshoe in August, I'm going to cheer for Chelsea and against that punk Haaland.