Five games into the season and we have our first sacking in the Premier League. Sunderlands woes deepen as the league blossoms into life with 28 goals scored over the weekend. Join us for discussion about the results, the tactics, and the departure of Palo DiCanio.
Another weekend wrapped up and it looks as though the Premier League has finally found a higher gear after a slow start. Goals galore, a total of 28 goals scored this weekend, including 5 goals a game in three fixtures.
Arsenal scored exclusively on set pieces against Stoke and John Obi Mikel netted his first Premier League goal after 185 games. You might want to do your reading quickly because these are at least two signs of the Apocalypse, time for week five of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Man City 4 – Man United 1
Good grief, football. Manchester City who looked labored at the start of the season have controlled the past few matches and delivered results you would expect from a team with such talent. United meanwhile have looked uninspired under the tenure of Moyes but capable enough, especially with Robin Van Persie up top, but fell woefully short in this match. The home side outplayed United throughout the match as the City team surged time and time again in waves of blue. The languid start to United’s season became much more difficult.
Arsenal 3 – Stoke City 0
Three goals, from three dead ball situations. The hype focus in the aftermath of this match has been on Mesut Ozil’s three assists but there was great diversity and good team play from this Arsenal squad. Honorable mention to Stoke who continue to transform their style and play entertaining football. More of the same please.
Crystal Palace 0 – Swansea City 2
Michu bags his second and Nathan Dyer nets his first for the season. The Welsh side look to have gained some momentum after a disappointing start. Another loss for Crystal Palace, though in truth they look the most likely of the promoted sides to go down this season.
West Ham 2 – Everton 3
Goals galore, and two sweet freekicks from Leighton Baines makes this match a beauty. The second win for Everton, coming off their 1-0 defeat of Chelsea, puts some wind in the sails of Roberto Martinez’s squad and makes Baines their top scorer of the season. Even a second yellow for West Ham’s Mark Noble could not drag this game down, though West Ham fans might disagree.
Newcastle 2 – Hull City 3
Hull City overtake Newcastle with their win, becoming the top promoted side at 11th place. Loic Remy bagged two goals to start his league campaign with Newcastle but it was not enough to stop the promoted side from equalizing and taking the lead through a fabulous strike from Nigerian forward Aluko. Huddlestone still remains the steal of the market for the promoted sides, though Danny Graham remains the butt of jokes, the poor man can’t seem to find the net.
Cardiff 0 – Tottenham 1
Cardiff may prove to be a tough side to beat at home so this may be harsh on Tottenham to mark this game down as Bad. But bad it was, Tottenham have a lot of top talent so it was a big ask for Cardiff to get the win, yet the Cardiff fans will be disappointed their side were unable to get a goal. Lloris made some truly odd mistakes and looked to be in such a quirky mood that the home team would have hoped for at least a goal. Tottenham looked much sharper on the attack but a late stoppage time goal against a newly promoted side will not be enough for the London side that hopes for Champions league qualification
Liverpool 0 – Southampton 1
Problems seemed lurking but never present for a Liverpool side who went into the weekend at the top of the table. Some spectacular saves from Simon Mignolet were coupled with head scratching decisions from the keeper when the ball was at his feet. Constant pressure from Southampton forced a great number of errors from the home side but Liverpool made plenty of problems for themselves. Iago Aspas has yet to find rhythm in the league and Coutinho out until the end of October means that a winning, yet unconvincing Liverpool side are eager to bring Suarez back onto the pitch. The Southampton goal was not especially pretty either, great result for the saints but one of the poorer matches of the season.
Norwich 0 – Aston Villa 1
A good debut goal for Villa’s replacement striker Kozak who scored just 90 seconds after replacing Christian Benteke. The ugly here is in the fan reaction to Chris Hughton, particularly after his substitution of Nathan Redmond with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” ringing out. The victory was bittersweet for Aston Villa as they await the results of Benteke’s scans.
West Brom 3 – Sunderland 0
I hate to take away from a West Brom victory, especially one where they tripled their goal total for the season. Even without the Sunday announcement of DiCannio’s departure from the club it was an ugly affair. While Tottenham and Manchester City saw their squads begin to sync with one another the 14 new arrivals for Sunderland still struggle to find fluency. The bitter icing on the cake, Sunderland are now the only side in the league without a win.
Chelsea 2 – Fulham 0
Hard to put a game with 2 goals into the bad category, especially when this celebrates the first goal from Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel. But it was an ugly match all around. Chelsea looked sluggish on the ball and continue to lack the cutting edge in the final third with their passing and their shooting. Fulham, I fear, will often be in the Ugly section but a Chelsea squad at home should have done much better. The dismal play could be heard in the silence around Stamford bridge throughout the first half of this match.
Etienne Capoue completes his move to Tottenham. With the addition of the midfielder AVB looks to end the Spurs’ transfer window with a dangerous squad
Dear Arsenal, why can’t things be simple. Luis Gustavo may yet be snapped up by Wolfsburg but Arsenal still have a chance to get the bruising midfielder. With recent injuries, a slew of sales, and no purchases the Arsenal senior squad is in need of an addition.
Darren Bent has has reportedly arrived at Fulham for a medical. The expensive striker is one that Aston Villa would be all too happy to sell as Lambert moves forward with his young squad.
Arsenal have supposedly increased their bid for Suarez to ￡49m. Given all the noise coming out of Anfield it makes the bid seem asinine, if true.
Non-Suarez news from Anfield, Brazilian midfielder Willian may join the exodus from Anzhi Makhachkala for a suggested ￡30m. The Brazilian himself declared he hopes to receive a transfer offer from a club and cited Liverpool as his example. Truly his hope to play in red or good marketing?
Eto’o continues to woo Chelsea by declaring interest from Manchester United. Given how stingy the Blues are with contracts for players over the age of 30 I just have trouble seeing how this transfer could work out.
Hull City have swooped in on Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone who did not quite fit into AVB’s style at White Hart Lane.
United have reportedly reached out to Real Madrid for either Luka Modric or Mesut Ozil. Aaaaand moving right along
Southampton are ready to make a splash for Roma forward Pablo Osvaldo
Roberto Martinez states that he is convinced Leighton Baines will remain at Everton despite interest from Manchester United.
Marouane Fellaini, concedes Mr. Martinez, may yet be reunited with former manager David Moyes at Old Trafford
Chelsea, who have been reportedly interested in Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira may miss out as the German international has been linked with a move to star studded PSG
Tottenham have been busy this transfer window and it looks like the Roma forward Erik Lamela (previously linked with Arsenal) has become Spurs’ top target. Nothing is a done deal but AVB has been aggressive this summer, and Spurs could use some dynamism up top to replace the ever odd Emmanuel Adebayor
Well, it certainly has been a rabble rousing week for English football. Protests from the fans over ticket prices brought together some 15 supporters’ groups to protest in London. Meanwhile, the outgoing FA chairman, David Bernstein, complained to the press that the league management has given preference to foreign players and thus damaging the development of English players in their home league.
The recent summer protests over ticket prices follow the in season protests from Man City supporters’ over the cost of stadium admission to an away game at the Emirates. Arsenal’s 0-2 loss was overshadowed by unfurled banners in the Manchester City section declaring “£62!! Where will it stop?”. The controversy was further highlighted by the return of nearly ⅓ of the tickets allocated to Manchester city supporters.
The protests in front of the Premier League’s office in central London are both reactionary and preemptive, with fans calling for a £20 cap on away tickets. Premier league officials claimed they had “a positive meeting” with club supporters, the fruits of such positivity remain to be seen. In truth, the league has left the decision with the clubs, who have no excuse to charge such high prices in the coming season as NBC signed a three year £250 million deal for coverage rights. The American channel will show all 380 Premier League games in the US and, most importantly, bring a hefty cash injection to every club.
There is also the little added measure of Financial Fair Play, but see the good doctor’s article to understand why FFP might not be doing it’s job.
The windfall from the television deal could add an extra £25 million to each club’s wallet starting this August. Let me repeat that £25 MILLION. EACH. YEAR.
That should be problem solved, clubs will have enough cash in hand to provide cheap seats to fans.
Let’s take the Arsenal & Man City. The Man City away tickets were priced at £62, according to the protesters’ sign. Arsenal had reserved 3,000 seats at the Emirates for the away supporters but let’s suppose that Arsenal expected all those seats to be filled. That comes out to about £186,000 per game that the management would expect to be filled. Each team in the league played 38 games which comes out to an expected £7, 068,000 in revenue from league games each season. Assuming all teams expect revenue from 3,000 away fans and the £20 cap is agreed upon that comes out to £4,788,000 difference before the NBC deal.
So where will the clubs spend the , roughly, £20 million left over?
Overseas, apparently, concurrent with the fan protests over ticket prices comes additional dissent over the distinct foreign flavor of this summer’s transfers. David Bernstein made very clear during his exit from the FA, that he believes the league is letting down the development of national English talent. The statistic, 3 out of 29, has been paraded about the English press like a martyr. Out of the 29 players signed this summer only 3 are English. Andy Carroll, Danny Whitehead, and Duncan Watmore the lone representatives for King and Country in their home league.
Bernstein burdens the Premier League with the blame, prioritizing league success over English development. The complaints come on the heels of the English U-21 squad being knocked out of the European Championship final in Israel. Before we go about blaming the foreigners for stealing the jobs or the Englishmen for demanding too much money I propose we take a look at what the Premier League does require of it’s squads. Then maybe compare their criteria to that of the MLS squad requirements, since England and the USA are the most xenophobic countries with a dialect I understand.
The squad requirements for the Premier League have undergone a recent shift in 2010 that raised the minimum from 20 players to a 25 man squad. The changes also required 8 “Home Grown Players” (HGP) be included in this 25 man squad. The term “Home Grown” is a bit misleading, qualified players do not need to be English, see official league definition:
An HGP means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to their 21st birthday.
So the homegrown player can often be the local boy who comes up through the academy, but clubs have signed foreign prospects at increasingly younger ages to give them time to develop within the English system either in youth clubs or on loan spells, allowing these foreign born players to eventually qualify as “home grown players.”
The upshot of it all is that the 25-man squad that must be announced before the start of the season, allowing an exception for under 21 players. These players can be included in the squad after the close of the transfer window. While not all clubs will find an advantage in fielding players under 21 players the clubs who do have the depth of talent really benefit from these superstars. Last season’s under 21 stars were:
Oscar (Brazil), Romelu Lukaku (Belgium), Eden Hazard (Belgium) – Chelsea
Raheem Sterling (England), Philippe Coutinho (Brazil) – Liverpool
David De Gea (Spain), Phil Jones (England) – Manchester United
Matija Nastasic (Serbia) – Manchester City
Christian Benteke (Belgium) – Aston Villa
Nathaniel Clyne (England) – Southampton
Ben Davies (Wales) – Swansea
Jack Wilshere (England)- Arsenal
and I’m sure I’ve glossed over a couple. In a world where big money will eventually discover every loophole, I am honestly surprised there hasn’t been more manipulation of this exception. Star players under the age of 21 can be named in the original 25 man squad but for the teams like Chelsea and Man City I would have thought they would overload the squad with young and expensive talent. Maybe I shouldn’t encourage that kind of behavior.
Back to the point, does this policy encourage domestic player growth? “Maybe” is the best answer and “likely not” is my second best. The “Home Grown” status requires a player be in the English league for three years before said player turns 21, which is not an insignificant portion of that player’s to that point. Naturally one would assume that this would be easier to integrate the younger English players into squads, but as you can see from the table above 7 of the 12 players from the list above are NOT British.
Another strategy, employed by the MLS, limits, outright, the number of foreign players a squad can include. In the American league that cap is high and “international” spots can be traded amongst teams, much like players. More often the salary cap is a greater deterrent to MLS teams bringing in talent from abroad not domestic squad requirements.
I do not claim that the system in the MLS is any better or worse than the Premier League’s requirements. However, Mr. Bernstein is correct in his assertion that the policies of the Premier League do not protect domestic players in any way, shape or form. Whether or not one system is better than the other is not the purpose of this article, but I will say this, English players are absent not only in their domestic league but also in league’s abroad. Foreign players in the Premier League do not spell doom for the national team but lack of playing time in top leagues does paint a rather dark picture for a recently bare English trophy cabinet.
Sound off in the comments or on our facebook. Is the Premier League suffering for its lack of English talent? Is the multinational complexion of the Premier League hurting the English national team?
The season is over and the summer of rumors and speculation begins. But before we dive into the juiciest bits of gossip I want to take a time to review my horse in this race, Chelsea Football Club.
The 2012/2013 season saw the Blue’s play 69 games in 44 weeks. An unprecedented loss in the Champions league, a poisonous home crowd with unmitigated hate towards the new manager, a perennially underperforming squad, a perpetually out of form striker just about sums the woes of this past season. Yet, I leave this season feeling happy, not elated but not merely content. I am good, old fashioned happy. Continue reading
Stateside Hooligans 