Welcome to the Weirdest Season in Premier League History
People always talk about how competitive the Premier League but since Blackburn won the thing in 1994-95, there have only been four different champions. Including Blackburn, there have still only been five. Five of them, in 23 years of football. Manchester United have won it 13 times, Chelsea have won it four times, Arsenal three times, Manchester City twice and Blackburn just the once. Sure, this is a competition in which any team can beat any other team. But in the end, a team from Manchester or London usually wins it.
But maybe not this season? Sir Alex Ferguson’s old slice of cautious wisdom was that you never look at the table until at least November. Well, it’s December now and we’re fifteen weeks into the season and this is the table:
Leicester City. The Foxes. Bottom of the Premier League last Christmas and they could well be top of it this Christmas (but maybe don’t bet on it). Meanwhile the runaway champions of last season are sitting in fourteenth. Manchester United are boring and can’t score goals. Liverpool and Tottenham are making concerted title runs. Aston Villa, one of seven teams that has played in every Premier League season, looks dead set for relegation. Stoke City are slowly turning into Barcelona. Not one of the top four scorers comes from the traditional top four. This season is absolutely mental.
At least Arsenal are still crippled by injuries. That’s the one constant that we can always rely on, the buoy to cling to amidst the rising tides of oddity.
The Rise of the Foxes
I wrote about these bad boys last week (to be honest, all of these topics deserve full-length explorations at some stage) and they continue to keep up the pace after a thrilling 3-0 win in Swansea. Although I did jinx Jamie Vardy’s streak, sorry bro.
Now, the Swans are in a real rut these days, way too predictable and without the necessary standards from a few key dudes, but this was still a massive result, going there are scoring three unanswered goals. Riyad Mahrez with the hatty, go get it son!
All season it’s been a wrestle with Leicester. The logical side of my brain is too prominent for me to have thrown caution to the wind and jumped on board with them early, instead I questioned them at every chance. They’re too limited, their fixture list has been crazy-weak, this cannot continue. The second one of those things is true, by the way, and it’ll level itself over the coming weeks so perhaps the time of reckoning is directly ahead. Remember that Arsenal pumped them 5-2 when they played. A home draw against Man Utd was impressive but United… well, we’ll come to the state of them in a sec.
I s’pose you could say it all changed when Claudio Ranieri took over. It’s hard to imagine Nigel Pearson doing this, even despite what he managed (which was amazing in its own right) over the last two months last season. But Pearson was a bully of a man. Different behind the scenes, maybe, though surely nothing like Ranieri. The Italian has come in and given this team so much confidence simply by trusting them. Gone are the Tinkerman ticks, now the guy just seems like a cheerful old man, full of wisdom and praise, there to lend an encouraging word. Something about escaping Greece with his professional well-being intact enough to get this job, probably.
What Claudio has done tactically is fairly simple. He has a lot of sharp attacking weapons with great pace and he’s putting them in positions to succeed. Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, Danny Drinkwater, Marc Albrighton, N’Golo Kanté, etc. These are not players that you can build a sustained, siege-like footballing strategy around, setting up camp outside the opposition penalty area like an Arsenal or a City. They don’t have the technical ability for that. But they do have pace and lots of it. The Foxes are very weak at the back (21 goals conceded) but they counteract that with their unfiltered enthusiasm to attack. They have the third worst figure for average possession in games and yet the most goals scored (32 of them).
It’s completely refreshing to see a team expecting to battle for relegation play with this kind of freedom and also be rewarded for it. Even if it’ll probably hit a speed bump over the next couple weeks as they play: Chelsea (H), Everton (A), Liverpool (A), Man City (H). Come to think of it, they might be able to squeeze one more week of this out, because…
Chelsea Suck Now
Like, what else can we say? This has gone on too long to be able to think it’ll all come right with a couple goals and a healthy win. They steady the ship for a few games and then they go and lose to Bournemouth at home, it’s the same old cycle. Rinse and repeat.
Pinpointing what’s gone wrong isn’t hard. Jose Mourinho threw his own leadership into question when he raged at the medical staff over nothing, continually drawing attention to the club with his defiant/dismissive comments. Nemanja Matic has been mostly crap, his previous years’ work as an indomitable force before his defence completely exposed and with it Cesc Fabregas’ own timidity has been too. Which has left John Terry without protection in front of him and he’s thusly looked a shadow of his former self (the latest Football Manager gave him a Pace rating of 9… which seems generous). On top of that, the reigning Player of the Year, Eden Hazard, has yet to score in any competition and he has only two assists. He’s slowly improving but Diego Costa isn’t, he seems much more interested in scuffling with defenders than he does in making runs in behind or looking for the ball. They’re relying on depth players for their creativity, having unexpectedly whiffed on most of their top targets in the transfer window. John Stones most notably.
That’s what’s gone wrong. Why it’s gone wrong… that’s much harder to figure out.
Boring, Boring Man United
Louis Van Gaal was supposed to bring some stability to this club in the post-Fergie years, only not this much stability. Their defensive woes of the last few seasons have been completely repaired with Chris Smalling emerging as the best centre back in England all of a sudden and Daley Blind proving pretty much everyone wrong with how well he’s been able to read the play and distribute from the back despite the lack of pace and height that had plenty questioning his role at CB. They’ve even held it together without Luke Shaw, while David De Gea needs no explanation.
The problem is that their newfound defensive cohesion has come at the expense of almost all of their creative fluency. It’s very static now, up and down the sidelines, players holding rigid to their positions with hardly any movement or punch going on up front. The Old Trafford crowd has taken to chanting “Attack, Attack, Attack” at home games, it’s almost unprecedented to see so many 0-0 draws at home from United. Fergie didn’t have a 0-0 draw in his final 105 games in charge (although he did finish with a 5-5 result).
The vaunted System and Philosophy are being blamed. It’s clear that their attacking players aren’t doing enough, though whether that’s because of or irrespective of LVG’s formations is up for debate. Memphis is settling into a new country and level of football, as to be expected, though his constant cutting inside from the left has been super predictable… and a little reminiscent of Angel Di Maria. That’s also a problem: the fact that ADM was such a big money bust. The chances to buy players of that calibre are limited and United are suffering for that not working out for whatever reason. Wayne Rooney doesn’t seem as hyped as in the past, Michael Carrick is playing too deep to influence games and Bastian Schweinsteiger is pretty much the same. Fellaini’s Plan B tends mostly only to yield free kicks against them and Anthony Martial is a raw 20 year old striker. They’ve all had moments, but not enough of them.
Reportedly Rooney and Carrick spoke to the manager earlier in the season unhappy at how restrictive their football was becoming. Tellingly, nothing has changed. They’re shooting more but they’re not shooting any better. Hey but the defence is fantastic.
Klopperpool & Tottentino
Two managers with very distinct ideals as to the footy they wanna see their team play. One (Pochettino) has taken a little while to get his team flowing and to get the right personnel in there too. The other (Klopp) seems to have only needed a month with the players he inherited, even if they’re still far from the finished product.
Spurs took great strides last season, boosted by the discovery of Harry Kane, with their high-energy, pressing, passing game getting going. But with all the deadwood (especially in midfield) still to sort out, they had a specific Europa League ceiling. Now, with Toby Alderweireld turning their defence into a superbly solid one (having been so flimsy twelve months ago), Delle Alli and Eric Dier unexpectedly providing them with a perfect midfield shield, as well as the continued Kane/Eriksen/Lloris performances, they’re a serious team. Even Moussa Dembele and Erik Lamela are good now! Unbeaten since the first game of the league season, if they can keep this up – and turn a few more draws into wins – then there’s a lot of room near the top of the table for Spurs.
And Liverpool. Rodgers gave them a very average, very un-inspirational start that got him sacked eventually. In comes Jurgen Klopp, challenging players yet telling them he believes in them (in a way that makes you believe he truly does believe in them too) and there’s been an immediate impact. A tighter midfield, quicker passing, much quicker transition between defence and attack and an incomprehensibly amount more movement. Diaffra Sakho is good now. Coutinho and Firmino have been great. The Reds look full of zest and gusto under Klopp. Full of, shall we say… character?
But can they make actual runs at the title? Maybe. As of now the reason the league is so tight is that no team has run away with it. Every one of them has had their problems, be they the two categories above or Arsenal and Man City’s injuries and inconsistencies (for Arsenal it’s the usual things, for City it’s the defence minus their captain). We’re still waiting for one of the top seven or eight teams to make a big run, six wins in a row kinda thing, and establish a lead. It’s there for any one of them to do so, Leicester, Arsenal, MCFC, MUFC, Spurs, Liverpool or Everton are all in genuine contention and will be right up until they aren’t any more. In another season Liverpool would have already dropped too many points. In this one, even at nine points back they’re well in it. For now at least.
See Ya Later, Aston Villa
Ever present since the Premier League era began, the Villans entered the latest round with the fewest points any team had ever accrued at that stage of the season. A battling 1-1 draw with Southampton was decent enough, but they have to find a way to win eventually – so far their only victory came against Bournemouth in their first game. Since then: LLDLLLLLL – Tim Sherwood is sacked and Remi Garde appointed – LDLLD. 14 games without a league win, a club record. They’re already seven points off safety and that gap wasn’t closing with Bournemouth and Newcastle both winning.
The thing is, this isn’t a terrible team. They were FA Cup Finalists a few months ago. Just like with Newcastle there are plenty of talented players and they simply aren’t performing, as well as the fact that they clearly underestimated how much of a loss Christian Benteke would be. Aston Villa are fragile at the back and they’ve scored fewer goals than any other team. Jamie Vardy has more goals than Aston Villa. Maybe Remi Garde can figure things out after the atrocities of Sherwood’s tactic-less terrors but right now they look like what they are: a team with no idea what they’re trying to do. Garde feels like a gamble – if only they’d acted quicker and gotten Big Sam. Not a glamorous appointment but probably the solid organiser that they need. It’s very hard to see when things are turning around.
It also doesn’t help when they spell their new manager’s name wrong.
Stoke-alona
Three seasons ago Stoke had the second-worst passing success of any team in the PL, took the fewest shots of any team (10.3 per game) and they kept an average of 43.5% possession. A large reason for that is probably the 28.9 aerial challenges they won each clash – far and above the most that season – West Ham were second with 21.2. Not only that but they had the worst disciplinary record in the league. They were a very specific team. Long balls, physical play and set pieces.
But since Mark Hughes took over they’ve slowly transitioned into something very different. So far this season we’re talking the third fewest yellow cards (albeit with three reds), the twelfth best possession stat (48.4%), twelfth in passing success (78.5%) and they’re all the way down in seventeenth in aerial duels won (14.2). It’s been a slow and clever transition – a subversion even – keeping the defensive solidity that Ryan Shawcross inspires but lessening the complete impact of Charlie Adam, letting his creative side balance out his dirty side. It began with the signing of Bojan Krkic from Barcelona last season. He took a while to settle as a five-foot-eight Spaniard on a team with the most British of reputations. Then this year they were able to, eventually, convince Xherdan Shakiri – who while Stoke were lobbing long balls to Peter Crouch, was winning the Champions League with Bayern – to join the cause. All these quick attackers, full of flair and ambition, and they’re slowly becoming a pretty exciting team. Mark Hughes’ Barcelona connections have helped (he’s also brought in Moha and Ibrahiim Afellay on frees from Barca, as well as Marc Muniesa two years back) and so has the emergence of Jack Butland after a cheap switch from Birmingham as a genuinely brilliant keeper.
The days of the old ‘Cold, Rainy Night in Stoke’ clichés may be coming to an end.
Where The Top Strikers At?
Jamie Vardy, a former league two standout, leads the top division in goals scored. Not Sergio Aguero, not Wayne Rooney, not Diego Costa, not Olivier Giroud, not Daniel Sturridge, not Christian Benteke, not Alexis Sanchez, not Raheem Sterling, not Eden Hazard, not Theo Walcott, not Juan Mata. Not even Harry Kane, who’s sitting with tied for fifth with Olly Giroud on 8 goals. Vardy has 14. Coming in second is Romelu Lukaku of Everton, a player rejected by Chelsea, and in third is Riyad Mahrez. Watford’s Odion Ighalo is in fourth.
Aguero has only scored in three games all season. He’s quite obviously the best striker in the PL, one of the very best in the world, but to be fair he has struggled with injuries. Also, he scored five goals in one game against Newcastle so he’s still there for a deep run at the golden boot. Without him nobody has really stepped up for City, so they’ve shared the goals around nicely. As have Arsenal, who have split their striking time between Giroud and Walcott which has held each of them back in these stakes, as well as Sanchez taking his time to get into the season… before getting hurt.
Liverpool have gone through big changes with the transition from Rodgers to Klopp and that’s meant two distinct styles of play with different dudes acting as the focal point. And Sturridge has been injured, shockingly. Then Man United… well they don’t even score goals so there’s nothing there. Harry Kane’s getting back up there now after a slow start to the season. This will probably level out. Still, it’s surreal to look at the golden boot stats this deep into the season and see three of the top four players all being guys that entered the league via promotion.
The Good
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) – Vardy’s been getting all the credit recently but Mahrez is the best player on this Foxes team. So skilful and so direct, he could absolutely make it on a UCL team. Shout out to Vardy on the assist for Mahrez’s hat-trick goal though. Most dudes on an 11 game scoring streak are looking to shoot there.
Absolutely Stoked – Wow, now who saw this coming? This week was the craziest in a full season of crazy and it began with Stoke giving City what-for with a 2-0 win. City may have spent millions on top talent to assemble one of the finest squads of attacking talent out there (defensively it’s a little questionable without Kompany) but it was Stoke’s trio of outcasts that dominated the game. Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic, and Bojan Krkic have all been offloaded from top clubs – Bayern, Inter and Barcelona – after promising beginnings and here they finally seem to be finding their feet. It wasn’t just that they won, it was how they took it to City in the process.
The Bad
“Attack, Attack, Attack” – So goes the chant at Old Trafford these days. United actually had 21 shots against West Ham, it’s just that only one of them was on target. That’s a little disturbing when the nature of their offensive incompetence has shifted so dramatically, kinda suggests something deeper and institutional – as people have long suspected with LVG’s Philosophy. At least Memphis looked dangerous in his late cameo.
Chelsea FC – Another loss at the Bridge, this time to Bournemouth, a club that hasn’t even looked like winning a game in at least a month. Whoops.
The Ugly
Martin Skrtel – Liverpool’s best defender doing his best to match a former great LFC defender.
Is that… Wayne Rooney? – Yeah it is, taking in the sights at Goodison while his teammates are in Germany for a crucial Champs League game. That’s cool, it’s only an hour from Manchester and he’s spending some time with his son, but it’s interesting that he’s taking him to his boyhood club. Once a blue, always a blue…
