For the people who didn’t agree that the Premier League is the best league in the world, this season set the record straight, it's been exciting and the most unpredictable one yet . The reigning champions fell hard while a team you would never have guessed did the unthinkable. Although Premier League teams have been doing poorly in Europe, it’s arguably still THE best league overall terms of excitement, competitiveness, quality and entertainment value. Fresh from escaping relegation at the end of last season, a ‘reasonable’ 5000-1 to go all the way, Leicester City’s astonishing fairytale win is one of the greatest achievements ever seen in modern football. When Sergio Aguero slotted in the winning goal at the death in 2012, Martin Tyler exclaimed that “I swear you'll never see something like this ever again”. And yes, we might never see the title settled in that manner again, but what we witnessed this season, was like fiction crystallising in slow motion. Leicester went from strength to strength, incredibly resilient in the face of doing the impossible to defeating all the odds stacked against them along the way. They even did it with 2 games to spare. Considering the circumstances where the big teams have long dominated the league by recruiting the best in the world, for Leicester to bring a pretty much unknown team and win the league, you had to see it to believe it. It’s an inspiring tale that will be told for a very long time.
I really love the game of football and I have to admit I
didn’t know much about Leicester’s players at the start of the season. I went
as far as this. Kasper Schmeichel, I remembered his time back in City when
Thaksin took over and they were vying to be the next big thing. He had huge
potential at that time but went missing a few years when playing in the
Championship. It’s a good surprise he has stepped out from senior Schmeichel’s
shadows. Robert Huth, once
played for Chelsea and represented Germany as well. Always lacked the
consistency and very un-German-like despite his huge presence. Marc Albrighton,
I remember him being a rising star in Villa with lots of potential. Then he
left Villa and I thought, another unfulfilled one.
How on earth did Leicester
build such a good team with so little funds spent? Where did they find players
like Kante, Mahrez and Morgan? Should Chelsea have kept
Ranieri? How can a good part of England not know who Jamie Vardy is? Were the Foxes on drugs? What miraculous training did
they undergo last summer? How they did survive coming out on top against the
bigger guns? Did the Buddhist monks play their part? It’s still a shocker as I write this. I can’t quite
explain how they went all the way. I’ll leave the discussion on the Foxes
later.
The 2015-2016 season has been the most unpredictable ever,
putting my early season prediction deep in the dumps, even my ‘clear’ favourites City weren’t even
close. A huge hit on my analytical credentials I must admit but a big win for
the neutrals that had too long watched the big four or five teams challenging for
the trophy every year. I thought I knew football pretty well with 18 years under the belt and seasons like this will be my biggest lesson yet and remind me that the favourites have an equal chance of falling short. The new
disruptors in Leicester and Spurs have turned tables on the capitalists of
football where the wealthier clubs have
dominated for more than a decade. It’s was hard seeing Arsenal doing the ‘usual’ collapse once again in February
and March. We finished above ALL our rivals and yet didn’t finish first.
So much for an opportunity to end the on-going drought of 12 years! We almost had to give St. Totteringham day a miss this
year, luckily for a heroic performance from relegated Newcastle as they bowed
out in style. Spurs have been a breath of fresh air this season, having some
fantastic players like Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier and Christian Eriksen.
They fancied their chances during the latter stages in the season but just
couldn’t keep up the consistency at the end.
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| Final bridge burned? |
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| Impressive debut season for Kevin De Bruyne |
Manchester City,
in my opinion, had all the ingredients and the right chef to bring the ‘pizza’
back to the Eastlands. While the rest of their rivals strengthened marginally, City went on a shopping
spree that left Europe in awe. Big money moves for Sterling, De Bruyne and Otamendi
signalled to Europe that they were looking to conquer beyond England. The
end result however, was vastly underwhelming and disappointing. Like Chelsea,
many factors contributed to the poor finish for City’s standards and level of spending.
The biggest one was the woeful record
against the top 8 teams, managing only one
win from a possible 14. This perhaps was worthy of losing out on a
Champions League spot, but they manage to scrape through ahead of their less
noisy neighbours. I underestimated the effects of an ageing City squad with Kompany, Demichelis, Clichy, Sagna,
Zabaleta, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Kolarov, Navas and Fernandinho all above 30. However age alone should not be blamed for
the poor form shown by some of these players especially Kompany and Yaya Toure, who have been brilliant
over the years. Their decline is a big concern for City as they don’t
have players within their team to fill in their roles. The question is now
whether these players would be kept to play at a title chasing level. Otamendi was a let-down as he struggled
to cope with the Premier League’s while Sterling just didn’t live up to all the hype with his below par showing
overall. City announcing the appointment of Pep Guardiola as their manager in the
middle of the season wasn't the right move in my opinion. I am not fan of telling people they are sacked 6 months
in advance when there is still a lot at stake. The morale of the dressing room
would be affected and the respect of the players for their coach would
inevitably be somewhat lost. The sheer
determination of City in securing Pep’s
services was handled more in his favour rather than City’s and that level of desperation was obvious. Pep has got a long summer of work to replenish the talent pipeline and I would estimate at least 5 new faces. City has definitely got the right person to takeover, albeit without a track record here. It
wasn’t all doom and gloom at the Etihad,
we saw the emergence of young attacker Iheanacho,
who scored some pivotal goals during the season. Sergio Aguero again was a standout whenever he played while new
signing Kevin De Bruyne, delivered a
superb first season with some exceptional
goals and plays. So far, his record price tag has been justified. Joe Hart
was again solid on the line but was no longer well protected like before.
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| New sensation Marcus Rashford |
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| Red hot Chilean Alexis Sanchez |
Arsenal finished
higher than most could have predicted this season, and yet it was another
season of failure. We failed to defend the FA
Cup, put up a tame effort in the
title race and another campaign in Champions League with no improvement. It wasn’t poor by Arsenal’s current standards and that’s the sad
part. People now expect people NOT to challenge for league as they know the Gunners will somehow falter
in one period in the season and screw everything up. That hasn't changed this season. Arsene Wenger has been in charge for two decades now and perhaps he
doesn’t know how to get us up there again. It couldn’t have been a better
opportunity this season, Chelsea out
of contention from the start, Utd,
Liverpool and City struggling,
why on earth did Arsenal not do it this time? There were enough positive signs
this season for Arsenal to go all the way, Ozil
and Sanchez were playing their best
seasons, Bellerin was fantastic, Cech was what we needed years ago, Monreal was good and Giroud was scoring. Arsenal took 6
points from Leicester City and yet lost the title by 10 points. The season was another one that started very well and then when fixtures started to come thick and fast, Arsenal 'customarily', lost steam. Arsenal have run out of excuses of not achieving more, money
has been available and spent, so many tough lessons over the years, but it’s
still the same old Arsenal. Injuries to Cazorla,
Sanchez, Ramsey, Welbeck and Wilshere have also adversely affected the team during the campaign. We can't blame injuries forever and the real reasons why
Arsenal's struggles will continue would be because of the following
1) The defence
needs fixing, it’s been leaking for too many years from Senderos, Squillaci,
Djourou, Silvestre to Mertesacker. I am absolutely disgusted our defence is
still the problem after all these years. Hiring Steve Bould is not cutting it, the vulnerability of our defence is still there, we need world class, now!
2) Weak
mental strength and wrong mentality. Successful athletes will tell you mental strength is the
defining line between good and great. Arsenal just don’t have enough resilience and mental toughness when things don't go their way, players go missing in big
games and a few weak performances is all it takes to eliminate us from all
competitions. The 4-0 loss to Southampton on Boxing Day is a good example how we can't adapt to an unusual day at the office. The amount of times Arsenal have surrendered leads is also a big concern, can we stop playing complacent football when in the lead and focus on killing the game off?
3) Same
strategy to achieve better results? The 'Professor' from France has
officially run out of ideas, he doesn’t know how to win anymore. His instincts
have not produced results worthy of his experience in managing a football club.
He continues to overplay players who are in-form and wearing them out, his
approach of beautiful football is pulling the hair out of supporters as we
don’t create enough chances and too often overplay football that do not translate to goals. His predictable tactics are well known and not getting the results, so why continue with it?
It’s been pure frustration this season with the highlights being the loss to Watford at home in the FA Cup where we started to play in the 88th minute in the game, the loss to Utd when our opponents struggled to field a recognisable first 11 and how we let our lead slip against Crystal Palace and Liverpool. Arsenal deserve to be where they are because they’ve done things the same way all over again and repeated the same mistakes made in past. Why are we not learning?
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| Dele Alli has arrived! |
The other North Londoners Spurs finally made their mark in the title race, they were the
final hurdles of Leicester’s bid for the crown, a big step forward for them. Spurs have suffered the
middle class syndrome for a very long time. They were always close fighters for
a top 4 finish but always lived under shadows
of the bigger teams. Many years of optimism and promises couldn't be fulfilled. There was one major piece always missing and they finally got it. Mauricio Pochettino
has managed to lift Spurs to greater heights this season with his visionary management. We have seen some sublime performances and stunning goals from Spurs this year, I am pretty envious
how well they worked as a team compared to Arsenal. My highlight would be the incredible goal by Dele Alli against Crystal Palace and Harry Kane's strike against Arsenal. Both will
be part of the Euro 2016 England
team. Lamela was the most expensive acquisition from the
Gareth Bale sales proceeds but never quite made the impact. This year he’s
finally showed what he capable of with some very impressive displays. His
contribution this year has been a big improvement with assists and offensive threats
he posed. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Christian Eriksen
and Toby Alderweireld have been standouts
for Spurs. There seems to be a great balance in this team with their defence
having conceded the least goals this
season while their attacking artillery
is mouth-watering. Hugo Lloris has also been a key figure on the Spurs line. Although they too missed out on a glorious opportunity, they have played much better football and were the more improved team compared to Arsenal. With new foundations built this season, it looks like Spurs will
look to go one better next season.
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| Morgan scoring before being crowned Champions days later |
Last but not least, Champions Leicester
City, my oh my, how did they manage to barged into this part of the table and crash the party? It was not the usual giant killing act we’ve
used to see on and off where smaller teams knock out bigger teams in cup
competition. Leicester’s triumph in
the league was a complete category on its own. Coming out tops after 38 games is no fluke. The success of Leicester this season was an equation made of a
group of players that played incredibly well together, a great deal of
consistency, players playing their best
football of their lives, a manager’s magical touch and some good fortune
along the way. What was spectacular about Leicester is they had such spirit and momentum that they never looked like they were going to slip up. They topped the table for most of the season and their grit to hold on despite a few bumps
along the way and how they kept their nerves was pretty amazing. It is by
far many times more incredible than Atletico
Madrid topping Real and Barca in Spain. We’ve seen different champions over the years and some of the key factors that differentiated champions are
being able to squeeze out 1-0 wins on
their toughest days (Leicester had 7), making effective substitutions, new talents emerging, a
top striker, deadly combos, a mean defence, quick recovery after a defeat
etc. Leicester has ticked off
all the boxes during the course of the season, the combos of Vardy, Mahrez and Okazaki blew even the biggest teams away. The goal from Mahrez against Man City, Vardy’s
record breaking 11 consecutive games of scoring and THAT stunner against
Liverpool, pretty much wrote the story of Champions.
Another incredible
stat I’ve discovered from Leicester would be how they were able to select their best players for more than 90% of
their matches.
Appearances in 38
games in league (game starts + substitute in)
Kasper Schmeichel: 38 starts
Wes Morgan: 38 starts
Marc Albrighton: 38 (34 + 4)
N'Golo Kanté: 37 (33 +4)
Riyad Mahrez: 37 (36 + 1)
Shinji Okazaki: 36 (28 + 8)
Jamie Vardy: 36 starts
Robert Huth: 35 starts
Danny Drinkwater: 35 starts
Christian Fuchs: 32 (30 + 2)
Considering they won the league in 36 matches, they were
able to pick 10 of their key players at
least 90% of the matches. I believe there is a very successful fitness and training regime behind the scenes to be
able to keep all their key players available. The opposite view should also be
considered Leicester had no part in European football and only played 5 matches
in domestic cup competitions, allowing significantly more recovery time. The lower fatigue levels most likely also played
its part when compared to the bigger teams who play around 50 matches a year. The injury record for the teams
below Leicester would show a sharp contrast. The big notables this season would be the defensive qualities of Kante, Wes Morgan and Robert Huth who have conceded only 36 goals, leading to having the second best goal difference. Schmeichel junior has followed the foot steps of his dad to to win the Premier League with his fine display all season. And of course, all of this would not have happened if not for Ranieri's mastermind tactics and strategies. After his disastrous stint with Greece, his appointment wasn't viewed positively. His most notable comments were how he was targeting surviving relegation despite them clearly in the running for the titile. He was written off early with many pointing to his lack of success in his CV. How he has managed to defy all the criticism by delivering silverware just shows that even the most established experts in the game can get it wrong. Hats off to Ranieri on the historic win!
Final words
The outcome of this season has surely has left many people including myself dumbfounded. Leicester's success was not forthcoming in any way. Mid table teams can now draw on this inspiration next season and certainly dream bigger. It's still a stretch to put money on Leicester to win the league again, even I would be very hesitant. Come next season, they would need to accustom themselves with the bright lights of Tuesday and Wednesday night, it's going to be a real culture shock on a grandest stage of all. Nevertheless, the neutrals will be very happy with their breakthrough and be looking forward to seeing them in Europe's elite competition. Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Aston Villa's decline will continue to remind people that success is temporary and it all reverts to zero the following season. You can never be sure of your future regardless how many times you've done it before or how much you spend. Villa's 30 year stay in the top division came to an end. What history has also taught us is to always have plans for the future and be ready to change as good things may not last. While the flow of money in football seems to be indefinite now, understanding financial sustainability will differentiate great and good clubs in the future, even more so when the hot flows of investment takes a break. Leeds and Portsmouth are prime examples of that. More changes in managerial positions have been confirmed as of now while new signings have started to flow in. With the European Championship happening in the summer, let's see whether new talents can be unearthed in France.
The outcome of this season has surely has left many people including myself dumbfounded. Leicester's success was not forthcoming in any way. Mid table teams can now draw on this inspiration next season and certainly dream bigger. It's still a stretch to put money on Leicester to win the league again, even I would be very hesitant. Come next season, they would need to accustom themselves with the bright lights of Tuesday and Wednesday night, it's going to be a real culture shock on a grandest stage of all. Nevertheless, the neutrals will be very happy with their breakthrough and be looking forward to seeing them in Europe's elite competition. Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Aston Villa's decline will continue to remind people that success is temporary and it all reverts to zero the following season. You can never be sure of your future regardless how many times you've done it before or how much you spend. Villa's 30 year stay in the top division came to an end. What history has also taught us is to always have plans for the future and be ready to change as good things may not last. While the flow of money in football seems to be indefinite now, understanding financial sustainability will differentiate great and good clubs in the future, even more so when the hot flows of investment takes a break. Leeds and Portsmouth are prime examples of that. More changes in managerial positions have been confirmed as of now while new signings have started to flow in. With the European Championship happening in the summer, let's see whether new talents can be unearthed in France.
A special mention would be the two
important improvements in league which have improved the quality of our game for the second year running. From resolving dubious decisions on ‘goals’ and distance of the wall from a free kick. Goal line technology has been the
most important development in the modern game, effectively making goal line decisions
with precision within seconds. A major burden is off the referees allowing them to
focus on other crucial areas like offsides and fouls. The vanishing magical spray also deserves an accolade
for saving precious time between fouls and free kick taken. This is crucial for a sport that rides on momentum with only one official
break, as compared to other sports.
For the love of the game, enjoy your summer. Thanks for reading.
~deyao~
For the love of the game, enjoy your summer. Thanks for reading.
~deyao~
