2009/10 Championship Preview

Over the past few seasons the Championship has become one of the most competitive leagues in the world, with 24 teams all of relatively similar standard fighting it out in attritional game after attritional game. Managers and signings that turn out to be good, injuries, luck… all can have a strong influence. So you really can’t rule anyone out, although it is perhaps slightly fanciful to think Barnsley or Scunthorpe will win it.

The Final Straight

And little is left to be decided. Manchester United have clinched the title, West Brom are down, Boro are almost down… a slightly anticlimactic final weekend will see Hull, Newcastle and depending on tonight’s result Sunderland fighting it out to stay in the Premier League, Everton and Villa competing for fifth, and Spurs and Fulham battling to see who won’t put out a full side in the Europa League next season…

Weekend Round-up (A little late…)

As we always say, in-depth reports and stats are better found elsewhere – we usually recommend the BBC, but after the Strictly Come Dancing fiasco they can no longer be trusted… so try Times Online instead.
Our mini-round up starts with the Big Four – a couple of weeks after they all failed to score, this [...]

Managerial Report Cards: Part 2

Here is the second half of our feature on the Premiership managers, focussing on the bottom half of the table. You can read the first half here.
11. Wigan – Steve Bruce
Arguably the most inconsistent team in the Premiership – blessed with talent such as Zaki, Heskey, Palacios and Valencia, Wigan blow hot and cold like [...]

Saturday’s Results

A wholly uninspiring set of results yesterday. You can can get full match reports and details of the tedium elsewhere, so we’ll focus on a more abstract element of each game.
Stoke 1 Hull 1
A debatable 73rd minute penalty, won and converted by Ricardo Fuller, cancelled out Marlon King’s excellent strike on the stroke of half [...]

Saturday’s Results

For the first time for nearly a century all of the current big 4 – Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, and Arsenal – failed to score on the same weekend. Arsenal were the only side to lose, 3-0 to Man City, to further compound their misery and disarray. This is the most testing period Arsene Wenger [...]

Team News…

Torres starts for Liverpool, while Lucas comes into the side for Xabi Alonso, while Fulham remain unchanged from the side that defeated Tottenham.
Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra are both injured for Portsmouth, replaced by John Utaka and Richard Hughes. Hull are unchanged from the 2-2 draw with Man City.
Lampard does indeed make it back for [...]

Early Analysis of the Relegation Battle…

Here is the Premiership table updated after this weekend’s fixtures (courtesy of the BBC).

Barclays Premier League : Table 16 Nov 18:04

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Team
P
W
D
L
F
A
W
D
L
F
A
GD
PTS

1
Chelsea
13
3
2
1
13
3
7
0
0
19
1
28
32

2
Liverpool
13
5
1
0
11
4
5
1
1
10
4
13
32

3
Man Utd
12
5
1
0
18
4
2
2
2
7
6
15
24

4
Arsenal
13
4
1
2
14
10
3
1
2
11
5
10
23

5
Aston Villa
13
3
2
1
10
7
4
0
3
12
9
6
23

6
Hull
13
2
2
3
7
14
4
1
1
12
7
-2
21

7
Everton
13
1
3
3
7
12
4
1
1
12
9
-2
19

8
Middlesbrough
13
3
1
2
7
9
2
2
3
7
9
-4
18

9
Portsmouth
13
3
1
2
8
6
2
2
3
5
12
-5
18

10
Fulham
12
5
1
1
10
5
0
1
4
2
6
1
17

11
Sunderland
13
2
1
3
6
8
2
2
3
6
11
-7
15

12
Man City
13
3
0
3
16
8
1
2
4
10
14
4
14

13
Bolton
13
2
2
3
6
7
2
0
4
5
8
-4
14

14
West Ham
13
3
1
3
11
11
1
1
4
5
11
-6
14

15
Stoke
13
4
0
2
10
9
0
2
5
3
15
-11
14

16
Wigan
13
1
2
3
3
8
2
2
3
12
10
-3
13

17
Newcastle
13
3
2
2
11
9
0
2
4
6
13
-5
13

18
Blackburn
13
1
2
4
4
12
2
2
2
10
12
-10
13

19
Tottenham
13
2
1
3
6
6
1
2
4
10
14
-4
12

20
West Brom
13
2
1
4
8
14
1
1
4
2
10
-14
11

There are a ridiculous 10 points between bottom and 6th place, and anyone across that range is very much at risk of [...]