Tag: Premier League

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Not Pulisic – Look who replaced Eden Hazard as the feature player for Chelsea in Sky Sports graphic for next season

Since ending their season on a high by winning the Europa League, things have been slowly going down for Chelsea.

The future at Chelsea looks bleak at the moment. They’ve lost their best player, their manager, and have an ongoing transfer ban to deal with. 

While the fans are hoping for the club to get back on track as soon as possible, watching Ross Barkley as the face of Chelsea in a promotional poster released by Sky Sports isn’t really helping their cause.

Barkley had an ordinary season with 5 goals and 6 assists in 48 appearances with Chelsea last season and is nowhere near to be the ‘face of the club’ yet.

While fan favourite N’Golo Kante or new signing Christian Pulisic would’ve been better received by fans there are far bigger problems for both fans and the Chelsea management to worry about.

There’s no doubt about the impact of a player like Eden Hazard leaving, but it is the departure of manager Maurizio Sarri that further escalates their problems. 

Sarri didn’t exactly win over the Chelsea fanbase particularly with the decision to play N’Golo Kante out of position favoring his marquee signing Jorginho throughout the season.

His rapport with the players too was under constant scrutiny (for instance the horrific “misunderstanding” with Kepa in the EFL Cup final) which is why he left immediately when Juventus came knocking.

But guess what, this isn’t the end of their problems. They have a transfer ban till the summer of 2020 imposed by FIFA and youngsters Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are likely to miss the early part of the next season. 

Only time will tell us what transpires at Chelsea but the next few months are definitely going to be critical for them. 

Check out the Sky Sports graphic for next season feat. Ross Barkley below –

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Blog Football

Promo graphic for the new season shows even Sky Sports have realised Tottenham are in the big time now

The tides are definitely turning in North London and it’s good to see that media giants Sky Sports has realised the same as well.

Sky Sports released their Premier League fixtures for the 2019/20 season and its promotional poster is something to be surprised by, reason being the inclusion of Tottenham Hotspur in it while leaving out media favorites Manchester United.

This positive attention coming from Sky Sports has been much appreciated by the Spurs fans, who think it has been a long time coming.

The bias against Tottenham

After finishing second behind champions Chelsea in 2017, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino was denied a place in the manager montages when it even featured the managers that finished way below Tottenham (Thick Accent).

Tottenham Hotspur legend Graham Roberts also blasted Sky Sports News back in December over their coverage and accused their pundits of being biased (Twitter).

Spurs have often been excluded from enjoying the status of a ‘big club’ in the eyes of the footballing world and it’s about time that we start appreciating the efforts of the club & their manager.

Spurs leading the way in the world of football

Pochettino inherited a team that had long lived in the shadow of London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.

Since then the Argentine has modernised Spurs as a club, leading from the front by imposing a dynamic style of play on the team.

Since he took over he’s had a plan to become one of the best teams in Europe and now we’re not far away from the biggest game in Europe and in our club’s history. He’s done a fantastic job, he’s a great manager.

Harry Kane on Poch back in May (via Reuters)

Last season’s runner-up in the UEFA Champions League, Spurs have secured four consecutive top-four finishes in the Premier League and have moved into one of the most impressive stadiums in the world at an estimated cost of £1 billion.

Sudden increase in their fan following across social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram is indeed a manifestation of their monumental rise (Thick Accent).   

Check out the Sky Sports promo graphic for next season feat Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min below –

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Blog

Liverpool create history by becoming the first team to earn a quarter of a billion pounds from TV revenue

The bells of joy at Anfield won’t stop ringing anytime soon after Liverpool won the Champions League final against Tottenham to lift their first silverware in seven long years.

It was a much deserved victory for the red side of Merseyside on the field. But even off it, the club has made huge strides after new calculations show that Liverpool have now earned an unprecedented quarter of a billion pounds in television revenue alone!

The nitty-gritties of the television revenue stream

The EPL is one of the world’s most televised sport leagues in the whole world and is the most televised football league in the whole world.

Individual teams earn ‘air time’ based on the number of matches they play and the popularity of the team. The more popular a team is, the more ‘ air time’ the team hogs. This directly translates to more revenue for the team.

The broadcast income for clubs is generated in three parts. 50% is shared between the 20 clubs equally, 25% in facility fees and 25% in merit payments which depend upon where a club finish in the league table.

Reds create financial history

An exhaustive financial report by Twitter user Swiss Ramble details the revenue earned by English Clubs in the last season.

A huge chunk of Liverpool’s revenue comprises the Champions League prize money: a princely 98 million pounds.

Liverpool had more matches broadcasted live( 29 vs 26) than league winners Manchester City which meant that their facility fees outweighed the merit fees.

This means that Liverpool have amassed a sum of approximately 251 million pounds from both Premier League and Europe.

This is the first time in history that a club earned this much from TV revenue alone. Check out the graphic below –

3 more English clubs breach the 200 million pound mark

The report concluded that while English football is undeniably one of the wealthiest, qualifying for European Championships pays greater dividends. The gap between the topmost clubs and the rest of the league has begun to widen further. It is quite simple, there is more money to be earned by playing more matches at higher levels!

Notably, 3 more English clubs have breached the 200 million pound mark in television revenue.

Tottenham Hotspur has earned £235 million, Manchester City £233 million and Manchester United completing the roundup with £225 million.

Chelsea and Arsenal faced off against each other in the Europa League finals. They netted a cool £185 million and £174 million respectively.

The closest competitor to these top clubs is Everton with £129 million in TV revenue. This speaks volumes of the existing gap between the elite and the ordinary.

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Blog

The Liverpool statistic OptaJoe labeled as ‘crazy’

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool scored the most number of headed goals this season

The 2018/19 edition of the Premier League ended few days ago as Liverpool came astonishingly close to winning the title, getting narrowly beaten by Manchester City with just a point separating the two sides.

It was a record-breaking season for the Reds as they amassed the 3rd highest points tally in Premier League history and were still being unable to win the title.

One of the records, which largely went unnoticed, was the number of goals Liverpool players scored by using their heads.

Liverpool went on to score 19 headed goals in the Premier League, which was way more than any other team in the division.

And according to OptaJoe, who labeled the statistic as ‘crazy’, Liverpool’s record of scoring headed goals is only bettered by that of Wimbledon, who managed to score 22 headed goals back in the 1995-96 season.

Arguably the best full-back pairing in the Premier League

A massive reason for all the headed goals Liverpool scored this season is the full-back duo of Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Arguably the best full-back pairing in the Premier League currently, both TAA and Robbo delivered pin-point crosses in the box with precision throughout the entirety of the season.

Manager Jurgen Klopp should also be commended on how the fullbacks have improved over the past 2 years. Andrew Robertson, who arrived from Hull City in 2017 for just 10 million euros, is now one of the best left-backs in the world, while home grown Trent Alexander- Arnold is well on his way on being a club legend just at the meager age of 20.

In Klopp’s system, the fullbacks are able to push high up the pitch, due to a defensive midfield cover. This allows them to fire crosses into the box, and with the likes of Firmino or Mane lurking in the penalty area, the crosses get converted a significant number of times.

Both Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have reached double digits in terms of assists, with them registering 13 and 15 assists in all competitions respectively.

Sadio Mane- Liverpool’s most complete forward

One of Liverpool’s key players, and a part of the famous front 3, Sadio Mane was crucial in Liverpool’s title charge and their quest for a 6th Champions League crown.

More importantly, he was clinical for the side during Salah’s rare goal drought. He finished the season with an incredible 22 goals and shared the Premier League Golden Boot award with Salah and Aubameyang.

So what makes Sadio Mane Liverpool’s, or even the Premier League’s most complete forward?

Of all the world class forwards that play in the Premier League, including Aguero, Kane and Aubameyang, Sadio Mane is the only player to have scored 5 goals with his right foot, left foot and head!

He has scored 6 goals via headers this season. No Liverpool player has managed more than him.

What’s next for Sadio Mane and Liverpool

Mane will hope to continue his excellent form for Liverpool when they face Tottenham in next month’s Champions League final. With his excellent dribbling skills and clinical finishing, he will definitely be a thorn in Tottenham’s defense.

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Blog News

NBCSN commentator goes wild with Game of Thrones references before Liverpool-Newcastle kick-off

It is true when people say that watching a football match at a stadium is a feeling like no other. The atmosphere, the noise, the fans and the collective power is electric, deafening and empowering to the club that finds its home at said stadium.

But for those less fortunate, watching the game on the TV is the next best thing, with commentators really bringing out a perspective of the game that is like a breath of fresh air.

For those watching the game in the comfort of their homes, commentators really are the unsung heroes of the broadcast. Travelling up and down the country to call games, doing tons of research right up till the final seconds till kick-off and keep us gripped to our seats with words that fuel a plethora of emotions in us, the commentator’s job is one that is overlooked, but one that gives us a lot of memories to savour.

One such commentary came from an NBCSN commentator before the kick-off between a game between Liverpool and Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Right before the kick-off, he produced a moment of brilliant commentary that was fusion between the current situation in the Premier League to the popular TV show Game of Thrones(GoT). It certainly is well worth the listen, as he brings out multiple GoT references during his monologue.

https://twitter.com/chidudeh/status/1124751584007794688?s=03

The commentary got a rapturous reception online, given that both the PL and GoT are very popular and are soon to be winding up. Liverpool went on to win the game 3-2 in a topsy-turvy affair at Newcastle.

The win took Liverpool to the top of the table with City yet to play, after which the title would be decide on the final day of the season. The show-stealer, however, was the pre-kickoff commentary.

One would imagine that the commentator pulled an all nighter getting that piece set up for the big game. And his efforts did not go in vain, as he served up a delight.

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Blog Football

Lionel Messi truly put this criticism of him to bed with Liverpool display

It’s an age old debate. Who’s the best player in the world? The question that everyone wants an answer to, but the answer is one that is rarely universally accepted. But what really defines the best player in the world?

We have the obvious qualities: consistency and impact, be it through goals, assists, defensive prowess or clean sheets. Other characteristics could be leadership, grit, and panache, to name a few.

Crucial factors are individual honors and trophies, both for club and country. Over the past decade or so, the title for best player in the world has been a battle of the attackers, with Messi and Ronaldo fighting it out to be the best.

Both of them are serial winners, individually and collectively for their teams, and both push each other to strive for greater heights.

Being the lethal attackers that they are, they have provided us with some break-neck battles and tons of goals and memorable plays.

And while fans debate who is the best of these two, one question comes up more often than not, and it’s answer is one we may not receive.

Can Lionel Messi do it in the Premier League? This is probably what differentiates Big Ron and Messi, given that Ronaldo has played in different leagues and experienced different cultures and flourished in all of them, during his time at Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and most recently, at Juventus.

Defying age, Ronaldo seems to have the advantage over Messi in the pursuit for the answer to this question, with Messi being the one-club man that he is at Barcelona.

It truly has been his one criticism, whether he would be able to achieve and maintain his otherworldly levels in England.

But Leo’s numbers against big English sides seem to give us a fair idea of what he could achieve in the Prem.

The stats that surfaced after Barca’s 3-0 semi-final win over Liverpool (in which he was extremely influential) suggest that Messi could just ace it in England. One stat compares his goals to games tally against England’s big 6 to that of Ronaldo’s, while another shows us that this season, he has more goals against the PL’s top 6 than any other PL player!

https://twitter.com/AhmadShabir08/status/1123701362745851904

The significance and takeaway of this must not be undermined. Messi’s goals and top-notch performances against the best in England, have come at crucial stages in Europe’s elite club competition.

Not to mention, of late, Leo has been unstoppable against England’s UCL participating crew, as this season alone he’s bagged two goals each against Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United. If he can do it against the best, one would be led to believe that he could do it against the rest.

Messi’s numbers speak for him, and while we may never see him in the Prem, we have a visual of how he would fare in England. In a hypothetical situation where Messi joins the Premier League, which club would suit him the most?

 

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Football

Celebrity YouTuber publicly gives up on Arsenal after humiliating Leicester City defeat

Arsenal travelled to the King Power stadium as Unai Emery made three changes with Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang coming in the XI for the injured duo of Mesut Özil and Nacho Monreal, and an unfit Laurent Koscielny.

Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester went into the game with a single change from their previous outing, with Hamza Choudhury replacing Demarai Gray. Jamie Vardy, who has been in brilliant form under Rodgers in recent games, led the line.

Leicester looked dangerous from the beginning and enjoyed possession and created more chances. Arsenal looked to break on the counter, but things got worse for the Gunners in the 35th minute when a rather cynical tackle on Maddison – who was proving to be quite a nuisance for the Arsenal defence – earned Ainsley Maitland-Niles a second yellow card, resulting in him getting sent off.

The first half ended with Leicester having most of the possession, shots, and shots on target. The home side finally broke the deadlock in the 59th minute through Youri Tielemans, and never looked back, with two late goals from Jamie Vardy sealing the three points.

Arsenal’s loss to Leicester triggers celebrity fan

The dismal performance against Leicester showed a lack of faith and drive to be committed come the end of the season, and that sent celebrity fan KSIOlajideBT, better known as KSI, into a meltdown on Twitter, writing “I’m sick of being an Arsenal fan. Cba with this club”.

Arsenal would now be hoping to improve upon their record, having lost four of their last five Premier League matches, while Leicester will be looking towards catching up to Wolves at the 7th spot.

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Football

Liverpool and Man City account for 17.9 percent of all the points won in the Premier League this season

For the Premier League, the 2000s saw the world get introduced to the notion of the Big Four concept. In that time, the world saw Arsenal become the Invincibles in 2004 and Chelsea haul a then-record by accumulating 95 points in 2005.

The 2010s however, brought us new change. With the emergence of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, the Big Four reshaped into the Big Six, as competition at the top found new challengers. In the nine years since, the league has seen City win in the final seconds of the final day at the expense of United in 2012, Leicester defying the odds in 2016 and City breaking Chelsea’s record of 95 points with a century of points in 2018.

Ever since City’s emergence, the noisy neighbors have taken the league by the scruff of the neck. Other clubs fear them and at the same time want to be them, both in position, pull and power.

But this season, hasn’t seen the blue side of Manchester fly away. The Reds of Liverpool – scoring for fun and housing the best defense in the league – have have menacingly followed them in every round and have proved themselves to be worthy contenders for the title.

The current PL season has seen Liverpool and Man City dominating throughout, accounting for 17.9 percent (something that hasn’t been achieved since the 1890s according to the New York Times) of the total points won, which is a remarkable statistic in its own.

Talking about the title race, City and Liverpool are a cut above the rest. This season particularly, City seem to have maintained, if not, improved their performances from last season, looking absolutely ruthless and flawless in style of play.

The two-club dominance can be seen throughout in attack, midfield and defense. Salah (21) and Mane (20) lead the way on goals scored, closely followed by Aguero (20). Robertson has 11 assists, which is third on the stats list, with Sane and Sterling locked on 10. Liverpool have 20 clean sheets with City on 19. All season, these two have gone toe-to-toe against each other in a bid to be crowned champions.

This season’s title race is set to go down to the wire, as both clubs constantly swap places at the top. City are currently leading by a point, with both clubs having two games left. They have entertained us all season with their unique styles of play, and are providing us with a grand-stand finish as the season closes.

The main takeaway from this season however, is the standards that these two clubs have set for others to follow.

City and Liverpool have maintained otherworldly standards and it looks like a daunting task for the rest of the chasing pack. Will there be any club to usurp these dominators, or will it be a repeat of this season in seasons hence?

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Blog

(Video) Little Everton fan wants to support Liverpool after Newcastle loss

The current season keeps getting worse and worse for Everton as they succumbed to another defeat in the Premier League, this time against Newcastle United.

This was their sixth defeat in last ten matches in all competitions and includes the humiliating defeat against struggling championship side Millwall in the FA Cup.

A lot was expected from Marco Silva’s side following their impressive performance in the Merseyside derby where they managed to hold their high-flying arch-rivals Liverpool.

And the Blues started the game in the best possible manner as Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison both were on the mark to give the Toffees a 2-0 advantage in the first half.

Everton’s number one Jordan Pickford, who was under heavy scrutiny for his recent performances, saved one from the spot to keep the lead intact.

But in the second half, they somehow managed to let this comfortable lead slip as Rondon and Ayoze Perez punished a lacklustre defensive performance to script a fairytale comeback.

This defeat leaves Everton in the eleventh place on the league table and a top-eight finish now looking more like a distant dream.

This poor run of form has left most the fans of Everton depressed, however, a certain Evertonian was left particularly distraught following their recent away defeat at St. James’ Park.

Video of a little Everton fan went viral, especially amongst Liverpool fans after the the Newcastle game. Watch it here –

https://twitter.com/TweetGyorgi/status/1104605168098635776

“I wish we liked Liverpool”, were the words of the young Everton fan. Ouch, to say the least.

Everton’s barren run of form has literally forced a little fan to consider switching allegiances to the red half of Merseyside no less.

The recruitments of Richarlison, Yerry Mina, Bernard, and Andre Gomes were meant to propel Everton into the vicinity of the European places in the Premier League. That plan has not come to fruition so far as they lie 11th in the table, with trips to Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United and Tottenham to follow.

Everton will face Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea at Goodison Park in their next match in the Premier League and they’ll require a much better performance to bring the smile back into the faces of their dedicated fans.