Premier League: Who’s making a mark?
It may be early doors, but fans across the country have made up their minds about certain players and which teams will fare well this year. Just weeks into the season, it’s abundantly clear which sides are shining and which players are faltering in the first fixtures. Check out who…
Case Study: Everton 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur 9/9/2017
In the last decade, there's been two distinct tactical movements that have seen the tight solid style English clubs used to dominate Europe with, lead by Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho, fade away in favour of a more aesthetically pleasing albeit open style. The first came with the success of…
Given Red Bull’s wings: RB Leipzig 2016/17
Even faster than they climbed Germany's footballing pyramid, RB Leipzig became the country's most hated club. Red Bull have had their fingers in the pie for a while in New York, Salzburg, Sao Paulo and Sogakope but Leipzig is the first time they have muddied the waters in a major…
Case Study: Roma 1-3 Internazionale 26/8/2017
They say never to go back and Luciano Spalletti may well be testament to this. Nearly a decade ago the Tuscan left Roma having run a dominant Internazionale close to the wire using a revolutionary false nine tactic: trequartista Francesco Totti starting up front but dropping off between the lines,…
Case Study: Liverpool 4-2 Hoffenheim 23/8/2017
A questionable but not exactly negative start to the season has seen the murmurs of discontent around Liverpool grow louder. A late draw against Watford and a scraped win over Crystal Palace looked too much like the failures Liverpool supporters had seen for years not to elicit groans despite the…
Book Review: The Premier League 25 Years by Lloyd Pettiford
One question that kept coming back to me as I read through Lloyd Pettiford's chronicling of the Premier League's opening quarter of a century was why do football fans find it so difficult to acknowledge how important the sport is to them? We get a constant barrage of stories of…
Case Study: Guingamp 0-3 Paris Saint-Germain 13/8/2017
Before the planet saw its first £100m player, it saw its first £200m one. Barcelona felt the sting of having one of their star players whisked away for a change, with Neymar's release clause activated to the tune of €222m. Factoring in wages, fees to his father and the money…
Case Study: Watford 3-3 Liverpool 12/8/2017
Fresh from Philippe Coutinho's transfer request and another disappointing summer in the transfer market despite gaining Champions League qualification, Liverpool looked like taking another two steps back after their one step forward in 2016/17. Nevertheless, they had the perfect opportunity to assuage fears on the pitch, with an opponent in…
Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle
Things were looking a bit confused in Newcastle in May 2016. As the club was relegated from the Premier League, Newcastle supporters appeared to be positive for the first time in years. Rather than the tears that usually greet relegation, the general view was that this was a temporary hiccup…
Premier League 2016/17 awards
After years in the wilderness, the Premier League appears to finally be on an upward swing. With a wave of world class managers arriving and those already in place settling in, the quality at the head of the table has greatly improved. Leicester City could come from nowhere to become…