Soccer

EEE & MMM – The Season’s Over

20 Comments

The 2010-11 Premier League season is over. So this will be the last EEE until the transfer window opens in July. From here on out, MLS all the way

Relevant EPL Results

  • Fulham 2 - 2 Arsenal
  • Aston Villa 1 - 1 Liverpool
  • Everton 1 - 0 Chelsea
  • Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 1 Birmingham
  • Sunderland 3 - 0 West Ham United
  • Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 - 3 Blackburn Rovers

Relevant EPL Table

Position Club Games
Played		 Points GD
2. Chelsea 38 71 +36
5. Spurs 38 62 +9
7. Everton 38 54 +6
8. Fulham 38 49 +6
9. Aston Villa 38 48 -11
10. Sunderland 37 47 -11
17. Wolves 38 40 -20

Relegation Table

Position Club Games
Played		 Points GD
15. Blackburn Rovers 38 43 -13
16. Wigan 38 42 -21
17. Wolves 38 40 -20
18. Birmingham 38 39 -21
19. Blackpool 38 39 -23
20. West Ham 38 33 -27
  • Birmingham and Blackpool will join West Ham in the Championship next year (as astutely predicted by Daneek's Ghost). Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, and the winner of Reading-Swansea City will be promoted to the EPL.
  • Birmingham will still be in the Europa League thanks to their Carling Cup win, even though they have been promoted
  • Chelsea have fired Ancelotti. Because switching managers every year or so has worked so well for them up to this point.
  • Wolves lost and still managed to stay up thanks to Spurs and ManUtd beating Birmingham and Blackpool, respectively.
  • Fulham's Fair Play spot into the Europa League is in doubt thanks to a yellow and their first red card of the season in yesterday's tie with Arsenal
  • Next in line for the Fair Play berth, should Fulham drop too far, would be none other than recently relegated Blackpool.  Having Birmingham and Blackpool both in the Europa League could seriously mess with England's quality coefficient, which is used in determining the number of spots each country gets in European play.

Relevant MLS Results

  • Vancouver 1 - 1 Toronto
  • Chicago 1 - 2 Philadelphia
  • Seattle 1 - 0 Kansas City
  • Columbus 0 - 1 Portland

20 thoughts on “EEE & MMM – The Season’s Over”

  1. Top half of the table and ahead of Newcastle. I'll take it. I hope it's an interesting offseason for the Black Cats, I'm not sure they can compete with the team they have now.

  3. If Spurs hadn't done so terribly against lower table teams, they could have been in the Champions League in the fall.

    15. Blackburn 6/6
    16. Wigan 1/6
    17. Wolves 4/6
    18. Birmingham 4/6
    19. Blackpool 1/6
    20. West Ham 1/6

    19 points dropped right there. I blame Bill Smith and Joe Mauer for this.

  4. For all the idiocy in MLB and the NFL re: firing management, soccer takes the cake. "You were the second best team in the best league in the world. This is a disgrace."

    Ancelotti, we hardly knew ye.

    1. I'd give Chelsea a bit more credit than that. EPL isn't the best league in the world--UEFA Champions' League is the best league in the world. In the same way that American coaches for not taking their teams far enough in the playoffs, EPL coaches can get fired for not getting far enough in the playoffs.

      Also, I don't really know the particulars of the situation, but sometimes a coach is fired more because he clashes with his superiors than because the on-field performance hasn't been good enough.

      1. I obviously can't speak to the particulars of the situation either, but the news stories I read suggested that it was solely because Chelsea didn't win a title. Though, of course, when clashes with superiors are involved, those situations often don't play out in public.

        I just can't stomach that they let a coach go because he didn't finish ahead of a team that's now won twelve of nineteen titles since the EPL became structured in its current state.

        1. Letting a coach go just because he doesn't beat a juggernaut would be poor reasoning, for sure. I wonder if in soccer it's more tempting to switch coaches because there's such a huge pool of them out there. It's always seemed a bit odd to me that in the NBA, teams fire coaches like they turn out the lights at night, but at the same time, it seems as though there haven't been more than 40 distinct coaches in the league over the last 8-10 years.

          1. I think it's tempting to fire them because, especially in the Premier League, the manager is responsible directly for personnel decisions. Thus, when things go wrong, the manager gets the brunt of the blame.

      2. There's a difference between getting rid of a coach who's had a chance to win and axing a guy who doesn't win "now". Chelsea tends towards the latter.

        Managers since June 2003 (Abramovich buys the club)
        Claudio Ranieri (2000-2004) 4 Seasons (1 under Abramovich ): FA Cup & Premier League Runners-up
        Jose Mourinho (2004-2007) 3 Seasons - Carling Cup x 2, FA Cup, League Title x2, League Runners-up, Community Shield, Community Shield Runner-up x2
        Avram Grant (2007-2008) 1 Season - Carling Cup Runners-up, League Runners up, Champions League Runners-up
        Big Phil Scolari (2008-2009) <1 Season - Fired after 36 games in all competitions
        Ray Wilkins (Interim) (2009) 1 Game
        Guus Hiddink (Interim) (2009-2009) <1 Season (Finished Scolari's year) - FA Cup
        Carlo Ancelotti (2009-2011) 2 Seasons - Community Shield, Community Shield Runners-up, FA Cup, League Title, League Runners-up

        These are some of the best managers in the world (Grant excepted). They've all brought a level of success to Chelsea the club's not had before. The only thing they've not done is won the Champions League. The CL Championship is Abramovich's white whale, and he's going through managers like Henry VIII through wives to get it (to mix some metaphors)

        1. I'm just saying that I think you could find teams in the US who do the same thing. Obviously there are a lot of teams who keep managers for consistently making the playoffs (Twins, Braves, etc.), but there are also impatient teams who judge success only by championship rings.

          1. I generally think 3 years is a good length of time for a coach to be able to get the players he wants in on transfer and set up his system/style of play. Mourinho got his 3 years, didn't achieve the goal set for him, and was dismissed. None of the other coaches have had that chance, Ancelotti coming the closest. In 8 seasons under Abramovich, Chelsea have had 7 managers (not counting Wilkins 1 game [FA Cup 5th rounder v. Watford] while Hiddink's contract was arranged).

  5. US Gold Cup roster announced.

    GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard (Everton, England), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolves, England).

    DEFENDERS: Oguchi Onyewu (Twente, Netherlands), Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne, France), Steve Cherundolo (Hanover, Germany), Eric Lichaj (Leeds, England), Clarence Goodson (Brondby, Denmark), Jonathan Bornstein (Tigres, Mexico), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls).

    MIDFIELDERS: Michael Bradley (Aston Villa, England), Maurice Edu (Rangers, Scotland), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Freddy Adu (Rizespor, Turkey), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Benny Feilhaber (New England Revolution), Jermaine Jones (Blackburn, England), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht, Belgium).

    FORWARDS: Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Jozy Altidore (Bursaspor, Turkey), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes).

    Apparently Chandler is too run down from the season for this tournament, which is a shame, because I think he'd help the team out a lot. The bold players were slight surprises to me, or players I thought might be on the bubble. Apparently Rimando will stay with RSL unless Howard or Hahnemann is injured and the US needs Rimando in the 18.

    1. I was a little surprised at first when I didn't see Chandler, but I hadn't seen that it was exhaustion. I was really hoping he hadn't fallen out of favor with Bradley the Elder that quickly.

      Wondo lead the league in goals last year, and it near the top currently (5 goals, Landon with 7 for best). He only has one cap (earlier this year v. Chile), but hopefully he can translate his MLS success to the national team.

      I'm not particuarly jazzed about Adu or Feilhaber.

      1. It seems like if you're going to put an MLS player who isn't generally a USMNT regular, the Gold Cup is the tournament to do it. Most teams have essentially MLS-caliber talent, with the obvious exception of Mexico. Jamaica could nearly fill half its roster with MLS players.

        I'm not terribly thrilled about Adu, but I think he's more in camp for Bradley to evaluate than anything else. I'm actually more intrigued by Adu than Rogers. I really wish Holden was healthy, I think we'll miss him. Worried about Gooch in the back line, but not totally convinced by Omar Gonzalez this season.

    2. Jonathan Bornstein is the _elm_n of US soccer. Nobody doubts he has a pulse.

  6. I missed the game as it happened, but seriously, ubes? the 93rd minute to deny KC that point?

    Also, that result was all that kept me from going a perfect 6-0 on Sat. in the Avoiding the Drop MLS pick-'em (I had picked a draw). Double heartbreak.

    1. I'd say I'm sorry, but the Sounders have high hopes and after the draw with Portland last week, the fans were hungry for three points. I still maintain that KC is a decent side which has had a brutal schedule and some bad luck. I was really dreading all of the hand-wringing that would be associated with drawing at home to a team with 4 points. (Even though I feel that misrepresents the situation.) I think on Saturday, all the home teams won, except the Galaxy, who were playing Chivas USA in the Hope Depot Center, and Houston, which tied a good NYRB team.

      For your sake, I'll hope that SKC is a good warm-weather team, since they have about two straight months of home games in Kansas City from mid-July to mid-September. Livestrong Sporting Park might soon come to be known as the Sweatbox.

      Now the Sounders have FC Dallas on Wednesday (at home) and are away in Salt Lake on Saturday. With those two games on deck, I was awfully happy with the three points.

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