2014-2015 English Premier League Season Preview

Breathe in and out… we are only two days away from the start of the EPL season.  Sigh.  Wow, it feels like the league never went away.  That was the quickest 97 days I can ever remember.  I feel like we’ve spent most of our summer hanging out with our favorite players.  From the World Cup to the International Champions Cup, we were never far apart from the ones we love the most.  Now it’s time to begin another long roller coaster of a season and it’s time to start making what will inevitably be, wrong predictions about the EPL.  Who will win the league? Who else will finish in the top 4? Who’s gonna be relegated? Who will score the most goals?  These and a few other questions I attempt to answer below.  Full disclosure, I will probably get every one of these questions wrong, but that’s exactly why I love this league.  So here I go.

Champions: Chelsea

Of all the EPL teams, I have to be the most impressed with what Chelsea did during the Summer transfer period.  With the additions of a couple of Spaniards, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa (well, kinda a Spaniard, but mostly a Brazilian), as well as Filipe Luis, Thibaut Courtois (who was on loan with Atletico Madrid) and the return of Didier Drogba, Chelsea look ready to take down the Premier League in Jose Mourinho’s second season of his second stint with the club.  Hmm, a title in Mourinho’s second year, if that sounds familiar, that’s because he’s done that before, a few times.  Back in 2006 Mourinho led Chelsea to the EPL title in his second season with the club (well, he also did it in his first season too).   Then in 2010 in his second season with Inter, he led them to the Serie A title in Italy.   Finally, in 2012, now in his second season with Real Madrid, his team finished atop the La Liga table.  The special one has figured out how to win championships during his second year with the club.  Chelsea appears to have got the right group of players (they finally have a striker better than Fernando Torres!) to allow Mourinho to put out a starting 11 that on paper, looks better than the rest of the league.

Runners-up:  Arsenal

Possibly the biggest news of the summer was that Arsene Wenger spent some money.  I mean, there’s a first time for everything.  The most notable signing of the off season was Alexis Sanchez who never seemed to be used to his full potential while with Barcelona.   Along with the transfer of Sanchez, Arsenal added a couple of defenders – French international Mathieu Debuchy and the young Calum Chambers who came over as part of the Southampton fire sale.  The biggest question as to whether or not Arsenal can contend for a position at the top of the league will be their health.  They have been injury plagued during the past several seasons, but if Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Jack Wilshire can all stay healthy and contribute, Arsenal looks to be very talented and for the first time in a while, quite deep on the bench as well.  This goes without mentioning their returning players like Oliver Giroud, Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Mesut Ozil and others who led Arsenal last season to another top 4 finish.   Arsenal was great last season against the bottom teams in the league but really super extremely awful against  the other top 4 teams.  I think they will be much more competitive against the top teams this year and will prove that they belong near the top of the table.

Third place: Manchester City

This 2014-2015 City team will look almost identical to the team which won the title last season.  Thanks to the slap on the wrist they got from the Financial Fair Play rules, they have not been amongst the big spenders this off-season.  So the question is, is this a good or a bad thing the Cityzens?  Here’s how I look at it.  City won the title last season by only 2 points and was not sitting on top of the league table until the penultimate weekend of the season.  By no means did City run away with the title last season.  So while the other teams around them got better, City remained the same.  One of the biggest questions for me will be the fitness and quality of play from Kun Aguero.  He was injured off and on last season as well as during the World Cup.  And when he did play for Argentina, particularly in the final, he did not look like himself and it was clear he was struggling to run down the passes played for him on the wings.  Yes City have other Strikers including Dzeko and a healthy Jovetic as well as one of the league’s most powerful midfielders in Yaya Toure, but I think they will struggle to defend their title if Aguero is not able to run past and get in behind opposing defenses with the constant threat of putting the ball in the back of the net.

Fourth Place: Liverpool

I think the final Champions League spot will be a toss-up between the two Merseyside teams, Spurs and Manchester United.  But even without Luis Suarez, I am giving the edge to Liverpool.  Last season we were all introduced to the talents of Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert from Southampton.  Unless you were paying close attention to the middle-of-the-pack Saints the previous season, you probably failed to notice these two emerging talents until Southampton suddenly made a run for the top of the EPL table during the first few months of last year’s campaign.  Now Lambert and Lallana as well as Dejan Lovren (along with pretty much everyone else at Southampton) has left Saint Mary’s and these three have found a new home at Anfield.   Liverpool played without Suarez to start last season as he was… wait for it… serving a suspension for biting someone (one year later, not much has changed) and only lost one match (ironically to Southamption) during Suarez’s absence.  The biggest surprise of last season was not that Suarez led the league in goals, but it was the emergence of some bright young stars like Jon Flanagan, Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling.  Liverpool still has the second piece of their strike force, Daniel Sturridge, who will now be paired with Lambert, who scored 28 league goals in the past two seasons.  No Lambert cannot replace Suarez, which is why I think Liverpool take a step back from last season, but I still think Brendan Rodgers will put a very competitive team on the pitch each week, ready to compete with the rest of the title contenders.

Fifth Place: Manchester United

Sixth Place: Tottenham Hotspurs

Seventh Place: Everton

Eighth – Seventeenth place: Who knows

Relegation (18^th, 19^th and 20^th place): QPR, West Bromich Albion and Burnley

Biggest Surprise Team of the season: Leicester City
Top Goal Scorer: Diego Costa

Player of the year: Jack Wilshere

Young player of the year: Raheem Sterling

Who’s this guy? I’ve never heard of him before: Bruno Zucculini
Best new kit: Queens Park Rangers
Worst new kit: Arsenal (only because they're made by Puma - TIGHT)
(I know its not an EPL team, but I have to mention how awful Real Madrid's away and third kits are this season, almost Liverpool bad from 2013)

Most likely to become my wife’s new crush: Aaron Ramsey

There you have it.  I hope you all enjoy the first weekend of the EPL season. My only advice, don’t jump to any conclusions after one weekend.  Don’t forget, this is a marathon and not a sprint and in this season where there are 4 or 5 or 6 legitimate title contenders, we may not know until May 2015 which team will be lifting the trophy above their heads when it’s all said and done.

Time to Choose Your EPL Club

So you enjoyed the 2014 World Cup.  So did I.  And now you find yourself asking yourself or others, “How do I get more of this thing called soccer?  I don’t want to wait 4 more years until the next World Cup.”  Well I have great news for you, you don’t have to wait.  Soccer is available on your TV right now.  You can start enjoying some great MLS action immediately.  But what if you want to follow some of the big names that you watched in this summer’s World Cup, how can you follow those players?  Well lucky you, the world’s most popular and exciting leagues are all about to start in just a few weeks, with the English Premier League kicking off in just 2 weeks (August 16).

Now the EPL does not contain some of the big names that you fell in love with during the World Cup, players like Messi, James (Ha-mez, don’t call him James) Rodriguez, Neymar, and just about the entire German squad (they pretty much all play for the same team, Bayern Munich).  But the EPL does have one thing that the other European leagues don’t have… a major TV deal in the US.  If you wanna watch La Liga, you can only watch one or two games a week on Bein Sport.  If you’re interested in following many of the World Cup champs, you have to try and watch Bayern and the other Budesliga teams on GOL TV.  But if you want to watch the EPL, you can watch every single match, either on TV or streaming online with NBC Sports Network.

So let’s talk about the EPL.  For many Americans, thanks to the success of the World Cup, this may be the first season they watch England’s top league.  Being a first time viewer, you have two options, you can either enjoy the games and watch them without any rooting interest or you can pick a team and follow them during the 9 month roller coaster that is the world’s most exciting sports league.  I personally think that all sports are much more exciting when you have a horse in the race.  I love March Madness and will watch every single game, but those games lose a lot of their allure once my team has been defeated.  The same applies for all other sports I follow. 

So now that I’ve convinced you to pick a favorite EPL team, the questions comes, how do you decide?  The great thing about becoming a fan of any of the European soccer leagues is that you can pick which team you want to support.  It’s like reading a choose-your-own-adventure novel.  You are not held down by any restrictions like home-town loyalty or family traditions.  So now that you can control your own destiny, let me help you pick which team you should cheer for by asking you a few simple questions.  Answer them honestly and by the end, you should be ready to select your newly beloved English Premier League team.

1)      Have any of your favorite American sports teams won a title in the past 5 years?

If you answer yes to this question, you are banned from selecting any of the big 4 clubs, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea or Arsenal.  If you know what it feels like to win a championship, you need to know what it feels like to cheer for a team that is not winning or at least contending each year. 

The opposite of this applies to those of you who have not experienced a championship recently.  If you don’t remember what it feels like to win a title, maybe you should go for one of these teams.

2)      Do you like an underdog story, but you also like winning more than you like losing?

Many people say they like to cheer for an underdog, but when it comes down to it, they at least want to be competitive in every game they play and don’t want to be cheering for a losing team.  If you are one of these people, then you should consider Tottenham Hotspurs or Everton. 

3)      Do you like the way the NFL is set up where your team only plays once a week, or do you prefer the other leagues (NBA, MLB and NHL) where teams play more than once?

If you like watching your team more than once a week, then you probably want to pick a team that is either playing in the Champions League (City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal) or the Europa League (Spurs and Everton).  Most of these teams also have a good chance of making it far in the domestic cups (Capital One Cup and FA Cup).  I’ll also add United into this group of teams because even though they will not be in any of the European tournaments this season, they’ll be back soon.   But if you like the NFL model and only wanna watch one match a week, then pick one of the other teams.

4)      Do you hate the Red Sox and/or the Yankees?

If you do, then you don’t wanna cheer for Liverpool (owned by the Red Sox ownership group) or Manchester City (business partners with the Yankees).

5)      Did you fall in love with Argentina’s stripe jerseys at the World Cup or did you like the classic solid color jersey?

Argentina was the only team sporting a striped shirt and it truly made them stand out.  If you found yourself cheering for the one team with a striped kit, then you should think about supporting one of the striped EPL teams.  You have a few more choices in the EPL including Stoke City, Southampton, Sunderland, Hull City (aka Hull Tigers), Crystal Palace, West Bromich Albion, Newcastle United, and Queens Park Rangers (horizontal stripes).  So if you like the stripes, now you just need to pick which color combination you like best, if you don’t like strips, then pick one of the many solid color kits.

6)      Are you a true American at heart and want to cheer for an American player in England?

Sadly, at the current moment, you don’t have a lot of US players to choose from in the EPL, but you do have a few.  Center-back Geoff Cameron (yeah the one who gave up the opening goal against Portugal) plays for Stoke City.  Goal keeper extraordinaire Tim Howard (who you fell in love with in the Belguim match) plays for Everton.  Current second string US goal keeper (and likely the starter in the 2018 World Cup), Brad Guzan plays for AstonVilla.  Striker Jozy Altidore (the one who played 20 minutes against Ghana before pulling his hamstring) plays for Sunderland.  And I can’t fail to mention Brad Friedel, the grandpa of the group, is one of the backup keepers for Tottenham.  Additionally, Captain America, Clint Dempsey, played for Fullham (no longer in the top division) and Tottenham before making his move to Seattle.  And finally, Landon Donovan had two loan spells with Everton during his time with the LA Galaxy.

7)      Do you legitimately want to cheer for an underdog, even at the risk of watching your team get relegated to the lower division?

If you are brave enough to sit through a season that may end with your team dropping out of the Premier League and playing in the Championship next season, then you should pick one of the cellar dwellers of the league.  Now I must say that some years the relegation battle at the bottom of the table is much more interesting than the title race at the top.  Some seasons one team will run away with the title with several weeks remaining, but there may still be a fight to keep your head above water and not be drowned out of the bottom of the league.  So if you’re man enough to endure a season of mostly losses and draws, maybe one of these teams is right for you: West Bromich Albion, Hull City, Aston Villa, Sunderland, West Ham United, Swansea City, Queens Park Rangers, Leicester City, Burnley and Crystal Palace.

8)      Do you like bubbles?

Well, then this one’s easy, pick West Ham United.

9)      Do you drive a Chevy?

If you do, or if you are a supporter of American automobiles, then you might consider picking Manchester United, who now sports an oversized Chevy logo on their kits.

10)   Are you an accountant and/or do your personal finances using Quick Books?

What goes better together than Accounting and Soccer? West Brom is the team for you.

11)   Do you like to hang motivational phrases on the walls of your home?

If your walls are covered with phrases like “Home is where the heart is” or “Families are Forever” then maybe it’s time you add one more inspirational phrase to your walls, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – the team slogan of Liverpool. 

12)   Do you have some sort of connection to Wales instead of England?

The EPL does include teams from the country of Wales as well as England, but this season, there is only one team from Wales in the league, Swansea City.

13)   My final question… Do you know how to use the internet and can you read?

If you are reading this article online, which I can only assume you are, then you both know how to use the internet and how to read.  My final suggestion to you, go and research some of the clubs you’re considering.  Learn a little bit about their history and see if you can find a team that connects to you.  Hopefully your experience of choosing an EPL club is similar to the sorting hat of Harry Potter, you will not pick the team, but the team will pick you.

So choose wisely, because like one of greatest supporters of Soccer in America, Roger Bennett has said, “You can change your partner, you can change your underwear, but you can never, ever change your football team.”  

So enjoy the 2014 - 2015 EPL and best of luck to you and your new favorite club.