Previewing the 2011-12 English Premier League season

By Robert Lawson, International Sports Reporter



(Ed. note: What's past is prologue, as the good bard said. For Robert's recap of the 2010-11 season, see here. As for his preview, it's tough not to see Arsenal near the top, as I've been a life-long Gunners supporter, but, then, I suspect he's right that they'll prove to be something of a disappointment this year, not least because they're just now retooling for the post-Fabregas era. -- MJWS) 



Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. With the exception of matches cancelled in the aftermath of riots that spread throughout England over the last week, the 2011-12 English Premier League is set to begin on Saturday and, though it pains me severely to admit it, it is a near certainty that Manchester United will be champions once again. 



Manchester United to Repeat as Champions

Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, and Paul Scholes have retired, and Wes Brown and John O'Shea, deemed surplus to requirements, were sold on to Sunderland, but United surely look even better coming into this season. Ashley Young will provide added depth on the wing and youngsters such as Tom Cleverly (who looked terrific in the second half of last weekend's Community Shield) and Danny Welbeck could force their way into the reckoning for places. The possibility of adding Wesley Sneijder into an attack that already includes the likes of Rooney, Berbatov, Nani, Young, and Javier Hernandez is a terrifying prospect for any back line in England.

The only possible concern for Sir Alex Ferguson is the distraction of winning in Europe but, truthfully, it's never been much of a bother before and it won't be now. Indeed, I fully expect United to make it to the semi-finals of the Champions League, at least, while coasting their way to a twentieth English title. 



Champions League Places

To be sure, Manchester City are building a squad capable of challenging their local rivals for the title. After picking up the F.A. Cup and finally qualifying for the Champions League with a third place finish last season, City went out and bought Sergio Agüero from Atlético Madrid for £38m and Gaël Clichy from Arsenal for £7m to strengthen an already formidable squad. While the future of want-away Argentine Carlos Tevez remains uncertain, it is hard to imagine Roberto Mancini not getting City into second place this season. But there's still some distance to go before they're champions.

Chelsea should finally see some return on the investment made last season in Fernando Torres. The hiring of former Porto boss André Villas-Boas is an unusually smart managerial decision by owner Roman Abramovich but this is for all intents and purposes the same team from last year. While I would expect Villas-Boas to extract more from this squad than Carlo Ancelotti did, third seems the limit and the likely destination.

Liverpool owner John W. Henry has sanctioned a massive outlay on players since Kenny Dalglish was appointed manager mid-way through last season with the expectation that it will result in a return to the Champions League this season. Fortunately for him and Liverpool's increasingly anxious supporters, I think King Kenny has done enough to satisfy the yearning at Anfield to be back among the top four. Adding Luis Suárez (recently named player of the tournament at the Copa América) and Andy Carroll in the January transfer window and then Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson this summer into a midfield already bursting at the seams with Raul Meireles, Lucas Leiva, Alberto Aquilani, Maxi Rodriguez, Jay Spearing, and Steven Gerrard (still recovering from injury) is not enough to propel Liverpool into genuine contention for the title but it should see them to a reasonably comfortable fourth place finish. The back four has been a glaring weakness but adding left back José Enrique from Newcastle will help considerably. For what it's worth, Liverpool's competition this year will be much weakened Arsenal and Spurs, not the likes of United, City, and Chelsea. 



The Comfortable Middle



Spurs look to continue their drift out of the "big four" this season having brought in no new players. Indeed, manager Harry Redknapp is likely to spend most of his time and effort this season coddling want-away midfielder Luka Modric, whose head has been turned by neighbours Chelsea, and warding off would-be suitors from around Europe for Gareth Bale.

There seems to be no signs of Arsenal's dreadful finish in the second half of last season abating anytime soon. With Clichy already out the door, Niklas Bendtner half-way out and players already resigned to losing two of the club's best players, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, the prospects of improvement seem grim. The signing of highly touted 17-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Southampton may help down the road but seems unlikely to yield immediate dividends.

After the top six the quality in the English top flight drops off markedly. The likes of Everton and Aston Villa have once again failed to make the necessary investments to improve their squads.



Everton have once again merely consolidated but Villa's loss of Downing and Young, in particular, will limit the effectiveness of striker Darren Bent. Indeed, Villa seems headed for another frustrating season where goals are hard to come by. The purchase of Charles N'Zogbia from Wigan will help but it's difficult to imagine anything but a mid-table slog this season.

Sunderland, Fulham Stoke, and Bolton will once again provide a few hiccups for the Premier League's big boys but appear no closer to moving beyond their comfortably established mid-table status. 



The Relegation Candidates



Blackburn, Wigan, Newcastle, Wolves, and all three of the Premiership's promoted clubs (Queens Park Rangers (QPR), Norwich, and Swansea) will vie for survival this season.



Newcastle looks set to plummet into the relegation zone with a mass exodus of players over the last six months. Manager Alan Pardew has already lost Andy Carroll, captain Kevin Nolan, and José Enrique, and now has to figure out whether he can keep Joey Barton around. One wonders what he'll have left to work with when the season begins on Saturday.



Blackburn and Wigan, in particular, appear to be sinking like a stone and I could easily see one, if not both, relegated.



Wigan survived by the skin of their teeth last season but I can't fathom manager Roberto Martínez achieving the same outcome this time without N'Zogbia around any longer.



Blackburn are a total shambles on and off the pitch and survival for another season looks impossible to me.



All three promoted clubs have done little to nothing to improve the sides that got them out of the Championship (second division). Fortunately for them, with Blackburn and Wigan looking so abject in comparison, there's a golden opportunity for two of these clubs to avoid the immediate dispatch back down.



In the end, I think it will be Blackburn, Wigan, and Swansea relegated to the Championship when all is said and done. 



Summary of Predictions 



Champions: Manchester United.



Champions League: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool.



Relegation: Blackburn, Wigan, and Swansea.



F.A. Cup: Liverpool



League Cup: Manchester City



First Sacking: Steve Kean (Blackburn)



********** 



Photo 1: Wayne Rooney et al. celebrate for Manchester United. 



Photo 2: Manchester rivals Nemanja Vidić (United) and Mario Balotelli (City).

Photo 3: Three new Liverpool players -- Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson, and Stewart Downing.

Photo 4: A displeased Arsène Wenger, Arsenal's manager.



Photo 5: Luka Modrić and Gareth Bale in happier times at Spurs.

Recapping the 2010-11 English Premier League season

By Robert Lawson, International Sports Reporter

Ed. note: As I noted in my introduction to Robert's introductory post last week, we'll be doing a bit more sports here at The Reaction -- some baseball and football in particular, but also international sports. (But without losing our focus on U.S. politics, which will only get more intense as we enter the crazy primary season this fall, with the votes in Iowa and New Hampshire soon upon us in the new year.)

Well, Robert knows his international sports, and here's his recap of the 2010-11 English Premier League season. His preview of the 2011-12 season, which starts on Saturday, will appear over the next few days. Stay tuned for that -- and then for posts throughout the season. I'm sure you'll like his stuff, on "football" and on so much else.

-- MJWS 

********** 

English football fans rejoice! In my first full post as International Sports Reporter, I'm going to recap last year's English Premier League season. This will help set the stage for my preview of the upcoming 2011-12 Premiership set to begin this weekend.

Last season, much to the chagrin of Liverpool supporters, Manchester United finally fulfilled Sir Alex Ferguson's long-standing vow to "[knock] Liverpool right off their fucking perch" by winning their nineteenth league title (Liverpool have won eighteen). Fortunately for the red half of Merseyside, United weren't able to move closer to the club's English record five European Cups, having lost in the Champions League final at Wembley to Barcelona in May (leaving them stuck on three).  

After a few years of exorbitant spending by Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi United Group, Manchester City finally won a trophy (the F.A. Cup) and qualified for the Champions League, a benchmark that even the richest clubs must meet to attract the world's top players. Although talisman Carlos Tevez appears to be no longer willing to stomach another season in Manchester away from his family in Argentina, the Sheikh's seemingly bottomless bank vaults should ensure City's quest for the title will continue.

Much to the satisfaction of those of us who've grown weary of the English media's incessant fawning over Arsene Wenger's commitment to developing players from within and his insistence on playing "beautiful" football at all costs, Arsenal's continued to win nothing. Trophy-less though they may be, the Gunners did secure a Champions League place again (albeit in the play-off round), so I suppose that's some solace for the supporters.

Meanwhile, 2009-10 champions Chelsea, despite buying Fernando Torres for £50 million from Liverpool in January, surprisingly failed to win a trophy for the first time since 2007-08, though they, too, secured a Champions League place with a second-place finish.

Tottenham's time in the Champions League places proved ephemeral, though Spurs did manage to pip Liverpool for a spot in this year's Europa League competition. Last-minute addition Rafael van der Vaart, bought for £8 million at the end of the 2010 summer transfer window, was an immediate success and seems to have resurrected his once-promising career at White Hart Lane. (I suppose these two sentences point in the direction of an imminent departure.)

As for the club close to my heart, Liverpool withstood a tumult of turmoil over the course of the first half of the season (during which they were, at times, barely above the relegation zone) and managed to finish sixth. While perhaps disappointed with the lack of a European place and the mid-season departure of Torres, the second half of the season offered ample evidence for supporters to feel optimistic going forward. Off the pitch, the club's longstanding ownership difficulties were finally settled with the purchase of the club by Fenway Sports Group, led by Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry. On the pitch, legendary player/manager "King" Kenny Dalglish returned to manage the club after Roy Hodgson was sacked in early January and forwards Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll were brought in to fill the void left by Torres. (Suarez, in particular, was one of the best players in England over the last half of the season.)

Fellow Merseysiders Everton once again managed to be a thorn in the side of many top clubs yet still failed to find their way out of the mid-table mire, finishing seventh. As difficult as it is to admit for a Liverpool supporter, David Moyes has done an outstanding job during his tenure as manager of the self-proclaimed "People's Club" given the paltry level of investment in the squad. One does wonder though how much longer he's willing to put up with the empty pockets routine before he gets fed up and chases a bigger opportunity.

Fellow mid-tablers Aston Villa finished... you guessed it, mid-table (ninth). They did break the bank though for striker Darren Bent from Sunderland with a successful £18 million bid in January. Bent scored nine goals during the second half of the season with Villa but it's hard to imagine him continuing that torrid pace now that he won't have Ashley Young or Stewart Downing putting balls into the box for him any longer.

2009-10 Football League Championship (second division) winners Newcastle and runners-up West Bromwich Albion both managed to stay up despite sacking managers mid-season, finishing twelfth and eleventh respectively.

Birmingham City followed up the euphoria of a League Cup win at Wembley in February with the ignominy of relegation in April. Joining the Brummies in the Championship this year will be Blackpool and West Ham.

Down in the The Championship, Queens Park Rangers and Norwich both won automatic promotion to the Premier League while Swansea returned to English football's top flight for the first time since 1983 with a play-off victory over Reading at Wembley. The Swans will be the first Welsh club to play in the Premier League since it was formed in 1992.

Will any of the Premier League's new clubs avoid the drop this season? Will Manchester United repeat as champions? Will Liverpool make it back into the top four? Will Arsene Wenger finally have to admit that Arsenal are failing not because of unfair refereeing but because they're simply not good enough? Will Everton win a match before Christmas? Will Newcastle have any players when the season starts? I'll let you know what I think later this week.

Introducing our new... International Sports Reporter!

By Robert Lawson, International Sports Reporter

Ed. note: As you may have noticed, we've been blogging a bit more than usual about sports recently. While I have no intention of shifting our focus away from U.S. politics, I think it's good to branch out and cover other topics well beyond the world of politics -- art, music, film, television, philosophy, etc. And that includes sports -- because, well, many of here are serious sports fans. In the coming weeks, Richard and I will be starting up a weekly football post on Sunday mornings, complete with our picks. As well, we'll continue to write every now and again about baseball, hockey, and whatever else gets us going.

I'm pleased to introduce our new International Sports Reporter, Robert Lawson. He's a good friend of mine and I can think of no one better to cover the world of soccer (he'll call it football -- just humour him), hockey, rugby, and so on. The guy knows his sports. If you're already a fan, I think you'll really like his engaging takes on the English Premiership, and on whatever else he decides to cover. If not, I encourage you to give him a chance. He's a great writer, and I'm sure you'll find his posts entertaining. 

(And if you're an audiophile, audio tech nerd, or vinyl enthusiast, or some combination thereof, or if you just love great music, check out his blog Analogue Adventures.)

With that, let me turn it over to Robert for his introductory post...

-- MJWS

**********

Hello, everyone. I'm happy to introduce myself to you as the new International Sports Reporter here at The Reaction.

In the main, I'll be writing (well, ranting in prose, to be precise) here about the beautiful game. While my focus will be English football, I'll also keep tabs on some of the other top European leagues (especially Spain, Italy, and Germany) and club competitions (Champions League and Europa League). With Euro 2012 on the horizon and the early stages of World Cup qualifying set to begin here in North America, I also intend to write a bit about international football.

In addition to the football, there will be a few posts here and there about rugby (union), cricket, and many other types of sport typically overlooked, ignored, and even ridiculed in this part of the world.

That said, I'll admit my bias right away. My primary interest is and will be the English Premier League.

This is, in large part, a product of Scouse heritage. I'm an ardent supporter of Liverpool with little time for Everton, little love for Manchester United, and unyielding fealty to King Kenny Dalglish. Indeed, I've been following Liverpool and English top flight football since the late-1980s, when I used to wake up early every Saturday morning to watch Soccer Saturday on TSN (Canada's main sports network) with Graham Leggat. I've also been to Anfield on multiple occasions.

For what it's worth, I typically spend the entirety of Saturday and Sunday morning watching matches. Much to our good fortune up here in Canada, we get at least six matches a week on TV and often more. And I do try to keep up with the football news at The Guardian, the BBC, Sky Sports, and ESPN Soccernet, among others, during the week. In other words, I'm keenly aware of what's happening each week in English football.

With that said, I hope you enjoy my contributions here a The Reaction and I look forward to your contributions in the comments section.

Keep your eyes peeled for my next two posts: a recap of the 2010-11 Premiership and a preview of the 2011-12 season, set to begin on Saturday, August 13.

This day in history - July 31, 1981: A 42-day Major League Baseball strike ends

By Richard K. Barry

Now that the football lockout is over, I was just thinking about other memorable labor issues, past and present, in professional sports.

In fact, the 1981 baseball strike was the fifth work stoppage in Major League Baseball (MLB) since the 1972 baseball strike. The 1981 strike forced the cancellation of 713 games, which accounted for 38 percent of the MLB schedule.

And who could forget the 1994-95 baseball strike, which was the eighth stoppage in MLB history. This one was a 232-day strike, which lasted from August 12, 1994 to April 2, 1995, and led to the cancellation of between 931 and 948 games, including the entire 1994 postseason and World Series.

I was going to list all strikes and lockouts for MLB, the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL), but I counted 17 and just don't have the patience. If you're interested, you can find the info here.

And if you follow round ball you know that the NBA is currently in a lockout situation, which is now going into Day 28, and guess what else? The Collective Bargaining Agreements for MLB and the NHL expire on Dec. 11, 2011 and Sept. 15, 2012, respectively.

As I have said elsewhere, I don't begrudge players fighting for better deals, but, as a fan, I hate to see the games get damaged.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Reveries of football past and future: Thoughts on the Giants, the Steelers, and the return of the NFL

By Richard K. Barry and Michael J.W. Stickings 

RKB:

I was clicking around the channels yesterday afternoon and came upon an NFL Network segment about the New York Giants win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008.

In one of the more famous games in Super Bowl history, my beloved Giants, huge underdogs, beat the previously undefeated Patriots 17-14 -- but you probably knew that.

It will always be one of the most exciting days of my life.

It looks like the lockout is expected to end next week, which pleases me. I never really paid much attention to the relative merits of the positions of management vs. the players. On principle, I always side with the union and hope these guys can get as much out of their careers before the inevitable sixth concussion or blown knee sends them back home for good.

Referring to a long-forgotten sports strike of years past, some wag once said, "no one ever showed up to watch the owners play." Quite so.

But I do love my football, and watching the rehash of how the Giants beat the Pats reminded me how much.

For me, it's all about the cycle of life. My year doesn't begin on January 1st. It begins with that first kick-off of the first game of the regular season.

Yes, I'm a Giants fan. The first superstar for the team I recall was quarterback Y.A. Tittle. There's even a family story about me at about 5 years old being angry with my dad about something and, knowing that he was a big Giants fan too, blurting out, as if to sting him in some way, that "Y.A. Tittle's not very good, either, so there."

And even suffering through some really bad Giants' football in the 60s and 70s doesn't matter. I've loved it all.

It is an amazing thing that grown men and women can obsess about their favorite sports team and have a lousy day or week because their beloved franchise lost a game - not necessarily a big game, just a game. But, I'm one of those. My wife even knows that if the Giants lose she should offer sincere condolences as if something really bad happened.

Crazy, I know.

As I said, I'm glad the league looks like it's getting back to business. When the weather starts to turn, and the leaves along with it, with the fireplace raging in the living room and the game on the big screen television, I am a happy man.

Let's get to it.

**********

MJWS:

I was happy the Giants defeated the Patriots that day, but of course my focus is on my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. (The Giants? Whatever. I prefer to ignore them. As long as they beat the Cowboys, I'm fine.)

(Yes, that's Terry Bradshaw over there, their great QB of the '70s, one of my favourite players when I was a kid and fell in love with them.)

Now, it's been a rough stretch for the Steelers of late. Hines Ward -- arrested on a DUI. James Harrison -- saying some not-so-nice things about Commissioner Goodell and his own teammates. And, of course, Big Ben -- that whole saga last year. Not to mention Rashard Mendenhall's controversial tweets, though I'll still defend him.

But this is still the best and classiest franchise in the NFL, starting with the Rooney family, right on down through Coach Mike Tomlin and the players themselves. Ultimately, I trust they'll get their act together when it matters. Coming off a Super Bowl defeat earlier this year, I worry they'll collapse into mediocrity this year, as they have after recent Super Bowl victories, but, if they play up to their potential, they should compete for a playoff spot and could just make another run at the Super Bowl.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For now, I'm just happy the league -- owners, players -- seems to have come to its senses. There are billions of dollars to be made. Surely sacrifices can be made on both sides. Surely they can come to a deal that benefits everyone. And it looks like they have. This means we football fans can start focusing again on what we love. Well, we never didn't, but it's official again -- almost.

Honestly, what was I supposed to do without the Steelers? So much of my time, especially in the fall, is spent obsessing about them. And what was I supposed to do without fantasy football? I already have tickets for a game in Pittsburgh, and now I can look forward to that knowing it won't be cancelled. And, to me, there's nothing like going to Pittsburgh, a wonderful city with wonderful people, for a Steelers game. And I can also get my fantasy league going. That's serious business. I hardly wanted to face the emptiness of no season and -- gasp! -- no fantasy season.

So it's back. The NFL. Football. Football!!!!!

There is order to the universe again, a purpose.

Happiness indeed.

The Stanley Cup finals, the Vancouver Canucks, and hockey in Canada

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I grew up in Montreal and, as you might imagine (if you know anything about hockey), am a Habs fan, but when it comes to this year's Stanley Cup finals between Boston and Vancouver, the choice for me is clear. It's the Canucks all the way. Partly it's ABB -- Anyone But Boston. I despise the Bruins. But it would also be nice for a Canadian team to win the Cup. It hasn't happened since the Canadiens won for the 24th time in 1993.

As you may have heard, if you didn't see the game, Vancouver won the series opener 1-0 last night with the deciding goal scored late in the third period -- actually, with just 18.5 second left.

Actually, these are extremely good times for hockey in Canada. (And it's about time.) We won the men's and women's Olympic gold medals in Vancouver last year. We have the Canucks. And now we also have a new team, the Winnipeg somethings (Jets?), with the announcement just this week that the Atlanta Thrashers, struggling in a virtually non-existent hockey market, had been sold and would move to Manitoba.

The NHL's -- and specifically commissioner Gary Bettman's -- ridiculous expansion plan into non-hockey markets in the U.S., all to secure revenue (mostly from a TV deal) that hasn't come, has been, for the most part, an embarrassing failure. While some franchises have done fairly well, like Dallas, others have struggled badly, like Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville, and the two Florida teams. (To be fair, other franchises even in major markets have struggled as well, like the Islanders, on Long Island.)

Instead of trying to make it where hockey barely registers, it would be far better for the NHL to focus on traditional hockey markets with committed fan bases. Winnipeg is a start, but Quebec City should have a team again (the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche, just as the Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes) and the Toronto area, the most important hockey market in the world, should have a second team, either in Hamilton, a city roughly halfway between Toronto and Buffalo, or somewhere even closer to Toronto. We could certainly sustain both the Maple Leafs and another team.

Other than Toronto/Hamilton, these Canadian cities, like Winnipeg and Quebec City, may be smaller than Atlanta and Phoenix, but it's not the size of the city or metropolitan area, it's the commitment to hockey. And we have it. Oh, do we have it.

But back to the game...

I have one team and one team only: the Montreal Canadiens. I grew up with them, I idolized Lafleur and Robinson and Dryden and the rest of the players on those great teams of the '70s, and I was there with my dad, at the old Forum, when they won the Cup against the Rangers in 1979. We've won the Cup twice since then, but it's been a challenging time in recent years for the greatest, most glorious franchise in the history of hockey.

I don't always root for the Canadian teams next -- I also despise the Maple Leafs, for example, and I wouldn't always go for the Canadian team over the American -- but this year I really do hope we get the Cup back. Go Canucks!

(photo)