Pennant Fever

Arsenal remains on top of the English Premier League, but I still think Man City is the better team:

1.  Arsenal:  14-1-2 (44 points)

2.  Man City:  12-2-3 (39)

3.  Newcastle:  9-1-8 (35) (goal differential of 21)

4.  Man Utd:  11-4-2 (35) (goal differential of 7)

5.  Tottenham:  10-5-3 (33)

6.  Liverpool:  8-5-4 (28) (goal differential of 12)

7.  Fulham:  8-6-4 (28) (goal differential of 3)

Meanwhile, Celtic appears to have everything under control in Scotland:

1.  Celtic:  19-1-1 (58 points)

2.  Rangers:  14-2-4 (46)

3.  Hearts:  9-6-5 (32)

Pennant Fever

Here are the last five winners of the English Premier League:

2017-18:  Manchester City

2018-19:  Manchester City

2019-20:  Liverpool

2020-21:  Manchester City

2021-22:  Manchester City

I can remember when Man City hadn't won the title in 45 years, but that has changed.  They have become the Red Sox to Man Utd's Yankees.  But this year, City is facing some real competition.  As of today, the top of the table looks like this:

1.  Arsenal:  13-1-1 (40 points)

2.  Newcastle Utd:  9-1-6 (33)

3.  Manchester City:  10-2-2 (32)

4.  Tottenham Hotspur:  9-4-3 (30)

5.  Manchester Utd:  8-4-2 (26)

I think City still has to be favored, given the strength of their team, but Arsenal is playing very well so far.  Furthermore, Arsenal doesn't have to play in the Champions' League, because the Gunners didn't qualify last year.

Meanwhile, here are the last five winners of the UEFA Champions' League.  Notice that City's success in England has not translated into success in Europe:

2017-18:  Real Madrid (ESP)

2018-19:  Liverpool (ENG)

2019-20:  Bayern Munich (GER)

2020-21:  Chelsea (ENG)

2021-22:  Real Madrid (ESP)

Here are the matchups for this year's round of 16, which will start on Valentine's Day.  These will be two-leg matches between the eight group winners and the eight group runners up.  The group winners are listed first:

Manchester City (ENG) v. RB Leipzig (GER)

Benfica (POR) v. Club Brugge (BEL)

Real Madrid (ESP) v. Liverpool (ENG)

Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) v. AC Milan (ITA)

Napoli (ITA) v. Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)

Chelsea (ENG) v. Borussia Dortmund (GER)

Porto (POR) v. Inter Milan (ITA)

Bayern Munich (GER) v. Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

Liverpool was in the same group with Napoli.  Both teams went 5-1 in the group.  Liverpool beat Napoli 2-0 in Liverpool.  Napoli beat Liverpool 4-1 in Naples.  That means that in the head-to-head matchups, Napoli had a one-goal advantage.  As a result, Liverpool -- which reached the final in 2018, 2019, and 2022 -- is almost certainly going out in the round of 16.

Pennant Fever

Man City was eliminated from the Champions' League in heartbreaking fashion this week, giving up two goals in injury time -- and a third goal in extra time -- to crash out to Real Madrid after they had controlled that tie for 180 minutes.  But today, City moved much closer to defending its Premier League title.  Liverpool was held to a 1-all draw at home by Tottenham Hotspur, and then City went out and crushed Newcastle Utd 5-0 to scoop up all three points.  So with only three games left, City is now in a very strong position:

1.  Man City:  27-3-5 (86 points)

2.  Liverpool:  25-2-8 (83)

Of course, Liverpool can still win the F.A. Cup and the Champions' League.  But the Premier League appears to be slipping from the Reds' grip.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Celtic only needs one point from its last two games to capture the Scottish Premier League:

1.  Celtic:  28-3-5 (89 points)

2.  Rangers:  25-3-8 (83)

Pennant Fever

For the first time in years, we have a real pennant race in England.  Today Manchester City hosted Liverpool, and the two top teams in England played to a pulsating 2-2 tie.  So the top of the standings now looks like this:

1.  Man City:  23-3-5 (74 points)

2.  Liverpool:  22-2-7 (73)

3.  Chelsea:  18-4-8 (62)

4.  Tottenham:  18-10-3 (57)

5.  Arsenal:  17-10-3 (54)

Each of the contenders has seven games left.

Of course, Man City and Liverpool are both in the quarter-finals of the Champions' League.  The quarter-finals are two leg matches, with each quarter-finalist hosting one leg.  So far the first legs have been played, and the second legs will be played next week.  Right now the quarter-finals look like this (the team listed second will host the second leg):

Chelsea (ENG) 1 - 3 Real Madrid (ESP) (second leg on April 12)

Manchester City (ENG) 1 - 0 Atletico Madrid (ESP) (April 13)

Villareal (ESP) 1 - 0 Bayern Munich (GER) (April 12)

Benfica (POR) 1 - 3 Liverpool (ENG) (April 13)

It seems very likely that Liverpool and Real Madrid will both advance, but the other two matches appear to be up for grabs.

But that's still not all.  City and Liverpool have also both reached the semi-finals in the F.A. Cup, and they will play next Saturday at Wembley Stadium.  Here's what that draw looks like:

Manchester City v. Liverpool (Wembley, April 16)

Chelsea v. Crystal Palace (Wembley, April 17)

So after years of COVID disruptions, English football fans are finally about to experience about two months' worth of old school drama.

Pennant Fever

So this race is pretty much over.  Manchester City is just too good for everyone else.  The big story here is that Liverpool is now in danger of missing next year's Champions' League.  They have to finish in the Top Four to make it.

1.  Manchester City:  18-2-5 (59 points)

2.  Manchester Utd:  14-4-7 (49) (goal differential of 21)

3.  Leicester City:  15-6-4 (49) (goal differential of 17)

4.  West Ham Utd:  13-6-6 (45)

5.  Chelsea:  12-6-7 (43)

6.  Liverpool:  11-7-7 (40) (goal differential of 11)

7.  Everton:  12-8-4 (40) (goal differential of 4)

Pennant Fever

 Manchester City starting to pull away:

1.  Manchester City:  14-2-5 (47 points)

2.  Manchester Utd:  13-4-5 (44 points)

3.  Leicester City:  13-6-3 (42 points)

4.  Liverpool:  11-4-7 (40 points)

5.  West Ham Utd:  11-6-5 (38 points)

It's so weird to see Manchester City as the dominant club.  It's like if North Carolina State had the best basketball program in the ACC.

Pennant Fever

 Here are the last 10 winners of the English Premier League:

2010-11:  Manchester Utd

2011-12:  Manchester City

2012-13:  Manchester Utd

2013-14:  Manchester City

2014-15:  Chelsea

2015-16:  Leicester City

2016-17:  Chelsea

2017-18:  Manchester City

2018-19:  Manchester City

2019-20:  Liverpool

From the early 1990's until 2013, the English Premier League was dominated by Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United.  But Sir Alex retired after winning the 2012-13 title, and United hasn't won the crown since.  Last year, Liverpool won the title for the first time since 1990, meaning that the list of all-time English football champions now looks like this:

1.  Manchester Utd:  20 titles

2.  Liverpool:  19 titles

3.  Arsenal:  13 titles

But this year, Manchester United is back in the thick of things.  Today they went to Anfield and ground out a 0-0 tie against Liverpool, which is a very good result from their perspective.  So as we approach the halfway mark, the top of the table looks like this:

1.  Manchester Utd:  11-3-4 (37 points)

2.  Manchester City:  10-2-5 (35) (goal differential of 16)

3.  Leicester City:  11-5-2 (35) (goal differential of 12)

4.  Liverpool:  9-2-7 (34)

5.  Tottenham Hotspur:  9-3-6 (33)

6.  Everton:  10-5-2 (32)

It's an unusually close race.  Manchester City has an edge, because they've played only 17 games while every other team in the top five has played 18.  They also have Pep Guardiola, who is one of the greatest managers in the world.  Here are the latest odds for winning the title:

Manchester City:  4 to 7 (63.6 percent chance)

Liverpool:  7 to 2 (22.2 percent chance)

Manchester Utd:  7 to 1 (12.5 percent chance)

You can have Spurs at 20/1, or Leicester City at 28/1.

All of the big teams made it through the third round of the F.A. Cup, meaning that they are in the Round of 32.  Here are their matchups (home teams listed first):

01/23/21:  Cheltenham Town v. Manchester City

01/24/21:  Brentford v. Leicester City

01/24/21:  Everton v. Sheffield Wednesday

01/24/21:  Manchester Utd v. Liverpool

01/25/21:  Wycombe Wanderers v. Tottenham Hotspur

These days, the big clubs tend to treat the F.A. Cup as an exhibition series unless they get pretty deep into the competition.  It's awkward, because the fans would like to win the Cup, but no one wants to risk injury or have too many games going on in April and May when the bigger trophies are up for grabs.  Liverpool and Manchester City are still in the Champions' League -- which is the biggest title of all -- while United has already been knocked out of that competition.  So it would be really surprising for Liverpool to make much of an effort in that F.A. Cup game -- which is exactly the sort of thing fans my age complain about.  On the other hand, they all keep watching -- just like I sat through those extra wild card games last week in the NFL.

Pennant Fever

So it's been a while since with checked in with the English Premier League, which seems to grow more popular over here all the time.  Turns out that people like pennant races after all.

Here's what we missed:

In the 2016-17 season, Chelsea won the title without too much trouble, finishing seven points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur.

In the 2017-18 season, Manchester City crushed everyone.  The Sky Blues had a record of 32-2-4, which allowed them to rack up 100 points -- a new Premier League record.  No one else came close to them.  The second place team was Manchester United, which finished 19 points behind.

But last season -- the 2018-19 season -- was a cracker.  Liverpool, which hasn't finished at the top of English football since 1991, soared off to a hot start.  On January 3, 2019, Liverpool had a 7-point lead over Manchester United.  And the Reds never really cooled off.  In fact, they ended up with a record of 30-1-7, and a total of 97 points.  No team had ever lost the league championship with that many points.  It would have taken an uncanny effort to beat them.

In fact, it would require Manchester City to win the last 14 games of the season.  That's 14 wins in a row -- a single draw would have cost the Sky Blues the title.  So the type of soccer most Americans associate with Europe -- dull, boring games where no one tries to score -- City couldn't play that style.  They had to score, and score, and score again.  And that's exactly what they did.  They ended the season on a 14-game winning streak, and their final record was 32-4-2.  That gave them a total of 98 points, and their second EPL title in a row.  They also won the F.A. Cup, becoming the first English club to do the double since Chelsea in 2009-10.

Those of you who are Americans may think it odd that a team with four losses is considered better than a team with one loss.  And you have good reason to think so.  For most of soccer history, you got two points for a win and one point for a draw.  Under that system, Liverpool would have had 67 points, and City would have had 66.  And here in America, most of our sports look at winning percentage, with a tie counting as half of a win.  Under that system, Liverpool's winning percentage would have been 0.882, and City's would have been 0.868.  But in 1981, the English decided to award 3 points for a win, and 1 point for a draw, to encourage a more attacking style of play.  In fact, that's now the standard for soccer leagues everywhere.  And so the title went to City.

But all was not lost for Liverpool.  City was eliminated from the European Cup by Tottenham Hotspur in stunning fashion, and Liverpool beat Spurs in the final to win the Championship of Europe.

So Manchester City won the double, and Liverpool are the champions of Europe.  Not surprisingly, they are currently at the top of the EPL Standings, which currently look like this:

1.  Liverpool:  4-0-0 (12 points)
2.  Man City:  3-0-1 (10)
3.  Leicester City:  2-0-2 (8)
4.  Crystal Palace:  2-1-1 (7) (goal differential of 1)
5.  Arsenal:  2-1-1 (7) (goal differential of 0) (6 goals scored)
6.  Everton:  2-1-1 (7) (goal differential of 0) (4 goals scored)
7.  West Ham:  2-1-1 (7) (goal differential of minus-1)
8.  Man United:  1-1-2 (5) (goal differential of 3)
9.  Tottenham:  1-1-2 (5) (goal differential of 1)
10.  Sheffield Utd:  1-1-2 (5) (goal differential of 0)
11.  Chelsea:  1-1-2 (5) (goal differential of minus-3)

So it looks like another two-horse race.

England will have the following teams in this year's Champions' League:  Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs, and Chelsea.  All four teams are favored to make the knockout rounds.  No team from Scotland qualified for the group stages.

Chelsea v. Tottenham Hotspur

No score after 15 minutes.  Remember that Tottenham must win to keep their title hopes alive.  If they draw or lose, Leicester City will win the title.

Pennant Fever

With only four games left in the English Premier League, long-shot Leicester City -- which was founded in 1884 and has never finished at the top of English football -- still leads the way.  Amazingly, the second-place team is Tottenham Hotspur, which has not won the League since 1960-61.  So something very unusual is going to happen this year:

1.  Leicester City:  21-3-10 (73 points)
2.  Tottenham Hotspur:  19-4-11 (68)
3.  Manchester City:  18-9-7 (61)
4.  Arsenal:  17-7-9 (60)
5.  Manchester Utd:  16-9-8 (56)

Here is the rest of Leicester's schedule:

4/24:  SWANSEA CITY
5/1:  at Manchester United
5/7:  EVERTON
5/15:  at Chelsea

Here's what's left for Spurs:

4/25:  WEST BROMWICH ALBION
5/2:  at Chelsea
5/8:  SOUTHAMPTON
5/15:  at Newcastle United

The best Spurs can do is win out, which would leave them with 80 points.  Thus, Leicester can win the league so long as they get 8 points from their last four games.  You get 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, so a record of 2-0-2 down the stretch would get it done.

Meanwhile, here are the semi-finals for the F.A. Cup, which will be played at Wembley.  As you will see, Manchester United is the only team left with a winning record:

4/23:  Everton (9-10-14) v. Manchester Utd (16-9-8)
4/24:  Crystal Palace (10-15-9) v. Watford (11-14-8)

Pennant Fever

One of the main reasons that MLB decided to get rid of pennant races is that most of the time, the races aren't very entertaining.  For example, last year Chelsea ran away with the English Premier League, going 26-3-9 and finishing eight points clear of second-place Manchester City.  But there really is nothing in sports to match a good pennant race, which is why so many of us are willing to sit through bad pennant races in hopes of finding a good one.  This year, fans of the EPL could be in for something exciting.  Chelsea, last year's champions have collapsed -- they have already fired their coach and remain mired in 14th place.  Traditional powers Manchester United and Liverpool are struggling, finding themselves in fifth place and seventh place respectively.  And we have a dramatic three-way struggle at the top between Arsenal, Leicester City, and Manchester City.  After 22 games of a 38-game season, here's what the top of the table looks like:

1.  Arsenal:  13-4-5 (44 points) (goal differential of 16)
2.  Leicester City:  12-2-8 (44 points) (goal differential of 13)
3.  Manchester City:  13-5-4 (43 points)
4.  Tottenham Hotspur:  10-3-9 (39 points)
5.  Manchester United:  10-5-7 (37 points)
6.  West Ham United:  9-5-8 (35 points)
7.  Liverpool:  9-7-7 (34 points)

I have no idea how this will turn out, but the British betting houses see it as a two-horse race between Manchester City and Arsenal.  Here are the latest odds:

Manchester City:  11 to 10
Arsenal:  7 to 5
Leicester:  10 to 1
Spurs:  16 to 1
Man Utd:  22 to 1

We haven't been checking in on Scotland in recent years, and here's why.  There are only two teams in Scotland capable of winning the top division championship:  Celtic and Rangers.  These two giants -- both based in Glasgow -- simply dwarf the rest of Scottish soccer.  Rangers has won 54 Scottish league titles, while Celtic has won 46.  Normally, Scottish soccer is not as normal as this sounds -- Rangers and Celtic have a tremendous rivalry, and every one of their games feels like the old Oklahoma/Nebraska battles in the Big 8.  But after the 2011-12 season, for reasons that I never understood, Rangers went into bankruptcy.  Now, to me, that doesn't seem like it should be such a big deal -- why should we fans care if the Raiders are technically bankrupt or not, so long as the team keeps playing?  But it's a big deal in Europe.  Because of the bankruptcy, Rangers was technically a new team -- so they were shunted all the way down to the Third Division of the Scottish Football League -- which itself is below the Scottish Premier League.  Since then, Rangers have been slowly working their way back up:

1.  In 2012-13, they won the Third Division, and were promoted to the Second Division.
2.  In 2013- 14, they won the Second Division -- in fact, they didn't lose a single league match -- and were promoted to the First Division, only one division short of the Scottish Premier League.
3.  In 2014-15, they came in third in the First Division, which was not enough to be promoted to the Scottish Premier League.  They also lost in the promotion playoffs, so they are again in the First Division for the 2015-16 season.  As of today, they lead the first division by five points.

Given that they have not had to deal with Rangers in the Scottish Premier League, Celtic has had an easy time of it:

1.  In 2012-13, Celtic won the Scottish Premier League by 16 points.
2.  In 2013-14, Celtic won the Scottish Premier League by 29 points with a record of 31-1-6.
3.  In 2014-15, Celtic won the Scottish Premier League by 17 points.

Pretty boring.  This year Celtic leads the SPL by three points over Aberdeen, and they have outscored their opponents by 42 goals in only 22 games.  So we will hope that Rangers wins its way back to the SPL, and then this rivalry will be renewed.

Pennant Fever

We are now halfway through the season -- 19 games played, and 19 to go.  It's been an odd season.  Aston Villa, which has not been relegated from the top flight since the 1986-87 season, is currently in last place with a record of 1-13-5.  Defending champion Chelsea, still mired in 14th place with a record of 5-9-5, has already fired its manager.  There are rumors that Manchester United, currently in 6th place with a record of 8-5-6, may soon fire its manager and replace him with Jose Mourinho, who was just fired by Chelsea.  It would be appalling for Man Utd to get Mourinho only two years after Sir Alex Ferguson retired -- it would be like how UNC got Roy Williams so soon after Dean Smith retired.  But as the UNC example shows, appalling things sometimes happen in sport.

Meanwhile, Leicester City, who surprised everyone by climbing to the top of the league a few weeks ago, has hit a rough patch, losing 1-0 at Liverpool and drawing 0-0 at home against Manchester City.  Leicester City also got a terrible draw in the Third Round of the F.A. Cup -- they have to visit Tottenham Hotspur.  But my guess is that their fans are still pretty happy with the season thus far.

Meanwhile, the top of the table now looks like this.  (I would note that Arsenal has had the same manager since 1996):

1.  Arsenal:  12-4-3 (39 points) (goal differential of 15)
2.  Leicester City:  11-2-6 (39 points) (goal differential of 12)
3.  Man City:  11-5-3 (36 points)
4.  Spurs:  9-2-8 (35 points)
5.  Crystal Palace:  9-6-4 (31 points)
6.  Man Utd:  8-5-6 (30 points) (goal differential of 6)
7.  Liverpool:  8-5-6 (30 points) (goal differential of 0)

Pennant Fever

We haven't checked on the English Premier League since the season began -- in part, to be honest, because I kept waiting for the standings to get back to normal.  But they've now played 16 games (out of 38), and it's obvious that something big is going on in the usually-stable world of English soccer.  Check out the top of the table:

1.  Leicester City:  10-1-5 (35 points)
2.  Arsenal:  10-3-3 (33 points)
3.  Man City:  10-4-2 (32 points)
4.  Man Utd:  8-3-5 (29 points)
5.  Spurs:  6-2-8 (26 points) (goal differential of 12)
6.  Crystal Palace:  8-6-2 (26 points) (goal differential of 6)

Wait a minute, you are saying.  What happened to Chelsea?  Didn't they win the League last year?  Aren't they managed by Jose Mourinho, one of the greatest managers in the world?  Yes and yes.  But here's where you'll find Chelsea in the table today:

16.  Chelsea:  4-9-3 (15 points)

SIXTEENTH PLACE?  Nine losses already?  What is happening?  Good question.  No one seems to know.  Reports from indicate indicate that Mourinho believes that the players have betrayed him, and that Mourinho himself could soon be on the way out.  Ironically, while Chelsea is just above the relegation zone at home, they have moved into the Sweet 16 of the Champions' League -- which makes it particularly awkward to change managers.  I can't remember anything like this since I've been watching English soccer.

And what's the deal with Leicester City?  Have they ever turned up in these reports before?  I don't think so.  Leicester is a town of about 337,000 people in the middle of England, making it the 16th largest city in the country.  Leicester City has spent the last 100 years mostly bouncing back and forth between the top two divisions of English football.  The Foxes have won the Second Division on seven different occasions, but they have never won the top prize -- the closest they ever came was in 1928-29, when they came in second to The Wednesday.  They have never won the F.A. Cup (they have four second-place finishes, the last of which was in 1968-69).  They have never qualified for the Champions' League.  Two years ago, they were in the Second Division.  Last year, they came in 14th place.  Now they lead the League.

How did this happen?  I don't know all the details, but I would note that over the summer, Leicester City hired Claudio Ranieri to manage the club.  Ranieri is a much bigger guy than you would normally expect at Leicester City -- he led Chelsea to a second-place finish in 2003-04, before being replaced by Jose Mourinho (in his first appearance at Chelsea -- it's complicated).  Anyway, he's done a great job so far, but it would be miraculous for him to lead Leicester all the way to the crown.

Pennant Fever

We didn't post anything on this year's pennant race in the English Premier League because it was incredibly boring.  Here's the basic story:

1.  Jose Mourinho is one of the greatest managers in the world.  In 2004-05, he came to Chelsea, and that season Chelsea won the English championship for the first time in 50 years.  The next year they won the league championship again.  The next year they came in second.  The next season Mourinho was forced out in late September.

2.  Mourinho went to Italy, where he won the European championship with Internazionale.  Meanwhile, Chelsea went through a number of different managers.  They won the league in 2009-10, and the won the European Championship in 2011-12, but they didn't return to the dominant form they had enjoyed under Mourinho.

3.  Meanwhile, Mourinho moved on to Real Madrid, where he left after three story seasons.  (He's great but controversial.)

4.  This brought Mourinho back to Chelsea for the 2013-14 season.  Last year he took them to a third-place finish.

5.  But this year, he had everything clicking again, and Chelsea ran off and left everyone.

6.  Meanwhile, Man Utd had a new manager -- Louis van Gaal -- who steered the Red Devils into the fourth-place finish they needed to return to the Champions League.

7.  Pity the Sunderland fans, who sat through 17 draws in 38 games.  But don't pity them too much, because Sunderland did avoid relegation.

Here are the final standings.  Teams in bold will be in next year's Champions League.  Teams in italics have been relegated:

1.  Chelsea:  26-3-9 (87 points)
2.  Manchester City:  24-7-7 (79)
3.  Arsenal:  22-7-9 (75)
4.  Manchester Utd:  20-8-10 (70)
5.  Tottenham Hotspur:  19-12-7 (64)
6.  Liverpool:  18-12-8 (62)
7.  Southampton:  18-14-6 (60)
8.  Swansea City:  16-14-8 (56)
9.  Stoke City:  15-14-9 (54)
10.  Crystal Palace:  13-16-9 (48)
11.  Everton:  12-15-11 (47) (goal difference of -2)
12.  West Ham Utd:  12-15-11 (47) (goal difference of -3)
13.  West Bromwich Albion:  11-16-11 (44)
14.  Leicester City:  11-19-8 (41)
15.  Newcastle Utd:  10-19-9 (39)
16.  Sunderland:  7-14-17 (38) (goal difference of -22)
17.  Aston Villa:  10-20-8 (38) (goal difference of -26)
18.  Hull City:  8-19-11 (35)
19.  Burnley:  7-19-12 (33)
20.  Queens Park Rangers:  8-24-6 (30)

The F.A. Cup Final took place earlier today.  For some reason, the F.A. Cup Final often features a high-powered Champions' League qualifier against a club that battled relegation.  This year the the high-flyer was Arsenal and the underdog was Aston Villa.  Sometimes these games are close.  This one was not.  The Gunners won 4-0 to capture their second F.A. Cup in a row.  It was the biggest margin in the F.A. Cup Final since Man Utd beat Chelsea 4-0 way back in 1994.  Here was Arsenal's path to the title (home teams listed first).  (Note:  Arsenal had a bye to the third round).  As you can see, the high point of the tournament was Arsenal's quarter-final win at Manchester United:

01/04/15 (3d Round):  Arsenal 2 - 0 Hull City
01/25/15 (4th Round):  Brighton & Hove Albion 2 - 3 Arsenal
02/15/15 (5th Round):  Arsenal 2 - 0 Middlesbrough
03/09/15 (6th Round):  Manchester 1 - 2 Arsenal
04/18/15 (Semi-Final) (Wembley):  Reading 1 - 2 Arsenal (after extra time)
05/30/15 (Final) (Wembley):  Arsenal 4 - 0 Aston Villa

Pennant Fever

Manchester City closed out the English Premier League season with a 2-0 victory over West Ham United, giving City its fourth English championship, to go along with those it won in 1936-37, 1967-68, and 2011-12.  City will joined in the Champions' League next year by Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal.  Manchester United came in seventh, meaning that the Red Devils will not play in any European tournament for the first time since 1989-90.  United opened the year with David Moyes, who used to manage Everton, as their new manager.  By the time the season was over, Everton had finished two spots ahead of United in the standings.  That pretty much sums up United's year.

The events of the last year show why sports are so hesitant to give up.  Not so long ago, Manchester City wasn't in the top division of English football, and United was racking up titles every year.  If there were ever a group of fans who could feel that they had drawn the short straw, City fans fit that bill.  But look where they are now.

Cardiff City -- one of two Welsh teams in the Premier League -- is being relegated.  But congrats to Swansea City -- the other Welsh contender -- who survived for another season.

Here are the final standings.  Teams qualifying for the Champions League are in bold; teams that were relegated are in italics:

1.  Manchester City:  27-6-5 (86 points)
2.  Liverpool:  26-6-6 (84)
3.  Chelsea:  25-6-7 (82)
4.  Arsenal:  24-7-7 (79)
5.  Everton:  21-8-9 (72)
6.  Tottenham Hotspur:  21-11-6 (69)
7.  Manchester Utd:  19-12-7 (64)
8.  Southampton:  15-12-11 (56)
9.  Stoke City:  13-14-11 (50)
10.  Newcastle Utd:  15-19-4 (49)
11.  Crystal Palace:  13-19-6 (45)
12.  Swansea City:  11-18-9 (42)
13.  West Ham Utd:  11-20-7 (40)
14.  Sunderland:  10-20-8 (38) (goal differential of minus 19)
15.  Aston Villa:  10-20-8 (38) (goal differential of minus 22)
16.  Hull City:  10-21-7 (37)
17.  West Brom:  7-16-15 (36)
18.  Norwich City:  8-21-9 (33)
19.  Fulham:  9-24-5 (32)
20.  Cardiff City:  7-22-9 (30)

Pennant Fever

Big news over the weekend in England, where Manchester City went to Everton and pulled out a huge 3-2 victory that sunk Everton's chances of reaching next year's Champions' League.  More importantly, it means that City now controls its own destiny.  If the Sky Blues win their last two matches of the season, they will win the EPL for the second time in the last three years.  Meanwhile, Chelsea had a terrible week.  In the middle of the week, they were eliminated by Athletico Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions' League, and on Sunday they were held to a 0-0 draw (at home) by lowly Norwich, thus virtually eliminating any chance they have to win the league.

Here are the top three teams:

1.  Man City:  25-6-5 (80 points) (goal differential of 59)
2.  Liverpool:  25-6-5 (80) (50)
3.  Chelsea:  24-6-7 (79)

Here's what's left:

Today, Liverpool goes to Crystal Palace for a must-win game.  Palace will not be easy to beat; they have scrapped their way to 11th place in the standings.

On Wednesday, City will host Aston Villa, which currently lies in 14th place.

And then on Sunday, May 11, the title will be decided:  Liverpool will host 9th-place Newcastle Utd, while City will host 12th-place West Ham.  Those games will kick off at 9 A.M. Central Time.

Pennant Fever

Before John Calipari came to the University of Kentucky, I used to spend a lot more time watching and thinking about English soccer.  But in recent years, the drama surrounding basketball season in Kentucky has been so intense that I have kept only a vague eye on conditions across the pond.  After all, Manchester United almost always won the league anyway.

But I probably should have paid more attention this year.  Sir Alex Ferguson, Man Utd's ruthless genius manager (imagine a better version of Bobby Knight), finally retired.  He was replaced by David Moyes, who had built a nice career for himself grinding out close victories at Everton.  But like Billy Gillespie, Moyes learned that there is a big difference between toughing out games in the provinces and coaching huge stars who are supposed to win every game.  With only a few games left in the season, United is mired in seventh place.  Not only will the Red Devils lose the league title, they won't even qualify for the Champions' League next year, which would be like Kansas missing the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Moyes was fired a few weeks ago.

So that was drama enough.  But that's not all.  Chelsea finally got back Jose Mourinho, the genius coach who led them to Premier League titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06 before being let go for reasons that never made any sense.  Nobody coaches defense like Mourinho, and sure enough he has gotten Chelsea all the way to the semi-final of the Champions' League -- the only English team to get so far.

Meanwhile, Manchester City also had a new manager -- the old manager was fired after winning the league title in 2011-12 and coming in second last year.  The new manager is Manuel Pelligrini, a Chilean who had previously managed Real Madrid and Malaga in Spain.

The big story, however, has been in Liverpool, which dominated English football from the mid-1960's to the early 1990's, but which couldn't compete with Alex Ferguson and his Man Utd dynasty.  United and Liverpool fans hate each other, and the United fans -- who went from 1968 to 1993 without a title in the days of Liverpool's excellence -- took great joy in the fact that Liverpool hasn't won the title since 1989-90.  (In the early 1990's, Liverpool had 18 titles to 7 for Manchester United; now United leads 20 to 18.)  In June 2012, the Reds (as Liverpool is known) hired Brendan Rogers as manager.  Rogers was best-known for taking Swansea City -- a small club in Wales -- all the way into the Premier League.  Last year, Rogers didn't do very much -- Liverpool finished in seventh, not qualifying for the Champions' League.  But this year they've been battling for the lead for the whole season.  In fact, when they beat Manchester City 3-2 a few weeks ago, they appeared to be close to having the title in hand.

But yesterday, Liverpool was beaten at home for the first time all year -- going down 2-0 to Chelsea, which used its usual relentless tactics to utterly frustrate Liverpool's offense.  And now everything is up for grabs.  The top of the table now looks like this:

1.  Liverpool:  25-6-5 (80 points)
2.  Chelsea:  24-6-6 (78 points)
3.  Man City:  24-6-5 (77 points)
4.  Arsenal:  22-7-7 (73 points)

If you look carefully, you will see that Manchester City has one more game left than Liverpool.  Here are the remaining games for each of the three contenders, with the place in the standings for each opponents (home games in ALL CAPS):

LIVERPOOL:
5/5:  at Crystal Palace (11th place)
5/11:  NEWCASTLE UTD. (9th place)

CHELSEA:
5/4:  NORWICH CITY (18th place)
5/11:  at Cardiff City (20th place)

MANCHESTER CITY:
5/3:  at Everton (5th place)
5/7:  ASTON VILLA (16th place)
5/11:  WEST HAM UTD (14th place)

If all three of the contenders win out, Liverpool and Manchester City will tie with 86 points.  At that point, the championship would go to whichever team has the better goal differential.  Liverpool has outscored its opponents by 50 points, but Manchester City has outscored its opponents by 58 points.  So City will have the advantage -- and the title -- if they tie with Liverpool on points.  So there is, as the British say, a lot to play for.

Other notes:  Arsenal will play Hull City for the F.A. Cup title -- it's the first time Hull City has made the final.  In Scotland, Rangers was busted down to the bottom division a few years ago for financial irregularities, so there is no one to challenge Celtic.  Rangers is working their way back up to the top division, but for at least one more year, Celtic will have it all their own way.

Pennant Fever

We haven't kept as close a watch as usual on the English Premier League.  And that's a shame, because the world's most famous soccer league is having quite an amazing year.  You will recall that for the last two decades, the EPL was dominated by Sir Alex Ferguson, who took Manchester United to 13 titles in the last 21 seasons.  In the other eight seasons, Man Utd came in second five times and third three times.  So they have totally dominated play.  Of the other eight titles, three went to Arsenal, three went to Chelsea, one went to Blackburn Rovers (way back in 1994-95), and the last went to Manchester City (in 2011-12), when City beat United on the last day of the season.  So most teams really haven't had much to get excited about.

But Sir Alex finally retired after last season, and so far it does not appear that his successor -- David Moyes (who used to manage Everton) is of his quality.  Meanwhile, Manchester City fired Roberto Mancini, who took them to the title in 2011-12 and to a second-place finish in 2012-13.  (Don't ask me why; soccer managers are fired at a pace Americans would find very difficult to understand.)  Meanwhile, Chelsea re-hired Jose Mourinho, the manager who led them to titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06.  Liverpool, which has struggled in recent years (despite being owned by the same folks who own the Red Sox) are in their second year under manager Brendan Rodgers, while Arsenal are sticking with old hand Arsene Wenger, who has managed the Gunners since 1996.

Anyway, with all the changes that have taken place, we were due for a shake-up at the top of the table, and that is what we have so far.  As of today, no less than nine teams are still in contention for the title:

1.  Arsenal:  8-2-1 (25 points)
2.  Liverpool:  7-2-2 (23)
3.  Southampton:  6-1-4 (22)
4.  Chelsea:  6-2-3 (21)
5.  Manchester Utd:  6-3-2 (20) (goal difference of 5)
6.  Everton:  5-1-5 (20) (goal difference of 4)
7.  Tottenham Hotspur:  6-3-2 (20) (goal difference of 3)
8.  Manchester City:  6-4-1 (19)
9.  Newcastle Utd:  5-4-2 (17)

As you can see, every team (except for Everton, which has five draws) has already lost two games from their first 11.  This is a remarkable change from the more stately proceedings of recent years, in which United would usually roll to the crown while losing only two or three games all season.  In fact, the Sydney Morning Herald says this is the best title race since the EPL was established in the early 1990's.

And what's the deal with Southampton, long known only as an also-ran?  They have a new manager, Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentine who they got from Espanyol of Barcelona.  If he could keep them in the Top Four all year, he would be a true miracle worker.

I still think that, over time, the quality of the two Manchesters is likely to tell.  But for now, I'm planning to watch more soccer than I have for some time.

Pennant Fever

"Hey, Go Heath," you are probably thinking, "whatever happened to the English Premier League?  Why haven't we gotten more updates?"

The answer, my friends, is that this has been one of the most boring EPL seasons ever.  Manchester United jumped out to a huge lead early on, and no one has really challenged them since.  With only a few games remaining, the only real drama is whether Arsenal or Spurs will get the last spot in next year's Champions League by coming in fourth place:

1.  Man Utd:  27-4-4 (85 points)
2.  Man City:  21-5-8 (71 points)
3.  Chelsea:  19-7-8 (65 points)
4.  Arsenal:  18-7-10 (64 points)
5.  Spurs:  18-8-8 (62 points)
6.  Everton:  15-6-14 (59 points)
7.  Liverpool:  14-9-12 (54 points)

The situation is just as bad in Scotland, where Rangers' banishment to the lower depths of Scottish football (for debt problems) has left Celtic with no challengers:

1.  Celtic:  22-7-6 (72 points)
2.  Motherwell:  17-9-9 (60 points)
3.  Inverness Caledonian Thistle:  12-8-15 (51 points)

Better luck next year, British soccer fans.

Pennant Fever

Last week, Manchester United went to Manchester City and stunned the Sky Blues 3-2 to open up a six-point lead at the top of the English Premier League.  You may recall that last year City came from behind to nip United at the wire and take the crown for the first time since 1968 -- but the Red Devils are not messing around this year.  I'm very confident that the top 4 teams -- which win slots in next year's Champions' League -- will be the usual quartet of United, City, Chelsea, and Arsenal -- but Arsenal still have some work to do.  It's remarkable that United still haven't played a draw:

1.  Man Utd:  13-3-0 (39 points)
2.  Man City:  9-1-6 (33 points)
3.  Chelsea:  8-3-5 (29 points)
4.  Everton:  6-2-8 (26 points) (goal difference of 7)
5.  Spurs:  8-6-2 (26 points) (goal difference of 4)
6.  WBA:  8-6-2 (26 points) (goal difference of 3)
7.  Arsenal:  6-4-6 (24 points)

It should be noted that Chelsea -- which won the Champions' League title last year for the first time in its history -- has already fired their manager.