English Premier League: Difference between revisions

By the end of the 80s English football was in a bit of a state. [[Football Hooligans|Hooliganism]] was rife both at home and abroad - the French called it ''le malaise Anglais'', the English Disease. Liverpool fans had been blamed for the [[wikipedia:Heysel disaster|Heysel Stadium Disaster]] in 1985 and English clubs had been banned from all European competition. Tall fences were installed to stop hooligans from invading the pitch, but this practice was stopped after the [[wikipedia:Hillsborough disaster|Hillsborough Disaster]] in 1989, when 96 people (most of them Liverpool fans) were crushed to death. The best English players began moving abroad, mostly to Italy or Spain, which were seen as having the best leagues at the time, revenues and attendance were plummeting and many of the stadia were crumbling and in need of some TLC.

 

 

Then, into the mix came the dawn of satellite television, in the form of Sky TV (still the main British satellite broadcaster). [[Soccer Saturday|Sky's presence]] and the increasing quality of the English game meant that TV revenue from football skyrocketed from £6.3m in 1986 to over £40m in 1988. The biggest clubs in the top division felt they weren't getting a big enough slice of the cake, and that The Football League, who had been organising English football since 1888, weren't doing enough to help, so in the summer of 1991 they decided to break away and form their own league.

** Crystal Palace. They've been promoted to the Premier League four times, and gotten instantly relegated on each occasion.

** Wigan themselves may be considered a [[Butt Monkey]]. Despite the fact that they are rarely in danger of being relegated, in most seasons they're usually one of the league leaders in having the most goals allowed. And that's not even mentioning how they always seem to suffer some of the most one-sided and embarrassing losses; their 9-1 defeat against Tottenham ties the record for the most goals allowed in a league match and 8-0 defeat against Chelsea are some of the most notable ones.

* [[Cheaters Never Prosper]]: Inverted, every year there will always be one player diving in the penalty area or a Referee making a stupid [[Too Dumb to Live]] decision. Cue the calls for video refereeing yet nothing is ever really done to change anything.

** However, it is difficult for cheaters to not prosper in the Premier League since all teams have cheated to some extent at some point.

** Paul Scholes retired from the Manchester United team at the end of the 2010/2011 season, taking a coaching job at the club. Come January 2012, and Scholes has returned to the United team & looks like he didn't retire to begin with.

** Thierry Henry also returned briefly to Arsenal to maintain match fitness ahead of the new MLS season, while coming on as a substitute in all of his appearances he still scored three times, showing he had lost none of the class he had during his first spell. Sol Campbell and Jens Lehmann had also returned briefly in prior seasons to some acclaim.

* [[Miracle Rally]]: Teams have been known to overturn two-goal deficits to grab draws or even victories. Manchester United overturned a three-goal deficit to win 5-3 against Tottenham in 2001, and recently Newcastle pulled back from ''four goals down''-with twenty minutes to go-to draw 4-4 against Arsenal. West Ham came back from 3 down agaisnt West Bromwich Albion in the 2010/11 season.

** Arsenal beating Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge counts. Losing at half time 2-1 they scored twice early on in the second half to make it 3-2. Only for Chelsea to equalize thanks to a stunning Mata goal with 10 minutes to go. Only for van Persie to pop up to score twice inside 5 minutes to result in a second miracle rally! Considering most people had written Arsenal off due to a weakened team and after that 8-2 defeat to Man Utd, it was a sign that they had managed to develop a side capable of pushing for a top spot in the table. Highlights included that Mata goal, Terry falling over and gifting van Persie his second and Walcott falling over surrounded by 4 Chelsea players, then getting up and running through them to score.

*** This trope also appeared to extend to Liverpool themselves, suffering criticism for defending Suarez despite him admitting what he did. When the two teams met again Suarez refused Evra's offer to shake his hand ''despite'' saying he would before the game! Evra himself also appeared to try and wind up Suarez after the game. Dalgish's comments after the game resulted in both of them having to apologize the day after. Which appears to have finally settled the issue.

* [[Who Needs Overtime]]: Injury time, and occasionally a team will score a goal to salvage a win or a point. Manchester United seem to do this often, so much that it's now got a reputation as Fergie Time. Arsenal are running them close though.

*** With four matches to go in the season, United were leading the league with their rivals Manchester City five points behind. Then they played Everton and were up 4-2 with ten minutes to go when Everton scored twice to claim a 4-4 draw. This, followed by a City victory when they met United in their next match, allowed City to tie them in points (leading in goal difference) until the final day of the season.

*** On said final day, after 90 minutes, City were down 2-1 to Queen's Park Rangers (who at that time were on the brink of relegation) but had five minutes of stoppage time still to play, while United were leading Sunderland 1-0 and had three minutes of stoppage time. City equalised two minutes into injury time, and mere seconds after the final whistle blew at United's match, City scored ''again'' to win 3-2 and earn their first championship since 1968.