Some may have heard talk of Manchester City having a chance to win all four competitions this year. Some may be saying to themselves, what four competitions? In baseball, you play the regular season to make the playoffs and win the World Series - simple to follow, there's just the one "competition." Once again, English football is more complicated and may require some additional explanation for the more casual follower. I shall now attempt to provide that additional explanation.
The primary competition is the English Premier League, or if you're into sponsorship the Barclay's Premier League. The twenty EPL teams play each other twice - home and away; a team gets three points for a win, one for a draw. The team with the most points wins the league. We might be tempted to call it the regular season but the comparison isn't particularly apt; even though teams can qualify for additional competitions based on how they finish in the league, this is really the main event.
Some people eat salad at the beginning of a meal, others at the end. In English football, they eat it throughout the meal. And many different kinds of salad too. Interwoven around league play are other competitions that resemble what we would call playoffs or tournaments. There's the FA Cup, which I've written about in detail before here. That runs from August to May.
Then there's the Football League Cup, also known as the Capital One Cup - at least until someone outbids Capital One for the naming rights. This competition is limited to the 92 teams in the top four divisions of English football (Premier, Championship, League One and League Two). It runs from August to March, again squeezed in around regular league play. This is mostly a one and done knockout tournament except for the semi-finals, which are two-match aggregate score advances affairs. As far as I can tell, this competition gets even less respect than the FA Cup. The finalists are set for this year's cup - Manchester City will face Sunderland (yes, the Sunderland that currently sits at the bottom of the table) at Wembley Stadium on Sunday March 2nd.
Lastly we have the Champions League and its ugly step sister, the Europa League. These would be the closest cousin to American playoffs but with a twist; the playoffs aren't between teams in your own league but are playoffs between the top teams of all the European football leagues. The top four finishers in the EPL go up against squads from Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, etc. Forget about the format details - it's more complicated than the FA Cup. Basically, there are qualifying rounds that get you to the 32 team group stage. Teams are divided into groups of four and play each team in the group twice. The top finishers in the group stage go onto the knockout phase, which is a two-match aggregate score format (you play a team twice, once at home, once away and the aggregate score of the two matches determines which team advances). This competition runs from July to May, altogether now, squeezed in between league play. But for this competition, that timing creates an interesting issue. You qualified based on last season's results but you play the matches this season. Your squad could be radically different, possibly a much weaker team compared to last season but you qualified so you play.
The Europa League is basically the same format as the Champions League but is more of a consolation competition - think the old NIT compared to the NCAA basketball tournament. The fifth place team from the EPL, last year's FA Cup winner and last year's Football League Cup winner qualify for this competition. Oh, and here's another twist. Teams that don't advance at various phases of the Champions League can get dumped into the Europa League. This competition also runs from July to May.
Once again, probably clear as mud, and I left out some of the exceptions/details. Plus now I forget why I started down this road...oh yeah, because right now, Manchester City still have a chance to win all four competitions. They are already in the League Cup finals. They have advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup. They are in the final 16 of the Champions League (though they have a tough draw in Barcelona). And, they trail Arsenal by just one point in the EPL. As far as I can tell, no team has ever won all four competitions. In 1998-99 Manchester United won the league, the FA Cup and the Champions League. Liverpool won three in 1984 - the league, the Football League Cup and the Champions League (called European Cup back then).
Harriers Lose But Do Themselves Proud
The Kidderminster Harriers (apparently referring to a type of bird as opposed to cross country runners) fell to Sunderland 1-0. They gave up an early goal and looked in danger of being blown out. But they stayed tough, or maybe Sunderland isn't all that good, and that was all of the scoring. Kidderminster had a good scoring chance late but it went just wide. After the match, the players and manager saluted the 4,000 or so fans that had made the trip to Sunderland.
I saw one other FA Cup match - Bournemouth vs Liverpool. The underdog home squad matched the EPL team in just about every area except one - finishing. Liverpool converted their best chances and advanced with a 2-0 win. Two EPL clubs bowed out of the FA Cup this weekend - Stoke City and Crystal Palace - plus Fulham drew Sheffield United and will face a replay. A bunch of others advanced, including Man City, Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal.
Chester Blues Progressing
Played a lot of games this week - that happens when I'm dealing with contract matters and "free agent" signings because I have to let time run to find out if the offers are accepted. We did lose on the road to Bristol on a late goal but rebounded with three wins against lower table teams. With our leading scorer (Terry Read - made up by the game) down, the number three striker (Luke Freeman - also made up by the game) came up with 8 goals in 5 games. Our leads over the 2nd and 3rd place teams are 11 and 15 points respectively. We're in early March in cyber time and with 7 matches to go, we need just six more points to clinch promotion to the Premier League. I spent the week signing some of our key players to longer contracts - including Gylfi Sigurdsson, who probably has been the second most valuable player on the squad. I also made a bid for Michael Parkhurst - who in real life may get some time with the USMNT - but I fear that even though I went to the max that my board would allow, we going to lose out to a team from the Bundesliga.
EPL Preview
Mid-week matches on Tuesday and Wednesday. One is a derby with Champions League implications - Liverpool vs Everton. Another is a derby with relegation implications - Aston Villa hosting West Brom. Newcastle is on the road to Norwich - looking for a draw there. Chelsea and Arsenal should be favored in their matches versus West Ham and Southampton, though Arsenal should be careful on the road. Manchester United will also likely be favored at Old Trafford against Cardiff City. The week concludes with a tasty fixture - Tottenham vs Manchester City at White Hart Lane.
Teams will have to turn around quickly for weekend matches. Newcastle hosts Sunderland for a Tyneside derby (anything less than a win here will be a disappointment), Aston Villa has a tough road match versus Everton, and Tottenham has a winnable match on the road at Hull City. Other matches include Man Utd at Stoke, Liverpool at West Brom and Arsenal hosting Crystal Palace; all look like wins for the top table teams. And the week concludes with clash of league title contenders Man City and Chelsea at Etihad Stadium.
By this time next Monday, several teams may have changed places in the table. But I bet Newcastle will still be 8th.
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