English Premier League soccer doesn’t have a salary cap, at least not one that resembles those in major American sports. There is something called “financial fair play” that restricts the purchase of players, but it does not create anything close to equal spending and/or equal salaries among the teams.
As a result, there are wide disparities in the talent level of EPL teams. Sure, some teams punch above their weight. Everton used to. Leicester City did a few years ago. Burnley and Bournemouth do now.
However, the EPL is dominated by its big spending teams — Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal. They, along with Tottenham Hotspur, finish in the top six places almost every season.
This year, these teams subdivided into two tiers within the top six. Manchester City and Liverpool are competing for the title. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham have been competing for the final two English places in next season’s European Champions League.
In cases like this, one usually finds the top six feasting on the EPL’s “minnows” as the season winds down. Not only do the minnows lack talent remotely comparable to the “giants,” they also have little to play for unless they happen to be struggling to avoid finishing in the bottom three, and thus being relegated to England’s second division of football.
But that hasn’t been the case this Spring. Man City and Liverpool are defeating the minnows with regularity, but making hard work of it. Yesterday, for example, Liverpool edged past Newcastle (maybe not a minnow, but sitting in the bottom half of the league) by a single goal, 3-2. The week before, Man City defeated Burnley (also a bottom half team) 1-0.
But the real drama has occurred in the race for third and fourth place. This weekend, Tottenham Hotspur, sitting third, needed a win at Bournemouth (another bottom half club) to guarantee them Champions League football next season.
Spurs entered the match with a record of 22 wins, 13 losses, and one draw. Bournemouth’s record was 12-18-6. Bournemouth had never beaten Spurs in the Premier League or its predecessor, the First Division (to be fair, Bournemouth has rarely competed in England’s top league).
On Saturday, Spurs started off strong but couldn’t score. Then, as the first half was ending, Spurs had a player sent off on a straight red card. Starting the second half, their manager, Mauricio Pochettino, replaced two players who were on yellow cards, presumably in order to make sure no else was sent off. But within moments of coming on, one of the Spurs substitutes picked up a straight red card, leaving Tottenham with only nine players.
The nine held out valiantly until three minutes into time added on for stoppages. But then, on almost the last play of the match, Bournemouth scored from a corner kick.
Tottenham’s defeat opened the door for Chelsea, Man United, and Arsenal. All three played today. Tottenham could still guarantee themselves a top four finish by beating Everton at home next week. But Everton is not a minnow. They will finish in 8th place and are playing very well now.
Chelsea marched through the open door. At home against Watford, the tenth place team, they were outplayed in the first half, but came good early in the second and ended up coasting to a 3-0 victory.
Meanwhile, Manchester United took on Huddersfield Town, the worst team in the EPL and one of the worst in EPL history (which extends back nearly 30 years). Going into the match, Man U had a record of 19 wins, 9 losses, and 8 draws. Huddersfield was 3-28-5.
To be sure, United has been struggling lately, most notably in a 4-0 loss to Everton. But I had very little doubt that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s lads would make short work of Huddersfield.
It started out that way. United scored in the eighth minute. But Huddersfield dug in and got to half time down by just that one goal.
Then, on the hour mark, Huddersfield scored the kind of goal one rarely sees in the EPL — a “Route 1” special. Their goalkeeper sent a booming kick way downfield. Their attacking midfielder gathered the ball, pushed it past the lone defender in the picture, and slotted it between the legs of David De Gea, United’s world class keeper (who has been terrible down the stretch).
After that, even with their season on the line, Man U seemed strangely subdued. However, in the closing minutes they laid siege to the Huddersfield goal. The Terriers held on, though, and United were eliminated from the race for the top four.
For Huddersfield, it was a magical result, one that brought smiles to the faces of fans who suffered through an epically bad season. United’s fans, meanwhile, were left to wonder about the wisdom of the recent decision to remove the “interim” label from Solskjaer’s title.
Arsenal played later in the afternoon. Their opponent, Brighton, had learned the day before that they will avoid relegation to the second tier, thanks to Cardiff’s defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace.
With nothing to play for, Brighton, whose record was 9-19-8, seemed like easy prey for Arsenal, especially at home where the Gunners have been outstanding all year. Worryingly, though, Arsenal had lost its last three EPL matches — to Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton, and Leicester City — by a combined score of 3-9. But they had rallied to win a big European League semifinal first leg match at home against Valencia, a strong Spanish side.
The Arsenal-Brighton match followed the same pattern as the Huddersfield Town-Manchester United clash. Arsenal went ahead in the first half on a penalty kick. But, in the second half, just as Huddersfield had done, Brighton sent a player scurrying towards goal on a breakaway. The last defender before the goalkeeper clipped the Brighton man’s heel for a penalty. Veteran Glenn Murray converted to level the score at 1-1.
After that, Arsenal had a few good looks at goal, but never seemed convincing.
The 1-1 draw leaves the Gunners three points behind Spurs, their hated North London rivals, for the final Champions League spot (Chelsea has clinched its place). If Tottenham loses to Everton and Arsenal defeats Burnley away, the two teams will be tied on points. However, Tottenham will almost certainly win the tie-breaker, goal difference. Tottenham’s is +28; Arsenal’s is +20.
Why have these four teams struggled so much down the stretch against minnows and also-rans. For one thing, the minnows and also-rans, for whatever reason, have refused to roll over and play dead. Rolling over used to be the norm and has remained so in recent years. Howard Kendall, the legendary Everton player and coach, referred to the final games of the season as “football in flip-flops.”
The players actually wore boots, of course, but their minds were on the beach. That’s why I decided to postpone a planned trip to England this Spring to see soccer. Fearing that I would see “football in flip-flops,” I decided to go in the Fall when every team will have something on the line.
But in my opinion, the main reason why the big English teams are struggling now is because they are (or until recently were) playing very tough European matches.
Chelsea and Arsenal both played Europa League semifinal matches on Thursday. Expecting them to excel in a high stakes EPL match three days later, at the end of a grueling season both domestically and in Europe, is asking a lot.
The good news for Arsenal is that if they win the Europa League, they will qualify for the Champions League without finishing in the EPL’s top four. As things stand now (but subject to the second leg of the two semifinals), Arsenal would face Chelsea in the Europa League final. I’d love to see that.
Man City and Man United both made it to the Champions League quarterfinals. Though recently eliminated, they may still be feeling the effects of their exhausting runs.
Spurs and Liverpool both played in Champions League semifinals in midweek. Thus, although Liverpool prevailed over Newcastle and Tottenham outplayed Bournemouth when it was 11 against 11, it wasn’t surprising that neither team approached its usual form.
To flourish in both the EPL and in European football requires a big squad full of quality players. Making it into Europe year-after-year helps furnish the financial resources and prestige needed to put together such a squad.
Putting together these squads leaves the minnows further and further behind the top six. However, recent weeks, and especially this weekend, have demonstrated that the minnows can still bite.
