Which are the League’s favourite teams, and how are they rewarded

 

 

 

• The proof: spending money on transfers takes a club DOWN the league
• Manchester City fined again, and yet it seems to mean nothing

By Tony Attwood

The Premier League is owned by the Premier League clubs, and so the notion of the League itself having favourites seems a bit curious.    And yet when we look at the opening fixtures of Manchester City and see them playing the likes of Wolverhampton, Tottenham Hots, Brighton and a very troubled Manchester United, before facing Arsenal it does seem as if they are likely to be feeling that things are moving their way, and that those who organise such things are on their side, by the time they finally get to the Arsenal game.

Indeed that opening fixture list seems to say, yes, everyone has to play everyone else, but some clubs get quite a bit of help getting their self-belief in order from the first kick-off, whatever the last end-of-season table said.  Wolverhampton, Tottenham, Brighton, ManU – that is not the toughest of starts.

Now if you are a regular reader you’ll know that over recent seasons we have focussed on Arsenal’s problem being that of the “dip” – the sudden decline in form which results in a club losing matches that they might be expected to win.   The reverse seems to be the case here when we look at the ManC fixtures at the start of the season.

Another club that has done rather well out of the fixture list is Aston Villa who were tipped by a lot of the media last season but failed to deliver.   They too, look like they could be challengers if they can get some self-belief back.   So how can the league give them some of that elusive elixir?   Well, opening fixtures against Newcastle United, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, and Sunderland look quite a good way to do it.

Moving on to Chelsea, the way in which the League management team agreed to the highly dubious notion of Chelsea selling their women’s team to another company owned by the same people who own Chelsea, for a sum big enough to clear all of Chelsea’s problems with overspending (as far as the Financial Fair Play committee is concerned that is) looks like one of the most dubious and biased moves by the League’s committee in the last five years.  It will certainly be worth looking out for other interesting Chelsea financial “arrangements”.

Certainly at the moment ,it seems a fair guess that someone up there is looking after their interests, and with their opening fixtures being against Crystal Palace, West Ham, Fulham, Brentford and Manchester United, suggests that some more helpful nudges might be on the way.

We might also be tempted to take a peek at West Ham United.   After an underwhelming 2024-25, the tone for West Ham’s season should be set with an opening trip to Sunderland.   They are of course one of the three promoted clubs, and like last season we shall all be expecting the promoted three to go back down straight away.   After all that travel WHAT then have games against Chelsea, and then against Tottenham Hots and Crystal Palace.  

The points is that even if WHAM don’t have a clue what they are doing (as seemed apparent for much of last season) they surely should find something somewhere in a run of games against Sunderland, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, for them to pick up points.

Burnley have had two relegations and two promotions in the last four seasons, so continuing that run, this time they are due for a fall.  They play Sunderland in the second week and a draw or a Sunderland victory will surely indicate if WHAM are surviving or not.

Sunderland, the team that came up through the play offs are looking to buy players, and the trouble is those players may well have been sold the notion of Sunderland as a Premier League team.   And to thelp them out they have been given a superlative run of opening fixtures: Burnley, Brentford, Palace, Villa, Forest.  If they are going to stay up then they really do need to be picking up some points in that little run, in order to build up their confidence..

And one of the things that we should note is the way that different clubs can earn different amounts of cash from each game.  But, when we look at the impact of big stadia on team performance, it doesn’t quite work out as beneficial as we might think.

The biggest three stadia are Old Trafford (74,879), Tottenham Hots (62,850), The London Stadium without a sponsor (WHAM) (62,500).  What I do find interesting is that Tottenham thus far, having built what they tell me is the best stadium in the land, they still haven’t got a stadium sponsor!   Nor had WHAM, unless I missed it.  They have lots of smaller sponsors, but not anything like the “Emirates” at Arsenal.

Ah well, maybe no one likes them.