By Magnus Nordman
Introduction
Without making any predictions of possible winners and runners up, I wanted to give an overview of teams that I think will be challengers for the title during the 2011-2012 season. I therefore decided to take a look at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City and try to give a short overview of their 2010-2011 season.
Arsenal
Looking back at Arsenal's previous season noticeable are probably the victories at The Emirates against Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea. While on the other hand, significant lows were drawing against Newcastle at St. James Park after being up 4-0 and the Carling Cup Final loss against Birmingham City. Finishing fourth in the table with 67 points is something that the Gunners will look to improve upon.
Arsene Wenger has so far bought players like Alex Chamberlain, Gervinho, Carl Jenkinson and youth team players Hector Bellerin and Jon Toral Harper from Barcelona. On the other side of the squad Gael Clichy and Jay Emmanul-Thomas have been sold, while Kyle Bartley, Denilson and Wellington have all gone out on loan.
Looking at player performances from last season one notices the striking difference in the contribution of the Arsenal goalkeepers compared to those of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. Of the total 38 games that Arsenal played in the Premier League Szczesny started 15, Fabianski 14, Almunia 8 and Lehman 1.
Arsenal used a total of 21 players in their starting lineup with Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna with the most starts. Jack Wilshere took a big step forward and was rewarded with 31 starts. On the other side of the graph noticeable were the low number of games started by players like Tomas Rosicky, Denilson, Kieran Gibbs, Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela.
Arsenal's record of goals scored when winning or losing gives clear indications of them often doing so by a one goal margin. On the other hand, they also won 5 games with either a two or a three goal margin.
Of all the goals that they scored, most of them were hit in the following time zones, 0-15min, 46-60min and between the 76-90min. They conceded most goals just before half time and the final whistle.
Chelsea
With change of manager comes new ideas and new life. Andres Villas-Boas steps into the role of manager at Chelsea and will most certainly have his team firing on all cylinders by the first week of the season. After finishing the 2010-2011 on 71 points, nine behind United, Chelsea haven't so far made acquisitions that their fans will be impressed by.
Chelsea have so far only bought the Spanish teenager Oriol Romeu, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and agreed a deal for Romelu Lukaku with Michael Mancienne and Yuri Zhrikov leaving the squad still looks very capable of making a run for the Premier League title. Among others Jeffrey Bruma has gone out on loan to gain valuable playing experience.
Of Chelsea's three goalkeepers only Peter Cech managed starts in the Premier League, with Henrique Hilario and Ross Turnbull not starting a single game. Of the outfield players (not surprisingly) Ashley Cole started all 38 games. Chelsea also used a total of 21 players from start with (apart from Cole) Malouda, Terry, Ivanovic, Essien, Drogba, Mikel, Anelka and Lampard being the players with most starts. Players like Zhirkov and Yossi Benayoun must be really disappointed with their contribution.
Chelsea won a total of 6 games by a one goal margin and 10 with a two goal margin, which is twice the amount Arsenal managed. Of the eight games that they lost, six of them were by one goal.
Liverpool
Liverpool's last season was really a tale of two stories. First there was the departure of Rafael Benitez and then there were the appointments of Roy Hodgson and later Kenny Dalglish.
Liverpool managed to finish in top half of the table with the 58 points will most definitely look forward to the coming season with great promise. Dalglish has made a couple of additions to his squad during the summer by acquiring Charlie Adam, Alexander Doni, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. To clear space he sold Milan Jovanovic, Paul Konchesky and Nikola Saric.
Similar to Chelsea's Peter Cech, Pepe Reina started all of Liverpool's games in the Premier League. Regarding their outfield players, Martin Skrtel was the one player that managed to start all 38 games. He was then followed by Dirk Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Glen Johnson and Maxi Rodriguez. In a injury plagued season, Steven Gerrard only managed 20 starts. I would assume that players like Christian Poulsen, David Ngog and Joe Cole will have spent the summer trying to figure out how to force their way into the managers starting eleven.
Liverpool won most of their games with margins of 1-3 goals, while losing games by 1-2 goals margin. Liverpool quite evenly managed to score throughout the games, with the 16-30min being the least productive period. Of all goals conceded, most happened just before and after half time and also between the 76-90min.
Manchester City
Manchester City will be seen as one of the teams making a push for the title this year. After Roberto Mancini's side made great progression during the 2010-2011 season they have now added a couple of players to their squad. Players bought are Sergio Aguero, Gael Clichy and Stefan Savic, while the manager regarded Jerome Boateng, Javier Garrido, Shay Given, Jo and Michael Johnson as surplus to requirements. On a side note Patrick Vieira decided to call time on his playing career.
Not surprisingly Joe Hart started every single game for Manchester City in the Premier League. Vincent Kompany was the outfield player making most starts with 37, tightly followed by Yaya Toure, Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez, David Silva and Nigel de Jong. Players like Jo, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Adam Johnson could be found at the other end of the table, making a less than the average amount of starts.
Manchester City won a total of 10 games by a one goal margin, 5 with a two goal margin and just the 4 with a three goal margin. Of the total amount of nine games that they lost, most were tightly contested affairs, hence six one goal margin losses. Roberto Mancini's team scored most of their goals during the 0-15min-, 16-30-, and the 61-75 minute periods. A total of eleven goals were conceded during the last fifteen minutes of their games, describing them as a team drawing back in front of their own penalty area and not being able to withstand the pressure. In other cases this could be a result of City marching forward to the very last minute in certain games.
What do you think of the teams mentioned above? Are they worthy contenders for the title?
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