“The new Premier League season is about to begin, which means it’s time to dig out the Magic 8 ball, give it a shake and ask: How will things go this year? In recent seasons, teams have been separated into four groupings: top four, the chasing few, the bottom five and the rest. That doesn’t seem like such a good breakdown in 2012, as only a few clubs stand a probable chance at winning the title. A far greater number approach the season with at least a tang of apprehension as the rest of the table is concerned.” SI

“The England national side may have battled bravely through the Euro 2012 group stage this summer before their limitations were exposed, but there can be no doubting the strength of the English game at club level.” World Soccer

“When I look ahead to the 2012-13 Premier League season — which starts Saturday, if you can believe that — when I gaze into the swirling void of the future, and try to answer urgent questions like ‘How many points will Manchester City win by’ and ‘Reading: ??’ — when I think about the Premier League at all in terms other than Robin van Persie, nightclub groping incidents, and money, I see a darkness, and the name of the darkness is Liverpool.” Grantland

“Paul Lambert, Aston Villa. A large part of Lambert’s success at Norwich was his ability to switch seamlessly between systems – between and within matches – using a 5-3-2, a 4-4-1-1, a midfield diamond and a 4-4-2 at various points last season. Three of his summer recruits, Brett Holman, Karim El Ahmadi and Matthew Lowton, are versatile, indicating that Lambert intends to continue this approach at Villa Park. But these reactive tactics do not necessarily result in defensive football – last season, only the top six scored more goals than Lambert’s side, only the bottom three conceded more. Having seen Alex McLeish’s side score only 20 goals in 19 home games last season, Villa fans will enjoy the entertainment. …” Guardian

“They called it The Greatest Season Ever, and in terms of drama, the 2011-12 Premier League campaign will be hard to beat. A little more than three months, another Spanish tournament victory and a successful Olympic Games later, and the Premier League is back and likely to dominate the British sporting agenda — like it or not — for the next nine months. Here are 10 storylines to monitor in the run-up to kickoff.” SI

Joe Hart, Manchester City
“To change an old football cliché slightly, this was a season of two halves. The likes of Demba Ba and Jose Enrique were superb before Christmas but then faded badly, while Papiss Cisse and Paul Scholes had a superb impact but played only in the second half of the campaign. Then there are players like Lucas Leiva and Alejandro Faurlin, who excelled early on but saw their seasons end prematurely due to injury. This season, more than any other, highlighted the importance of consistency. With that being a crucial consideration, here is a Premier League team of the season, complete with two backups at each position.” ESPN

“This coming Sunday we will all be overwhelmed by an overwhelming amount of Premier League football. I’m seriously overwhelmed just thinking about it all. All the Premier League teams will take part in matches, all kicking off at the same time so that no competitive advantage can be had by any one club. We’ll get to Manic Sunday in a bit, but for now, let’s take a different kind of look at this past weekend’s proceedings: three snapshots of three goals in three games that hugely impacted the Premier League’s second-to-last weekend.” Grantland (YouTube)
The Reducer, Week 35: Manchester Civil War (YouTube)

“Marcus Christenson: Is it more difficult to take Newcastle to the brink of the Champions League or Manchester City to the brink of the title?” Guardian

“Manchester United 2, Queens Park Rangers 1. Arsenal 1, Manchester City 0. In the 13th minute of Manchester United’s game with QPR at Old Trafford, a slashing Ashley Young felt a creaky, possibly arthritic old hand on his back. Considering the hand belonged to QPR defender Shaun Derry, who looks like he punches tree trunks for fun, it was a relatively light touch. And considering that Young was offside, Derry probably thought his contact would be forgiven by the wave of the linesman’s flag. But no matter; Young, in his first season playing with United, knew what he felt and knew where he was on the pitch. And he went down.” Grantland (YouTube)

“I recently chatted with Soccernomics co-author Simon Kuper to discuss several topics regarding world soccer. Kuper, whose latest book Soccer Men is now available in stores, talked about what impact (if any) soccer has on politics, as well as how he began his career in journalism.” EPL Talk

Soccer Men: Profiles of the Rogues, Geniuses, and Neurotics Who Dominate the World’s Most Popular Sport
amazon

“It is tempting to look at the top half of the Premier League table and see rows of upright dominoes. At some point soon, one will teeter and tap its neighbor’s shoulder, and then who knows how many, and which, will follow. What if Harry Redknapp takes the England job? (What if Spurs lose to Manchester United this weekend, and Arsenal beat Liverpool?) What if Chelsea does not get back into the Champions League places? What if Roman Abramovich sacks Andre Villas-Boas? What if he’s the replacement? Why? When?” SI

“I’m fairly certain that, while Kenny Dalglish may not exchange Christmas cards with Arsene Wenger … … they can both agree on this: It is more important to not lose the Carling Cup than it is to win it. On Sunday, Liverpool narrowly defeated championship side Cardiff City, winning 3-2 (technically 2-2) after a comical, watch-through-your-fingers shootout that seemed to encapsulate 40 years of English penalty-taking in a matter of minutes.” Grantland (YouTube)

“I want Andre Villas-Boas to succeed. It could be because he and I are the same age and I’d like to think I’m at the point in my life where I, too, could manage a Premier League club. (Hey, I’m keeping my options open.) Or it could be that I am mildly charmed by his roughly translated, vaguely post-structural declarations about time and space. For instance: ‘Players compete, in the end, for their place and for their place towards the future in the team. So if you want to be in the team in the future, you are competing to win something against your colleague. I would put it exactly like that: performance to have reward … reward in terms of results and reward in terms of future continuity.’ Slow your roll, Roland Barthes. John Terry has not quite finished Elements of Semiology.” Grantland (YouTube)

Fernando Torres
“‘It was a great game for the neutral watching,’ said Sir Alex Ferguson, in what might have been a knowing nod to the many Americans — new or newish to the English game — who had just casually watched Manchester United play out a six-goal draw with Chelsea on Sunday. Had United come up short in their comeback, or had they never mounted one at all, Fergie would probably not be feeling so concerned about the experience of the neutral, American or otherwise. He would have been too busy turning purple, inventing new Scottish profanities, and finalizing plans to sell Jonny Evans to a third-division club in Kazakhstan. But as it happened, all was full of love.” Grantland (YouTube)

“It has long been known that the absence of a winter break reduces quality and increases injuries in the final part of the season, but the counter argument from English football fans has always been about protecting the spectacle, excitement and tradition of football over the Christmas period. Actually, playing so many matches in such a short period of time may reduce the quality on display, but most importantly reduce the fairness of the league when TV scheduling is taken into account.” Footballistically

“A few quick comments as the minutes tick closer to midnight. Robin rules. It would be impossible to heap too many superlatives on his form this season. He finally got to show what he could do when he remained injury-free. Long may it continue. He’s shown himself to be a great captain so far and hopefully he sees his future with the Arsenal going forward. Welcome back, Henry! But this does not mean we don’t need another striker… Repeat, this does not mean we don’t need another striker.” Cult Football

“It’s been scintillating six months of English football. We’ve had blow outs (8-2, 5-3, and 6-1 between some big guns) and some stunning individual performances (numerous hat-tricks and goal line saves). With half a season to go, it’s time to decide who has made the Team of the Season so far, settling in a traditional English 4-4-2 formation.” EPL Talk

“In this day and age, with the proliferation of Continental coaches and international players in the Premier League, with Nicolas Anelka going to China, Joey Barton listening to Bon Iver, and the league’s top team funded by the royal family of Abu Dhabi, led by an Italian manager and starring an Ivorian, an Argentinian, a Spaniard, and a Ghanaian-born Italian, the question needs to be asked … what is English football?” Grantland (Video)

“Sometimes there are Premier League weekends where it’s all paradigm-shifting, faith-questioning madness that makes The Reducer pull off Johan Cruyff Turns in his living room and Zidane-headbutt the drywall. This was not one of those weekends. So rather than deep dive on one match, let’s speed race through several different results.” Grantland (Video)

“After a Saturday that saw Stoke and Chelsea recover from dips in form, Arsenal and Manchester United slip up, and Tottenham continue its fire-hazard win streak, a darkness descended on the Premier League. Sunday morning, before the kickoffs of Liverpool versus Manchester City and Swansea versus Aston Villa, news broke that Gary Speed, a heroic figure in the recent history of British football and manager of the Wales national team, had been found dead in his home from an apparent suicide. He left behind a wife and two children.” Grantland (Video)

“The Reducer figures there’s never really a right time to get your lunch money snatched by a 60-year-old Glaswegian, but that being said, Andre Villas-Boas really picked the wrong Sunday to run into Kenny Dalglish. Leading up to the Stamford Bridge clash between Liverpool and Chelsea over the weekend, Villas-Boas, while still cutting as suave a figure as ever, was losing some of his cool. The Blues, in order, lost to QPR in a match in which their delightful captain John Terry (allegedly) racially abused Anton Ferdinand, just squeaked by Everton in a Carling Cup match, got tonked by Arsenal, drew with Genk (Genk!), and barely beat Blackburn.” Grantland (Video)

“Game of the Week: Tottenham 3, Fulham 1. The Reducer knows there are lots of ways to choose the football team you’re going to support. Maybe there’s some kind of personal/historical reason, like your parents met on a blind date in a pub near Highbury. Or perhaps your support is some kind of extension of your ideology; like you enjoy being alone, so you like Wigan. But in the absence of any kind of come-to-Maradona/Jesus moment, you can always choose a team based on your affinity for the way it plays. In which case, you should probably be screaming, ‘Come on, you Spurs!’ at the top of your lungs.” Grantland (Video)

“What do you call a match that had eight goals, was played at Red Bull-on-an-IV-drip pace, and featured breathtaking passing movements executed at fast-forward speed? A match that had the heartwarming rise of one of Britain’s best young talents, a telepathic assist from a man with a very strange hairline, a world-class performance from one of the hottest strikers in Europe, The Reducer’s favorite kind of goal celebration, and a cameo from Epithetus, the Greek god of alleged racial abuse? Why, it’s the match of the season, comrades! Arsenal and Chelsea had a throwdown on Saturday, with the Gunners winning, away. 5-3. And it was one of the great football matches in recent memory.” Grantland (Video)