Only a couple of days before the 2nd half of the season begins – what are some of your observations about the league in general and some other teams and managers?
For me the biggest difference compared to last season is the emergence of a healthy-looking "middle class" – last season the gap between the top 6 and the rest was quite embarrassing, everyone besides Burnley who overachieved was pretty much in the relegation battle for most of the campaign. This time, there is a bit of a gap between the 5 or 6 bottom-feeders and the rest of the teams who are all ambitious, often wealthy, follow a coherent development strategy and employ progressive managers.
Leicester, Everton, West Ham, Watford, and Wolves and the overachievers Brighton are all very much OK this season and with most of them you don't get a sense of teams just content with treading water – they want to play football and challenge the big boys, many of them are also smartly developing their own crop of talented young players or have a steady stream of talent coming in from overseas. Even Hodgson at Palace has far more genuine quality and flair players to work with than the likes of him, Pulis or Pardew ever had and now that Saints and Fulham have replaced their ineffective managers, they also look to be on the way up. To think that the second from bottom Fulham has players like Seri (who was linked with Barcelona and United in the summer), Sessegnon, and World Cup winner Schurrle and is managed by the PL winner Ranieri is just insane and shows the quality of this league top to bottom.
At the top, with Wenger and now Mourinho gone and Sarri at Chelsea also a much more likable and progressive breed of manager than their last few, there is a lot more positive feeling all-around. However, I wonder if the top 6 will have harder time picking up points in the 2nd half of the season as the managers the likes of West Ham, Leicester, Saints, Wolves and others seem to be gradually turning their teams around and improving their ability to implement their ideas.
For me the biggest difference compared to last season is the emergence of a healthy-looking "middle class" – last season the gap between the top 6 and the rest was quite embarrassing, everyone besides Burnley who overachieved was pretty much in the relegation battle for most of the campaign. This time, there is a bit of a gap between the 5 or 6 bottom-feeders and the rest of the teams who are all ambitious, often wealthy, follow a coherent development strategy and employ progressive managers.
Leicester, Everton, West Ham, Watford, and Wolves and the overachievers Brighton are all very much OK this season and with most of them you don't get a sense of teams just content with treading water – they want to play football and challenge the big boys, many of them are also smartly developing their own crop of talented young players or have a steady stream of talent coming in from overseas. Even Hodgson at Palace has far more genuine quality and flair players to work with than the likes of him, Pulis or Pardew ever had and now that Saints and Fulham have replaced their ineffective managers, they also look to be on the way up. To think that the second from bottom Fulham has players like Seri (who was linked with Barcelona and United in the summer), Sessegnon, and World Cup winner Schurrle and is managed by the PL winner Ranieri is just insane and shows the quality of this league top to bottom.
At the top, with Wenger and now Mourinho gone and Sarri at Chelsea also a much more likable and progressive breed of manager than their last few, there is a lot more positive feeling all-around. However, I wonder if the top 6 will have harder time picking up points in the 2nd half of the season as the managers the likes of West Ham, Leicester, Saints, Wolves and others seem to be gradually turning their teams around and improving their ability to implement their ideas.
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