Trevor Steven: Why Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri had the best result of the Premier League’s opening weekend August 14, 2018 On an opening weekend that saw most Premier League results unfold as you would have expected there was one that stood out. Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Huddersfield was no upset, but a long trip to Yorkshire still represented a tough test for a new-look Blues team and it could have turned into a difficult afternoon. [...]
A new Premier League season is upon us: Here are 5 key rule changes that may affect how the campaign transpires | City A.M. August 10, 2018 With a new Premier League season upon us, how will fans, players and managers react to a plethora of adaptations in the rule book? Here are five key changes for this campaign. VAR or no VAR? The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has been excluded for this Premier League season, amid ongoing controversy over its usage. [...]
Five Premier League transfer window trends: Costly keepers and mid-table sprees but spending falls for first time this decade | City A.M. August 9, 2018 With a flurry of left-field deals rather than a slew of blockbuster signings, the summer transfer window closed for English clubs yesterday. These are the key trends. Spending down For the first summer since 2009, aggregate spending among Premier League clubs fell year-on-year. Having obliterated records with a £1.4bn outlay in 2017, the 20 clubs [...]
How Premier League clubs are using social media in global football supporter arms race | City A.M. August 9, 2018 Premier League teams may be about to resume hostilities this weekend, but away from the field on social media the battle for supremacy never went away. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Weibo have emerged as key frontiers for clubs from the world’s most high-profile competition as they aim to attract an increasingly global supporter base. And [...]
Trevor Steven’s Premier League preview: Manchester City will see off Liverpool in a two-horse title race and Arsenal could surprise everyone | City A.M. August 9, 2018 With the World Cup long forgotten already all focus has switched back to the Premier League and, like everyone, I’m hugely looking forward to the new season starting this weekend. It’s the best league in the world and that’s not just my view – Chelsea’s new boss Maurizio Sarri has said it himself. People want [...]
From supply and demand to game theory, football is full of economics lessons | City A.M. August 8, 2018 The football transfer window closes tomorrow, and the opening days of August have seen the usual flurry of activity at all levels. The window in the rest of Europe stays open until the end of the month. Do we detect here the hands of Monsieur Barnier, in another dastardly European Commission plot to do us [...]
All change at Arsenal: What Stan Kroenke’s buyout and new manager Unai Emery mean for the Gunners’ Premier League hopes | City A.M. August 7, 2018 Patience is a difficult virtue to preach to a set of fans who waited years for a change of direction at their club. But now that change has come at Arsenal – and to the extent that scarcely any corner of the club remains untouched by the overhaul of the last few months – patience [...]
Stan Kroenke tables £1.8bn cash offer to buy Arsenal | City A.M. August 7, 2018 US sports tycoon Stan Kroenke has made an all-cash offer to buy Arsenal in a deal valuing the club at £1.8bn. Kroenke already owns 67 per cent of the football club’s shares, but wants to buy the remaining stock and make the company 100 per cent privately owned. The second largest shareholder of the club [...]
Fulham season preview: Why optimism is in the air on their return to the Premier League | City A.M. August 6, 2018 Newly promoted sides are expected to feel a bit of apprehension upon the dawning of a new season. Making the step from the Championship to the Premier League is undoubtedly a tough task, after all. For Fulham, that task is made harder by their route to the promised land. Slavisa Jokanovic’s side beat Aston Villa [...]
Is the Premier League spending spree over? Transfer window alteration and broadcast revenue dip could explain expenditure | City A.M. August 1, 2018 If not quite at death and taxes levels of certainty, there has been a marked predictability about the volume of spending indulged in by Premier League clubs during every close season. Each summer for the last eight years, the total amount spent on new players during the transfer window by England’s top-division clubs has reached [...]