Chelsea saw an end to their perfect start to the season on the weekend. (Photo by John_Dobbo/credit below)
THANK YOU, English Premier League, for proving what many already knew — that nobody really knows how a season is going to play out.
Sure, we can safely assume that the big four — Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal — will most likely assume their usual positions in the table by season’s end, despite Man City’s and Tottenham’s best efforts to disrupt the status quo at this early stage.
But aside from the league powers continuing their dominance, nothing is guaranteed in the Premiership. Each week brings surprises and that’s one of the reasons U.S. football fans invest their time and money into watching matches each week.
There’s no shortage of drama.
Last week in this column space, I trumpeted Chelsea as the best team in the Prem.
A week later, Wigan, which is quickly becoming my favorite side not named Tottenham or Stoke City, blasted the Blues, 3-1, at the DW Stadium, ending Chelsea’s perfect start to the season. It was the Latics’ first-ever victory over a top four side and it was no doubt the most surprising EPL result of the weekend.
The loss won’t ruin Chelsea’s season and the win won’t send Wigan on a run of victories that will have it challenging for a spot in the Champions League. But the result was a pleasant reminder that none of the teams in the Premier League are unbeatable. All 20 teams have at least one loss now. Something about that just feels right.
Last week I also lauded the efforts of the three promoted teams — Burnley, Birmingham and Wolves.
How did the new boys repay me? By going out and losing, in embarrassing fashion in some cases.
My Spurs did Burnley, 5-0, at White Hart Lane behind four Robbie Keane goals and a deflected strike from Jermaine Jenas. Birmingham lost to Bolton at home, 2-1, and Wolverhampton came from two goals down to tie its match with Sunderland before the Mackems reeled off three unanswered tallies for a 5-2 win at the Stadium of Light.
I hinted last week that this season might be the one for all three promoted sides to stay up. I’m sticking to that pseudo prediction, but I’m not putting money on it.
However, there is one bet we can all safely make right now — none of us know what’s going to happen from week to week in English football.
But we do know it will be entertaining as hell watching it unfold.
Photo credit: Flickr-John_Dobbo / CC BY-SA 2.0
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