The relegation scrap is much less predictable. It could really be from anyone who came below Liverpool last season – so that’s from West Bromwich Albion who finished 8th downwards. Swansea are rightly applauded for their style of football, but despite coming 9th – a great position for the club – they were only 10 points clear of relegated Wigan Athletic. And 17th placed Sunderland were only a draw and two wins away from them in the points department. The Swans thumped Queens Park Rangers 5-0 on the opening day of that season, so it exemplified the sort of campaign that the Hoops would have, but the season before, Bolton Wanderers beat them 4-0, and were relegated instead of the west London side. So it swings in roundabouts. Wolverhampton Wanderers won two and drew one of their first three matches of that 2011-12 campaign, but went down as one of the worst sides to ever grace the Premiership. Here we are 15 months on, and they’re playing Crawley Town this Friday in League One. What can we gauge from Fulham’s 1-0 win over Sunderland, or Southampton’s over West Brom by the same score line? Not a lot to be honest. Lower down in recent years we have seen Norwich City lose 7-1 to Colchester United in League One then quickly recover to storm to two automatic promotions. And last August saw Crystal Palace lose their first three games in the Championship having finished in the bottom half of the table in the previous four seasons before reaching the top-flight. So who knows (rhetorical, folks). Chelsea’s dominance of Hull for the majority of the game was a sign of what is to come at Stamford Bridge and beyond this season, but even if they lost to the newly-promoted club, it wouldn’t have meant that they would be in a relegation dog fight at the expense of their opponents. We all know who’s going to be in serious contention for the championship this season. Or do we? The last time a side who were not considered to be serious title contenders, but were, was probably Newcastle in 1996. They were promoted to the big time in 1993, then finished 3rd and 6th the following two campaigns, and though they were likely to be in the mix, not many people predicted they would be in with a shout for the title right up until the final day. Since then, we’ve had a very clear idea of who will be there and thereabouts. In recent years, if Arsenal had a blip, then Liverpool may take the mantle; if Liverpool stuttered then Chelsea would do likewise. Arsenal and Liverpool’s places have since been taken over by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur respectively. Very respectively in fact. I’ve never seen or heard Spurs turn round to Liverpool and go ‘‘ner, ner, NER, ner, ner!’’ with their thumb on their nose mocking the Reds. We don’t get a club from nowhere challenging for the prize like, say, Norwich in 1993. Some ‘outsiders’ break into the top six like Newcastle did in 2011-12 and City before them, but I cannot see another ‘Norwich’ somewhere, can you? Ipswich came fifth in 2001 a year after being promoted, but they were not in contention for the title. With the well-publicised managerial upheavals and sagas engulfing last season’s top seven teams, could this be the season for it to happen? Basically, from what we saw on the opening weekend, the title will be contested by the usual suspects, while relegation is a lottery between 13 clubs. But we knew that anyway didn’t we – whatever the results? So if you did want to find out what we learned from last weekend by reading this then you’ve wasted your time. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
What do you think the opening weekend of the season tells us about the rest of it? Feel free to leave me any comments on here and/or on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or YouTube:
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