EPL Wrap 2012

Technically, it's not truly over.  There is that bit about who is going to Champions League next season.  If Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on the 19th, then, as CL winners, they go, despite finishing the EPL season in 6th, and 4th place Spurs go to Europa League.  Blame the 'fairness' that is FIFA and UEFA for that.  Can't have too many teams from the same league despite the fact that some of the teams that qualify would get crushed by a 2. Bundesliga team, but I digress...

Let's look back at the predictions for this season for the EPL.

It just doesn't look pretty.

Sure, it wasn't hard to pick Man U finishing in the top 2.  What went from there, was a little bit more speculation.

2011-2012 Barclays Premier League Table (per ESPN)*
			Overall							Home						Away
POS		TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1		Manchester City	38	28	5	5	93	29		18	1	0	55	12		10	4	5	38	17		64	89
2		Manchester United	38	28	5	5	89	33		15	2	2	52	19		13	3	3	37	14		56	89
3		Arsenal	38	21	7	10	74	49		12	4	3	39	17		9	3	7	35	32		25	70
4		Tottenham Hotspur	38	20	9	9	66	41		13	3	3	39	17		7	6	6	27	24		25	69
5		Newcastle United	38	19	8	11	56	51		11	5	3	29	17		8	3	8	27	34		5	65
6		Chelsea	38	18	10	10	65	46		12	3	4	41	24		6	7	6	24	22		19	64
7		Everton	38	15	11	12	50	40		10	3	6	28	15		5	8	6	22	25		10	56
8		Liverpool	38	14	10	14	47	40		6	9	4	24	16		8	1	10	23	24		7	52
9		Fulham	38	14	10	14	48	51		10	5	4	36	26		4	5	10	12	25		-3	52
10		West Bromwich Albion	38	13	8	17	45	52		6	3	10	21	22		7	5	7	24	30		-7	47
11		Swansea City	38	12	11	15	44	51		8	7	4	27	18		4	4	11	17	33		-7	47
12		Norwich City	38	12	11	15	52	66		7	6	6	28	30		5	5	9	24	36		-14	47
13		Sunderland	38	11	12	15	45	46		7	7	5	26	17		4	5	10	19	29		-1	45
14		Stoke City	38	11	12	15	36	53		7	8	4	25	20		4	4	11	11	33		-17	45
15		Wigan Athletic	38	11	10	17	42	62		5	7	7	22	27		6	3	10	20	35		-20	43
16		Aston Villa	38	7	17	14	37	53		4	7	8	20	25		3	10	6	17	28		-16	38
17		Queens Park Rangers	38	10	7	21	43	66		7	5	7	24	25		3	2	14	19	41		-23	37
18		Bolton Wanderers	38	10	6	22	46	77		4	4	11	23	39		6	2	11	23	38		-31	36
19		Blackburn Rovers	38	8	7	23	48	78		6	1	12	26	33		2	6	11	22	45		-30	31
20		Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	5	10	23	40	82		3	3	13	19	43		2	7	10	21	39		-42	25

I think the biggest surprise had to be Newcastle.  While we all expected Ashley and Co to fall on their face, they picked up a few stragglers like Cisse and did well for themselves...very well. And this, all after selling Andy Carroll.

On the reverse end, QPR had a lot of promise and despite picking up a surprisingly not arrested Joey Barton, they barely stayed above the drop.  Bolton suffered the unfortunate fate of missing the mark and probably would have done better had Holden been healthy for the season.  That said, 1 player isn't going to change the team, so it is from our hearts that we congratulate all the newcomers this season that managed to stay up.

Of all the surprises, perhaps the biggest shocker to us was the firing of Villas Boras and the poor consistency of Chelsea.  Liverpool's failings not withstanding, Chelsea finishing outside the Top 4 for the first time in years surely will mean a big shake up in the offseason.  If they can manage to win the CL this weekend, Di Matteo surely has to be the favorite to stay on as skipper.

Spurs had their usual bad month, albeit this time a little earlier in the season that saw them win 1 of 9 matches...  In the end, if they don't go to the CL, expect Modric, Bale and RVV to all leave.  It's doubtful that Ade will be back, considering Man City won it all without him, so expect him to be sold to the highest bidder in the offseason.

Villas Boras, Daiglish and McLeish are all canned.  

Golden Boot: Van Persie (Arsenal)
     - single handedly kept Arsenal in it with his 30 goals.  Rooney came in 2nd with 27 and Aguero with 23, was
           3rd.
Player to Watch:  Tough time arguing against Van Persie, but if I did, I'd say Dempsey.  17 goals this season and
     cleared the 50 goal mark in the EPL (a first for a USMNT player).  Don't expect him to stick around Fulham
     when the big clubs come calling this summer.

After that, we got a lot of the predictions muddled.  Honestly, the Professor did well, but even he flubbed a few.  Considering how much money wasn't spent during the January transfer and how dominating Man City was, I'm surprised we didn't do better (unless we were just trying to not pick City out of spite).  Grade: C-

Winner: The Professor  














So what are your thoughts on how this season went?