Page 5 - Chelsea
- February 08, 2016
Has there ever been a Premier League season as tumultuous and unpredictable as this one? Starting with Chelsea's complete and utter collapse and continuing with surprisingly limp campaigns from both Liverpool and Manchester United, the 2015/16 English Premier League has been anything but a foregone conclusion. In fact, 25 weeks into the competition (and with only 13 games to go until the end of the season), the EPL title is still anyone's game.
Leicester City: Your New Frontrunners?
Leicester City, previously part of the Premier League's so-called "middle class," have been one of the major game-changers this season. Spurred forward by a record-breaking scoring run from Jamie Vardy, the Foxes have been hanging around - February 08, 2016
There may be a few other kit manufacturers on the battlefield-like Puma or the newly involved New Balance-but for the most part, Adidas and Nike are the rulers of the football kit market. Ahead of the 2015/16 season, these two sporting gear companies held nine of the 11 most valuable kit manufacturing contracts in all of soccer. Judging just on contract price, Adidas was winning the battle at the start of the season, holding all four of the most valuable kit deals (Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Real Madrid). Nike's top soccer properties, meanwhile-Barcelona, Manchester City, and Paris Saint Germain-aren't quite as high-grossing, since those deals were all signed two or more years ago.
But what about aesthetic and performance? Whose jerseys look better this season and whose kits have been worn by the better-performing football clubs? Read on for Soccer Box's rundown of who made the better football kits for the 2015/16 campaign. - February 04, 2016
The January transfer window is never as eventful as the summer gap. Fewer teams dip into the market to flesh out their ranks or spend big on new stars, and fewer clubs are willing to let go of big stars. In other words, you're never going to see a Cristiano Ronaldo transfer in January, or any transfer fees that land in the top 10 or 20 of all time. Still, this year's January window was bigger than it has been in the past, with Premier League spending topping £1 billion for the first time ever. Read on to find out which clubs made the biggest signings of the month.
Pep Guardiola: Sure, he's not a player, but the deadline day announcement that Pep Guardiola is indeed on his way to Manchester City handily overshadowed everything that was going on in the - February 03, 2016
Jorge Sampaoli is on the move, but where could he land next?
The 55-year-old Argentine manager has been the head coach of the Chile national football team since 2012, and he's orchestrated some pretty marvelous moments for the organization. Just last year, Sampaoli led Chile to their first-ever win in the Copa America, leading the soccer squad to a narrow, nail-biting victory over the Lionel Messi-led Argentina team. The championship match was an evenly matched contest if there ever was one, with the score still tied 0-0 after 120 minutes of full-time and extra time. Chile won the shootout 4-1, with Messi the only player from Argentina's side to make his penalty kick.
Add a solid round of 16 runs in the 2014 World Cup and a promising squad that included Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez, and Chile seemed to have hit a new high-water mark under Sampaoli. The manager even earned a 2015 Coach of the Year nomination from FIFA. Now, though, the coach has resigned from his job following - February 02, 2016
A year ago, by the time the fifth round of the 2014/15 FA Cup rolled around, only three heavyweight Premier League clubs had survived the eliminations. Those three teams-Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United-had managed to avoid an upset-ridden fourth round that had sent Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Southampton (among others) packing. Arsenal went on to win the tournament, beating Aston Villa in the finals for a second consecutive FA Cup trophy.
This year, things could hardly be more different. Most of the football clubs to qualify for the round of 16 in the 2015/16 FA Cup are big names from the Premier League. The fourth round of the tournament-played this past weekend, in place of regular league competition-saw Arsenal, both Manchester teams, Chelsea, Everton, and Crystal Palace all earning spots in the final 16. Furthermore, most of those soccer - February 01, 2016
2015 was, in many ways, a banner year for women's football. The summer's Women's World Cup was both a viral sensation and a ratings juggernaut, garnering tons of attention on Twitter and scoring viewership figures typically unprecedented for the tournament. Particularly in the United States-whose women's national team won their third Women's World Cup title in 2015-the tournament was a hit. Airing on the Fox Network, the tournament garnered a little shy of 23 million American viewers-not only making it the most-watched soccer game ever for U.S. audiences, but also delivering numbers comparable to Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series. Considering that baseball is generally much bigger in the United States than soccer, that stat is a remarkable one.
Women's football also got more interest in Europe last year. The Women's FA Cup-played at Wembley Stadium between Notts County and FA WSL champions Chelsea-drew an attendance of over 30,000 fans. That figure shattered - January 29, 2016
By Karl Matchett.
Chelsea are a club in transition once again, much sooner than they expected to be and in a far more volatile way than anybody could have expected, still only eight months after they won the Premier League title under Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese man is gone, Guus Hiddink is in-though another, more permanent, appointment will be made for head coach in the summer. The new new boss will have a mix of established talent and young prospects to work with, as well as an array of veterans who continue to divide opinion over their lingering suitability and level of quality.
Whoever comes in it can be expected that the blues will make significant changes to their squad in the summer, and still potentially even an addition in the final days of this transfer window; here we identify the three most
- January 29, 2016
The 2015/16 football campaign is barely half done at this point, and the English Premier League has already been a bloodbath in terms of management shakeups. Liverpool sacked Brendan Rodgers; Aston Villa fired Tim Sherwood; Sunderland dismissed Dick Advocaat; Meanwhile, other managers like Louis van Gaal (Manchester United) and Steve McClaren (Newcastle United) could very well not last until the end of the season in their current positions.
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A New Sacking Record
The Premier League's turnover rate has been modest compared to that of the Championship, too. Indeed, England's second professional football tier has sacked a combined total of 10 managers so far this season. In fact, according to the LMA - January 25, 2016
Don't call it a comeback just yet, but Chelsea FC are beginning to resemble their old consistent selves again. The Blues haven't lost a match since Guus Hiddink took over as manager. Indeed, their last defeat came on December 14th against Leicester City-the last game for which Jose Mourinho was in charge. Granted, it hasn't been all wins for Chelsea since. The soccer club drew matches against Watford, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, and Everton. But sprinkled in among those stalemates have been a few promising victories, and the most promising of those yet took place over the weekend against Arsenal.
The last time the Blues took on their London rivals, it was the sixth week of the 2015/16 Premier League season and things were beginning to look dire for Chelsea. The football club had only won one of their first five matches, leaving the reigning Premier League champions in a not-so-stellar 16th place. Despite what was clearly a low-momentum time for - January 21, 2016
By Greg Lea.
It was the ultimate game of two halves. While the first period of Chelsea and Everton's Premier League clash on Saturday was largely devoid of entertainment, the second 45 minutes were among the most enjoyable of the English season so far. 0-0 at the interval, the game finished 3-3, a result that did not really suit either manager.
Roberto Martinez was highly critical of the officials in his post-match press conference, with the Everton boss fuming at the decision to allow Chelsea's stoppage-time equaliser despite goalscorer John Terry being in an offside position when he provided the decisive touch. Guus Hiddink, who sympathised with his counterpart's complaint, focused on praising the character of his players, but he nevertheless must have been disappointed that his side were only able to pick up a point at Stamford Bridge for the second time in four days.
