So with the most exciting Premier League Season over and the Euro's being a couple of weeks away, 'FA Cup Vinyl' have had plenty of time to reflect on this truly remarkable season full of twists and turns, here we name the three teams in the Premier League that we've grown to admire.
Chelsea
What a second half of the season it has been for Chelsea, and whether you like them or not you have to admire them. Under Andre Villas Boas it seemed that everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. A bright young manager with a good pedigree, he had previously won the treble with Porto last season and worked under the wings of a previous Chelsea managerial legend Mr. Jose Mourinho. It seemed ideal and different from Chelsea opting for a young, fresh talent to take the reigns of Stamford Bridge, but different doesn't always mean better. Losses to Manchester United and Arsenal may not have been shocking but the manners in which they lost did not help. The 5-3 loss at home to Arsenal highlighted the cracks and faults in Andre Villas Boas reign and put him under pressure in the public eye. Fallouts with players, the media and anyone who dared questioned his methods, it simply became a question of when rather than might Mr. Roman Abramovich wield the axe. Eventually it became the matches that Chelsea were expected to win that led to AVB's downfall, a 1-0 loss to QPR, a 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa and the final nail in the coffin, a 1-0 loss to West Brom signified the end of Mr. Villas Boas' short reign. So with Chelsea out of the Premier League title race, out of the top four and trailing a 3-1 loss to Napoli in the Champions League it seemed their season was over. Or so it would seem when one man came to Chelsea's rescue and that man is Roberto Di Matteo. Flash forward, two months and under RDM, Chelsea produced arguably some of their best results in their modern history, a 5-1 mauling of London rivals Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final followed by emerging victorious in the final with a 2-1 victory over the red of Merseyside Liverpool, winning a staggering 4th FA Cup in six seasons. Oh, and they managed to knock the team that is dominating world football and Champions League holders Barcelona out of the Champions League on their home soil. Despite this, Chelsea's season is still yet to end, with a mouth watering final against Bayern Munich on May 19th. So with such a turnaround in a matter of months, it raises two questions. 1) Why hasn't Roberto Di Matteo been named permanent manager? And 2) Can Chelsea do the unthinkable (again) and manage to defeat the German giants on their own turf? One thing is for certain though, we'll be tuning in to find out.
Newcastle United
The bookies made them one of the favourites for relegation at the start of the season, and they narrowly missed out on the top 4 at the end of the season. Now, I'm not a gambling man but it is hard to not bet that the success is largely down to Alan Pardew's managerial approach and shrewd business in the transfer market. After selling what was largely Newcastle's backbone last season of Joey Barton, Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan, the captain many thought Newcastle would struggle but it turned out to be quite the opposite with two players grabbing most of the headlines on Tyneside, the Senegalese duo Demba Ba and his counterpart Papiss Cisse. Ba and Cisse have been the driving force for Newcastle's quest to bring Champions League football back to the Magpies, providing a staggering 30 goals between them, including a goal of the season contender i.e. Cisse's wonder goal against Chelsea, which if you haven't seen it then what the hell have you been doing? What makes that statistic even more incredible is the two Sengegalese strikers were only a joint cost of £10m. I know, and to think there was Geordie outcry when a certain Andy Carroll went to Liverpool for £35m, this once again makes the statistics even more incredible, but it's no surprise. In little over two years, Alan Pardew has managed to transform the doom and gloom surrounding Newcastle after their relegation and turn them into serious contenders for a top four finish. After buying other impressive players such as Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye, and outstanding performances from existing players such as Coloccini (who has been named in Premier league XI of the season) and Jonas Gutierrez, Pardew has created a team with backbone that can compete with the elite, while to delight of the black and white side of Newcastle making sure they are the number one team in Tyneside. That is why it is no surprise that Mr Pardew has just been named Premier League manager of the season and we couldn't agree more.
Swansea City
They've been dubbed the 'Welsh Barcelona' with their slick passing football and while that name is terrible, it is hard to disagree with Brendan Rogers' team impressing everybody this season. Promoted after defeating newly promoted Reading last year, Swansea made it to the big time as the first Welsh team in the Premier League, whilst playing excellent attractive football that has attracted many neutrals and plaudits. At the start of the season they were seen as one of the favourites in the relegation battle along with their fellow promoted teams Norwich and QPR as well as Newcastle, shows why I'm not a gambling man. However it seemed a safe bet after a 4-0 thrashing at the start of the season to Man City, followed by two 0-0's against Wigan and Sunderland it seemed these swans were falling rather than flying. A terrible pun, I know but then 'Swans-alona' started to have a change in luck. (That was also terrible, I'm trying to stick with a theme of awful puns and cliches in this.) Things began to improve when they recorded their first victory in September beating Bolton 3-1, but the best was yet to come. Typically, newly promoted teams have a good season if they managed to stay up, but 'The Swans' have fared much better. Finishing the season in 11th on the same amount of points as their fellow promoted team Norwich, Swans-alona have not only staved off relegation with some comfort, they have also notched up some impressive wins, defeating the Premier League Champions Manchester City, 3rd placed Arsenal and Liverpool. This shows another remarkable performance by a newly promoted team in the Premier League and like their promotion counterparts Norwich, have done so playing good, attractive football. Not bad for a team that the bookies rated that 'the king has more chance of returning than Swansea staying up'. Players such as top goal scorer Danny Graham, Scott Sinclair and the rather impressive loanee Sigurdsson have helped Swansea, defy the critics. It seems the Welsh team were more elegant swans than ugly ducklings this season. (I told you about the theme of awful puns and cliches).
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