Complete English Premier League Table, 1993-2011

Yes, we know, we're stat-heads and have no life. At least, that's what it feels like at times! But the pointy-heads at Balanced Sports have spent the past several hours slaving over an increasingly hot lap-top to bring you THE COMPLETE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE since 1993!

Manchester United sits atop with twelve titles, but who sits behind them? Arsenal? Chelsea? Palace? The Battersea Home for Lost Dogs third XI ... click across to find out. (It's too big to post here).

The Ten-Year Premiership Table

We've been working hard and mindlessly to bring you special stats pages on Balanced Sports. You can find out all about which players contribute most to their team scoring, how the English Premiership ladder would look over a decade, rather than a season, or how each EPL Goalkeeper performed last year compared to his peers.

Our newest addition is the 2002-11 Cumulative EPL Table. Take a peek to see how your club fared.

Enjoy!

Time for Wigan to accept their destiny: The Championship

The Premiership is richer for the passing game of Blackpool and Wigan Athletic. The same could be said about their respective locations, nestled in smaller markets in England's Northwest. The Latics and the Tangerines don't necessarily bring a lot of fans, but they certainly offer a different feel to big-city clubs like the clubs' possible replacement QPR. What they may subtract from the league in fan numbers, they replace in diversity.

While receiving the occasional pasting this year, both clubs sill chase survival after wins last week; Blackpool downed Bolton in their usual shootout, while the Latics sealed West Ham's fate with a comeback from two goals down. Both wins could be regarded as an fine examples of their opponents' profligacy or generosity, but it would be extremely ungenerous to suggest these successes were the result only of their opponents shortcomings.

Perhaps now, before potentially their last game in the EPL for some time, it's a good time to examine Wigan's Premiership heritage. They are the picture of a division-climbing club, having elevated themselves - courtesy Dave Whelan's JJB Sports in the early days - from the old Third Division to their current position as the Premiership's youngest (founded 1932) but 12th-longest tenured team. To this point, they've outlasted sixteen different teams and changed managers four times, moving from Jewell-ball through the disastrous Chris Hutchings era to Brucie-ball and now have (mostly) acclimatised to Martinez's passing style. They've been involved in perhaps the most dramatic final-day match in recent memory, their encounter with Sheffield United that saw former Blade David Unsworth slot the deciding penalty to retain their top-tier status.

Unfortunately, aside from a nice first season, that incredible spectacle may prove the lasting image and best moment in Wigan's EPL legacy. Over recent years, Dave Whelan has sold his JJB Sports business, Steve Bruce moved to manage Sunderland and took with him his extraordinary Central & South American scouting network (resulting in Latics like Hendry Thomas, Maynor Figuero, Hugo Rodallega and most notably, Wilson Palacios); finally, they've managed only average results from Roberto Martinez's flowing football. Crowds at the DW Stadium - the reading of which always proving something of a fraught exercise given Wigan's proximity to English Rugby country - have dropped an avaerage of 1200 this season to a little more than 16,800. This marks the third straight year of decline.

While this is likely to be an incredibly unpopular opinion with Latic fans, maybe it's time for Wigan to fade into the Championship. To the neutral observer, their Premiership stint has been generally one coloured in varying tones of beige and as their crowds opt for distractions anew, they are joined by the rest of the league; where Wigan are considered only when they appear on the fixture list. The diversity they bring to the league has become overshadowed by the disregard in which they are held by opposing fans. And with the emergence of Swansea City and Blackpool there are, for the first time in a few years, replacements on hand in style and locale.

It could be that the Championship is their level and the Latics have overachieved for years. This season's average attendance would rank mid-table in the Championship and would likely drop to match the playing level. Squad investment hasn't been there in recent years, with the relatively high-price purchases of Boselli and N'Zogbia overshadowed by the departures of Antonio Valencia (£16M) and Palacios (£ 12M). This is reflected somewhat in Whelan's heartwarming suggestions that Martinez's job is safe in sickness (relegation) or in health (survival). For two years, their first priority has not been to thrive in the top flight, but only to survive.

It's a simple fact of football that it's difficult to continue competing without adequate (and wise) investment: in some respects owners must throw good money after bad. Attempting to turn a profit by buying low and selling high is a laudable school of thought, but it's also a recipe for eventual (and potentially terminal) struggle as Middlesbrough discovered in 2009. The Latics have had a good run in the Premiership and may well survive to fight another year. But without substantial financial commitment, can they hope for any further development from their current squad? The answer, unfortunately, is at best a "maybe".

With all depending on what projects as a wonderful "Survival Sunday", we'll know sooner rather than later. Wigan may have drawn the best fixture, seeing them fighting against Stoke City, who's season effectively ended with last week's FA Cup final. Unlike their Nor'west Tangerine rivals, they don't face United. Unlike the Brummies, they aren't away to Spurs. They don't face another hungry relegation candidate as when Wolves and Blackburn meet. Their destiny remains their own - another year of overachievement and struggle, or perhaps this group is the one which accepts what appears to be their eventual fate: away matches at Coventry, Ipswich and Derby County.

Image of Roberto Martinez courtesy: www.guardian.co.uk

Image of Mauro Boselli courtesy: www.clicklancashire.co.uk

Balanced Sports on Soccerlens & The Roar

Balanced Sports has been published on Australian sports opinion website The Roar, with pieces by Matthew Wood on Bobby Davis and how the 2011 edition of the Geelong FC being "Crap Invincibles".

We've also been published on Soccerlens, detailing how West Ham can bounce straight back up from relegation to the Championship.

Geelong, like Manchester United, are the "Crap Invincibles"

Geelong's unbeaten start to the AFL season has surprised many. Even so, their gritty three-point victory on Friday night perhaps stamped them again as a viable Premiership threat. Pre-season the Cats were daubed old, one-paced and vulnerable not for any lack of skill - they still boast players such as Enright, Corey, Chapman, Scarlett and golden child Joel Selwood - but because they'd lost their best player and their fabled "window" was closing. Rumours of their demise have been greatly overstated. While many expected the Cats to fall from contention this season, they've done quite the opposite.

This is hardly a different viewpoint to some reports emanating from Victoria. The Cats still bear (most of) the fruit of a decade's intelligent drafting and their core, though nearer retirement than debut, may eke out another triumph or two. The Premiership may be a bridge too far, but it is now firmly on the Cats' radar.

This isn't the first time such successful renewal on the fly has happened at the Cattery. In 1995, nearly broken from three Grand Final defeats, Malcolm Blight walked away from coaching Geelong to be replaced by his assistant Gary Ayres. The former Hawthorn defender wanted to toughen a notoriously freewheeling and attack-minded club and got immediate results. The Cats hardened up and were rewarded with another Grand Final appearance that year only to be demolished by an irresistible Carlton unit. They made the finals again in 1997 - with a team many thought much improved over their mid-90s teams - and were eliminated after losing in Adelaide amidst the drama of Leigh Colbert's phantom mark.

These memories have been re-awakened this year. Rookie coach Chris Scott - in his playing days an uncompromising defender like Ayres - has revitalised some aspects of the playing group, most obviously David Wojcinski. He has empowered others, like Taylor Hunt and Daniel Menzel. But more than that, he and the club don't subscribe to 2010 tactics that then-coach Mark Thompson admitted were flawed. The Cats have begun to grind out results as if they've become so accustomed to winning that they have simply just continued this learned behaviour, albeit in a different style.

A parallel can be drawn from the land of tea, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who and Pippa Middleton. Manchester United were crowned English Premier Leauge Champions on Saturday, capturing their fourth title in five years. This triumph has been touted rightly as one of Sir Alex Ferguson's greatest achievements: his team - missing Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and (mostly) Wayne Rooney's form - clung onto top position relying on an ageing squad sprinkled with youth.

In 2010, United lost the title to Chelseas and pundits predicted a fall-off. The squad - with only one new player really contributing - went unbeaten into February, the equivalent of the AFL's Round 16. The ESPN Soccernet podcast dubbed Ferguson's mob "The Crap Invincibles" for their ability to avoid defeat yet look totally uninspiring doing it.

Although the AFL's answer to Sir Alex is working in his lab preparing to mastermind an orange outfit into season 2012, it sounds familiar, doesn't it? While the Cats have been impressive so far, the high-scoring juggernaut of 2007 is gone. Like United, Geelong has the enviable gift of being able to win despite their skills not being at their peak. They are the AFL's "Crap Invincibles". This isn't an insult - quite the opposite - their ability to get results such as Friday night's win (against a Magpie outfit they at times looked unable to cope with) is testament to their determination and smarts. They are achieving not because of what they can do physically, but because of strength of character.

Neither club's time-derived ability to win has died. In fact, though their squads are unquestionably weaker than during their pomp of 2007-08, their collective nous has perhaps increased. Injury time has become synonymous with a United rally and goal, while the Cats have made a (slightly annoying but understandable) habit of being able to overpower their opposition with a quarter and a half of devastating play. The popular adage states that success breeds success. It couldn't be more true than in Geelong or Manchester United.

Chris Scott image courtesy: theage.com.au

Sir Alex Ferguson image courtesy: simply-reds.blogspot.com

Blackpool, Premiership strugglers, stick to their (pop) guns

Though Ian Holloway has earned plaudits for his attacking play and forthright press conferences as well as Charlie Adam for his "wonderful left peg", it could be that their Blackpool team are doomed to relegation from the Premiership this season. Holloway's philosophy, which he said came about after a period out of the game where he watched too much boring football, is to attack at all costs - a vast difference from the dour style he favoured as manager of Bristol Rovers, QPR, Plymouth and Leicester.

Adam and a mildly-surprising DJ Campbell helped the Tangerines into the top half early this term with an flurry of goals, but the club has won only twice this year in the Premiership and now sits seventeenth, out of the drop zone only on goal difference. But the offensive style so favoured by the Seasiders has come at a cost - Blackpool have conceded seventy goals already this season, one of the worst totals in the Premier League over the past ten years. There are still three matches to go.

Only seven other times has a team shopped over seventy goals. Three of those times occurred last year as Wigan (79 goals conceded), Burnley (82 conceded) and Hull (75) got pounded repeatedly by larger clubs. Over the past decade, of all the teams that conceded more than Blackpool have this year, only last year's Wigan escaped relegation; a fact due probably more to other club's incompetence rather than any particular Latic resolve. So does a promoted team playing expansive football have any benefit - other than aesthetic - in the Premier League?

Holloway's men have a goal difference of -22, meaning they've conceded 22 more goals than they've scored. Since 2001-02, every other club who's conceded more than seventy goals in a season boasts a goal difference in excess of -35. His fast-paced tactics mean their scoring balanced (somewhat) the ineptitude of their defence leaving them better placed (for now and without them taking a disastrous thumping in their last three games) than every other porous club this decade. Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way: while 'Olly likes attacking football and instructs his club to play that way, he's probably correctly surmised that with the defence at his disposal, their best chance to avoid the drop is to attack.

However, football is more than stats. The Blackpool boss could have (again) correctly judged his club didn't have the mettle to compete against giants like United and Chelsea and thought it best to go out playing the style that got them to the Big Dance in the first place. As with Owen Coyle at Burnley and now Bolton, there's something to be said for sticking to one's principles. If Blackpool were to survive to fight again next year, many would celebrate: another year of Olly's sound-bites, more fluid football and the joy of supporting an underdog in the top flight.

Image courtesy http://live4liverpool.com

Goal Difference crucial for Premiership survival

The relegation battle this term in the Premiership has become increasingly intense. With Manchester United seemly stumbling towards the title as Arsenal and Manchester City reel off-course, the bottom of the table proves now to be the more intriguing sub-competition; a race no club or fan wants to win.

As we examined last week which Championship clubs from may take their place among English football's elite, the scrap for who replaces them in the second tier is in full flight. Seemingly European candidates two months ago, Sunderland are dropping like an action-movie elevator, while Blackpool's astonishing start to the season came undone at about exactly the same time as Charlie Adam's Liverpool move was rejected. On the other hand, Wolves have proved the most plucky of all the teams in the relegation zone yet still prop up the table, hit hard by injury to target-man Kevin Doyle.

What confuses this situation more than in years past is that there are no "certainties" for the drop. Last year Portsmouth failed to break twenty points (thanks among other things to a nine-point deduction for going into administration) and in 2008, Derby County broke Sunderland's record from 2006 for the fewest points in a season. There's no such luck for clubs hovering outside the zone this year - this season there are no easybeats. The entire bottom half of the Premiership table sits within one "six-pointer" of the drop zone.

When comparing this season to the previous six, there really is no precedent to the tightness in the relegation battle we see this year. In every other year, with the exception of 2009, there has been one club cut adrift at the bottom of the league. In 2009, that club was West Bromwich Albion, who rallied mildly at the tail-end of the season to finish with the same points tally as nineteenth-placed Middlesbrough.

Another trend over recent years has been that the tighter the relegation battle has become, the more impact Goal Difference has on which clubs survive. In 2007 and 2008, eight clubs each year finished the season within six points of relegation - or one crucial win against a fellow straggler. Excepting Derby County in 2008 (who finished the season with 11 points and an all time goal difference record of -69), it's easy to see that the average Goal Difference of relegation-threatened clubs decreases as the number of clubs "in trouble" increases. We've defined "threatened" as a club within six points of the drop zone.

Season	Clubs within 6 points of relegation zone	Average Goal Difference of threatened clubs
2010-11 (5 or 6 games remain)	10	-13.7
2009-10	5	-34.8
2008-09	5	-24.8
2007-08	8	-36.67 (incl. Derby County) -18.71 (excl. Derby Cty)
2006-07	8	-21.38
2005-06	4	-29.25
2004-05	5	-23.6

Derby County can be excluded because they are a statistical outlier - their season-long goal difference a whole 60% worse than any club's during the past seven years. Since they lost almost every game (season record 1-8-29) we can assume everyone took points off them. This assumption may not necessarily be correct, but statistically speaking, it is safe.

As you can see, the tighter a relegation battle gets, the tighter clubs tend to become - with the possible exception of Ian Holloway's Blackpool. If more club become involved in a relegation battle, it leads to lower average goal differences across those threatened teams. This season has produced another statistical anomaly which is interesting (but not very interesting) - Mark Hughes' Fulham are the only "threatened" club in seven years to boast a positive goal difference (+1).

Therefore, we can say safely with approximately 85% of the season complete, the 2010-11 goal differences figures are (on average) probably going to be the lowest of the past seven years. Extrapolated, these mean figures could be as low as -15.9 over the course of the entire season. If we use Goal Difference as a marker of how intense a relegation battle is, then this relegation battle is (statistically) about 20% more intense than the previous most intense one in 2008, involving Birmingham, Reading, Fulham and Bolton.

Stoke/Bolton FA Cup Semi-Final: The Ugly Stepsisters meet at Wembley

While it's derby season, what could be the best game this weekend won't be the Spanish Superclasico in La Liga or the Manchester Derby in the FA Cup. It could well be the ugly stepsister FA Cup Semi-Final between two of the EPL's more unfashionable teams, Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City.

Both teams started in the Premiership strictly playing Route One football: defend, long passes to a burly centre-forward and goals scrambled from inside the box or set pieces. Both have survived, for years now, played what amounts to "The Beautiful Game for uggos". Both clubs are still somewhat prone to the long ball - Bolton centre-forward Kevin Davies has an astonishing 200 more "flick-ons" than any other player in the league - but each of their current managers came to terms with being seen among the division's thugs and set about modifying their games.

For Bolton, that came the instant Owen Coyle walked in the door after being pinched from nor'west rivals Burnley. He'd led the Clarets to promotion and had them sitting mid-table in the Premiership when he departed to take over his alma mater Bolton. He brought with him his chief tactical asset - an ability to instill respect in his players for a passing game. Where former boss Gary Megson eschewed the use of creative types like Stuart Holden, Coyle has embraced them; his biggest coup so far has been to lure Martin Petrov to the Reebok at the expiration of his Man City contract.

With Petrov and Matty Taylor on the left, Lee Chung-Yong on the right and the regrettably injured Holden between them, the new face of Wanderer football has become apparent. Their supply has even managing to excite Swedish forward Johan Elmander into his best year on English shores after being a bust as a ₤12 million signing from Toulouse three years ago. It's no coincidence Bolton occupy the EPL's seventh place and harbour hopes of Europe next year.

Neither is it random that Stoke City in twelfth position. In perhaps the best coaching job in England that no-one talks about, Tony Pulis has taken a side of Championship stalwarts and Premiership rejects from relegation certainties into a club which can challenge the best. The Welshman initially bred an uncompromising unit and then has proceeded to add elements of flair once Top Flight safety was assured. It's fitting that these flair players too, should be cast-offs: Matthew Etherington was little-used at West Ham, Jon Walters toiled at the Championship's Ipswich Town and Jermaine Pennant has cashed paycheques from nine different clubs.

Despite Pulis' best efforts, that creativity hasn't blossomed magically as Coyle's men have at Bolton and the Potters remain a team heavily reliant on set-pieces, particularly the patriot-missile-like throws of Rory Delap. This is unsurprising: rather than add flair pieces to a staid unit, it often produces more goals to scrap one tactical method and employ a more fluid style of play as has been proved by Liverpool since Kenny Dalglish usurped Roy Hodgson. Unless you're Ian Holloway, the old adage applies: once a defensive coach, always a defensive coach.

For either club, any newfound creativity or offensive spark hasn't come at the expense of their toughness or defence. It could well be a clash of the immovable object against the other immovable object, which brings back memories of the mid-00's in Australian football. During the early part of last decade, the AFL suffered from "flooding", where most - if not all - players were positioned behind the ball. This made for low-scoring games and unsettled spectators because the game wasn't free-flowing. What it did make for, however, was a spectacular contest: with very little space or time in which players could operate, skills were at a premium and with the intensity ratcheted up it begat eminently watchable, if not high-scoring, matches.

Expect the same at Wembley when Stoke and Bolton meet - a match high on intensity but low on magic, no matter how much the respective gaffers try tacitly to encourage such feats. An element of high skill in the box (or just outside) from any of Fuller, Etherington or Petrov could be enough to take the biscuits this weekend, which makes this match as interesting as any across Europe this week.

Asian Fever!

With the 2011 Asian Cup just around the corner, most of the Asian Football Confederation's best players are preparing to wing across the world to join their national teams. The tournament will run from January 7 through until the end of the month, with most of the players leaving their European clubs as early as this week to ensure that they're fully prepared for the Qatar-based campaign. There will be a mix of traditional Asian powers like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea mixed among random entrants such as India, the UAE, North Korea and Australia.

Players from Asia rank among some of the most consistent in the European leagues. In the Premiership Tim Cahill of Everton and Australia robs the Toffees of their best goalscoring threat, while South Korea's Ji-Sung Park has been Manchester United's saviour on more than one occasion this term. Countryman Lee Chung-Yong has been an attacking force on the right for Bolton Wanderers, while Australia custodian Mark Schwarzer is one of the premier shot-stoppers in the league. His backup, Brad Jones, is still a work in progress at Liverpool while David Carney plies his trade down the left of Ian Holloway's Blackpool. Australians are more prevalent in the EPL than any other Asian players because many of them have English or European ancestry allowing Premiership clubs to sign them as Europeans, avoiding hassles with work permits. The last of the Aussies in the English top flight is Blackburn's workhorse Brett Emerton.

The Spanish League restricts the number of non-EU players each team is allowed to field per game, meaning that of the named squads, only Osasuna is sending players to the tournament in Iranian pair Javad Nekounam and Masoud Shojaei. Whereas Italy's quota system for non-EU residents is more complex and as such there are fewer professional Asian players in Serie A.

Because of the difficulty in obtaining these work permits in these most famous leagues for non-EU residents, many of the elite Asian players play elsewhere in Europe. Germany in particular has an affinity for players from the Asian Confederation: North Korea's Jong Tae- Se and Japan's Shinji Kagawa are the two prime examples. Tae-Se's (Bochum) abilities were evident during the World Cup this year and the strong, bustling centre-forward could well be the most important player in his Group - a group that, given their occasional brilliance during the World Cup they should be favourites to win. Dortmund's Kagawa is joined in the Bundesliga by his brethren Hasebe (Wolfsburg), Makino (Koln) and Uchida (Schalke).

Russia has been the first step in the journey towards more lucrative leagues for some time for both African and Asian players. CSKA Moscow boasts probably the Confederation's best player, flame-haired Japan dynamo Keisuke Honda. The best Blue Samurai player - potentially ever - is still young and CSKA will struggle with his loss while cross-city rivals Dinamo will have to cope with with the departure of that most dependable Socceroo, Luke Wilkshire. The "other" back-route into Europe, Turkey, provides four Aussies including star man Harry Kewell and captain Lucas Neill from Galatasary and Besiktas' Ersan Gulum, a 23-year old defender who opted for the green and gold jersey rather than that of his adopted homeland, much to the dismay of former Socceroo coach Guus Hiddink

The favourites at this point must be perennial powerhouses South Korea and Japan, but Iran's squad boasts fewer players than usual playing in Europe and as such are a complete unknown. Unknowns, perhaps, could benefit as in 2007 Iraq surprised the continent with their enterprising play to take the chocolates. With Qatar on a high after winning the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, it would be a surprise not to see them in the second round as well. With many of the top players in the Confederation playing in the top leagues in the world, this year's Asian Cup promises to be an exciting series of matches.

Waiting for the phone to ring

With his sterling display against Manchester City on the weekend, several pundits have tipped Wolves' winger Matt Jarvis as a possible inclusion in Fabio Capello's next England squad, which is to play France in a friendly later this month. Other possible call-ups could go to young Gunner Jack Wilshere, Sunderland central midfielder Jordan Henderson and Newcastle's hulking forward Andy Carroll.

Jarvis is a speedy right-sided winger who's proved a success in the Premier League despite humble beginnings as a trainee at Championship side (then relegated to League One) Gillingham. He was an essential part of their side and was sold to Wolves in 2007. He became a first-team regular at the Midlands club and Wolves clinched automatic promotion to the Premiership after his second year at Molineux. Unusually for a promoted club, Wolves' wing positions were thought to be a position of relative strength, but it wasn't Jarvis tipped to wow Premier League audiences, rather his left-wing counterpart "Twice Nightly" Michael Kightly.

Kightly has spent much of Wolverhampton's two premiership campaigns sidelined by injury and the ball has fallen at the feet of the Jarvis. Who's run with it. And run with it. Then crossed it. And kept running. Once tipped by the Gillingham chairman Paul Scally to play for England by age twenty-four, the media is now suggesting that Scally's skills as a prophet were bang-on - Jarvis is precisely that age. Fast - though not lightning quick - and extremely technically proficient, he's no doubt been more effective this term than some of his rivals for an England wide position like Aaron Lennon or Shaun Wright-Phillips.

But can a player from a team so thoroughly immersed in the relegation struggle really force Capello - a man who admittedly prefers the tried and true options - into selecting him for the Three Lions? His ability, dedication, form and game says yes: few wide players have his endeavour or technical correctness. Unfortunately though, he has four things counting against him: his name (or lack thereof) when compared to the virtually invisible Wright-Phillips; he is short a yard of pace when compared to the blistering pace of a Walcott or Lennon and finally, although he's not short on influence, Jarvis probably simply doesn't have the same tricks as Adam Johnson.

The fourth reason is Wolves' current tough situation. They sit mired near the foot of the EPL table, even following some admirable performances unrewarded with wins or even draws. Perhaps Saturday's win against City may change that. Indeed, what may sway Capello in Jarvis's favour is the surety that he would offer an England team. The manager would know 100% what he'd get from the right side when Matt Jarvis played that wing and that predictable endeavour isn't something with which Capello's England has been generously endowed.

If it is time to re-stock the England cupboard with new talents, then Capello could do worse than looking around the Premiership for players that he knows will respond to the call with a performance - it's long been a curse for England that their superstars have failed to perform with the same vigour in white as they do for their clubs. Bringing in new, fresh faces like Jarvis and Tyneside Bad Boy Carroll could prove the difference between a staid, boring squad at Euro 2012 (with a bog-standard English second round exit) and a team which can really throw a cat amongst some Spanish and German pigeons.

Aston Villa FC: Can you fight off interest from bigger clubs long term?

This issue has come to a gead as today Martin O'Neill has resigned from Aston Villa. No reasons were given in his official statement but it is safe to assume that the limited funds made available for him to better his results over the past three years was foremost in his thinking when handing in his notice.

He's done particularly well during his tenure in Birmingham – beating Top Four clubs and threatening for Champions League positions much of the last couple of seasons. But in the end his demise has come as many predicted, over transfer budgets and support for his ambitions.

O'Neill is a shrewd evaluator of talent and has spent his available money wisely. That wisdom has then been hijacked by the larger clubs as one by one each of Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham have targeted his purchases to enhance their own squads. As talent exits, new talent must be brought in and over time this must get tiring.

Managers at the so-called “second level” clubs like Everton and Villa deep down must know they fight a losing battle. Consistently having to fight wears one down. Where in a manager's early years they can look upon this exodus of talent as an opportunity for refreshment and change, as time wears on it can and does string the boss more and more tautly. Where once was belief in his team's ability to cope now lies despair at the constant nature of these marauders. It's nearly a universal truth that as one tires, one gets tetchy. That tetchiness then reflects in how the next issue forced onto our plate is dealt with.

For Aston Villa, there's nothing wrong with holding out to get the correct price for a player, especially when the buyer is Manchester City and one of your chief competitors for Champions League football. But if that stance turns the player against you, it's a battle that has no victors. Play him and risk halfhearted performances and constant distracting speculation. Don't play them and watch results suffer.

You can't fight off interest from clubs indefinitely, it just doesn't happen. If a player wants to go, generally they find a way to make it happen. The best you can do is ensure you get back appropriate funds and invest them wisely, only to watch managers disappear.

West Bromwich Albion FC: The Yo-Yo Effect

The noughties have presented us with the ultimate expression of the Yo-Yo team – West Bromwich Albion. Their thrify ownership have decided against risking the big bucks (sorry, pounds) required to maintain their Premiership status, so they've invested money in their squad only when both cost-effective and absolutely needed, then pocketed their parachute payments. They may as well change their club motto to “Without Squander”.

They've won or finished second in their last two Championship seasons. The season before that brought elimination in the Promotion Playoffs. Their squad changes minimally from Top to Second Tier. They are, for their market and sponsors, if not their fans, a successful club. So why don't more teams follow this model and ensure their own relative certainty?

One simple reason is overconfidence. If a club accomplish promotion from the Championship they are entitled to feel strong, as if they can take on the world. Generally, that's rather an inexperienced point of view, as much false bravado as anything. The Premiership is a major step up from the Championship as proved by the number of teams who go straight back down. Managerial or board overconfidence is the worst kind: the mentality of “All we need is one or two class signings” causes overreach and financial burdens a club in the Championship can't maintain. To bring in class signings, that player usually requires more money or more security than he already has, security that a relegation-threatened club is ill-placed to afford. If the worst happens and they drop, the club is stuck with a heavy contract – we call that “Doing a Hull” - or with a malcontent.

The second factor for WBA is that the players have been there before. Most have competed in both leagues know what is required in order to survive, even if they're incapable of meeting those requirements. Relegation is an obvious kick in the teeth but each goes into the following season aware that their club has the ability to bounce straight back up again. This knowledge provides a certain confidence that the demoted don't always have.

This common sense attitude seems commendable, but only a few squads have progressed from it. It provides stability for sure, but locks the clubs into a purgatory where their unable to succeed at the highest level yet perfectly able to fail should circumstances conspire one level down. But really, if you're making money – and the parachute payments are generous indeed – why would you risk that by overspending and in three years find yourself mid-table Championship? At a smaller club, success is no sure thing no matter what the investment. In football, there are no sure things unless they involve John Terry and an underwear model.

Newcastle United FC: Fluke year 2009 or 2010?

After years of flirting with European competition, the 2009 incarnation of Newcastle United did as their roster had promised for a year or two and fell without murmur into the Championship. They'd No question it was a stinker of a year: banshee-d by injuries, Joe Kinnear's entrance, two management Messiahs in Keegan and Shearer failed to get the job, Joe Kinnear's 37 F-bombs in two minutes, Michael Owen still drawing six-figure weekly wages, Joe Kinnear's exit and Denis Wise's antics as “Director of football and alleged Cockney mafiosa”.

When examined in-depth, United deserved to be relegated. In building a “Championship Manager” squad, they ignored the first rule of common sense: in the real world, a good reputation and high transfer fee doesn't always mean a guarantee of Premier League quality. The list of big names – and big money – is impressive but must be sickening in the extreme to the Toon army: ultimately every single one of Owen, Alan Smith, Nicky Butt, Joey Barton, Kieron Dyer, Obafemi Martins and Fabricio Coloccini all flopped on Tyneside. The results were humiliating as a succession of bosses failed to get players with some experience of success to buy-in to the team plan. That there were four separate team plans behind Keegan, Hughton, Kinnear, Hughton again and Shearer made that buy-in nearly impossible to achieve.

Last year amid constant speculation that they would nose-dive into League One a la Leeds United, Newcastle United banded together behind promoted assistant Chris Hughton to clinch promotion easily and reclaim their divinely-decreed level of football. They did this with unfussy football as the departures of finesse-type Martins & Owen; a capital “f” Fighting Spirit formed the team's backbone more than Harper, Taylor, Nolan & Carroll. As Hughton infused self-belief and direction, the fight got stronger until they proved to be not only the biggest team in the second tier, but the best.

So which season was the fluke? The squad barely changed between the two years as NUFC were unable to trim their titanic wage bill much before last term. The same squad played exceptionally against Scunthorpe or Blackpool where in 2009 they'd performed dismally against Hull & Stoke. Success in 2010 rests on the expectation of the fans and board. Should those expectations become (cf. our Blackburn preview) too lofty it becomes automatically injurious. The day of “because they're a big club they need a top-10 finish” is past and if the current squad hears this they are likely to look quizzically at the fans and throw their arms up in disbelief. With their ageing catalogue of fallen angels this is no better than a 12-14th placed squad and the likelihood is that they know it. The first aim should be staying up and should Hughton encourage play as in the Championship last term it is achievable.

The fluke wasn't in Newcastle going down in 2009; the fluke was in them staying in the second-tier only one year. Rather than chalking it down to random factors or bad luck, Hughton chose to see it as a warning about the dangers of complacency and overreaching. He did an astonishing job with the players on hand in getting them focused on only one thing – redemption. Not redemption in the eyes of the fans but redemption in their own eyes: there should be no doubt at all in the players' minds that relegated Newcastle United of 2009 was a better squad than survivor Hull. There should be little doubt they were a better squad than 12th placed Stoke City. If Hughton gets the players to understand that they still need to prove their own quality to themselves, then Newcastle can survive and even thrive (like Stoke City or Bolton) in the Premier League. Survival in this manner mighn't please the Toon Army, but survival at the top level is preferable to threatening vaguely from lower leagues. Just ask Leeds United.

The new preview

Previews are so passe, aren't they? Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker and end up reading them for nearly every sport – it's always interesting to see who's moved during the offseason; how simply by grouping together a bunch of names allows you to make sweeping judgements about a club and its fortunes. But every single site/blog/podcast/TV show runs these things always, always they say the same things: This club needs to score more; this club needs to close things down more often and readily; this manager is in trouble if the results don't come.

On reading a few profiles, it seems to me thatfor each club there's one little issue in the background, small burrs under everyone's saddle that the world has awareness of, yet doesn't want to talk about. I'm not really talking about transfers or debts, I'm talking about the little birdy that someone mentions once and it's not followed up, unstated by club, media and (maybe) fan.

So here we go, the Balanced Sports topics for discussion are below. As you can see there's no timeline, they'll get done a piece at a time and hopefully all done before kickoff in a little over a week. Nor is there any particular order, just what we feel is interesting on any given day.

Arsenal TBA
Aston Villa Can you fight off interest from clubs long-term?
Birmingham Second season syndrome.
Blackburn Newcastle v2.0 - the small club with delusions of grandeur.
Blackpool The Fate of Holloway.
Bolton TBA
Chelsea Did Chelsea change football?
Everton When will a big club poach David Moyes?
Fulham Managerial ego, the goods & bads.
Liverpool Is reputation enough to maintain quality?
Man City The Amount City Suck.
Man Utd The promise of youth?
Newcastle Which season was the fluke – 09 or 10?
Stoke How long will they get away with it?
Sunderland The spawn of Ferguson.
Tottenham 'Arry's missus and the Redknapp legal issues.
West Bromwich Albion Why do so few teams Yo-Yo?
West Ham Patriot missiles on alert.
Wigan Rugby country.
Wolves Fourth place doesn't get the bronze.