We’re almost through January.
Already, the Premier League has given us some incredible moments, but with all the focus on this campaign, lets take a look back at the best 2016 had to offer – and hope that this year is even better.
NUMBER 10 – GUARDIOLA’S GREAT START
Arriving with three La Liga titles, and three Bundesliga titles to his name, Pep Guardiola took charge of Manchester City, and looked to be taking to England like a duck to water.
City went on an incredible winning run, including a terrific performance to beat Bournemouth 4-0, before the run finally came to an end in September, in Guardiola’s 11th game in charge – drawing with Celtic in the Champions League.
Things have certainly changed since then, though, and City and Guardiola are now finding out how tough the Premier League can really be, but Guardiola’s start with the club was a fine moment of this past year.
NUMBER 9 – 20 YEARS OF WENGER
Twenty years ago in September 2016, a Frenchman was taken from Japan’s league and thrown into the deep end in the Premier League to take charge of Arsenal – his name, Arsene Wenger.
“Arsene Who?” The headlines said, with the majority of English fans feeling there was no way this unknown manager could possibly last in the tough terrain of English football.
Two decades later, 15 trophies later, a new stadium later, and almost 700m spent on new players later, Wenger is the longest serving manager in the country.
Wenger celebrated his anniversary at Turf Moor, with a 1-0 victory over Burnley.
Despite all of this, there are still Arsenal fans, (see Arsenal Fan TV for reference) who believe time should be up for the French tactician – at least, when he loses game, that is.
NUMBER 8 – CHAOS AT MAN CITY V CHELSEA
Oh boy.
Drama was everywhere in the Etihad Stadium, with both sides clashing in an ugly confrontation towards the end of the game, but the significance of Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over City under new manager Antonio Conte stood out regardless.
A year prior to this result, Chelsea were in turmoil, and 12 months later the Italian took the Blues six points clear at the top of the Premier League.
How times change.
NUMBER 7 – BYE BYE UPTON PARK
On the 10th of May, West Ham said goodbye to Upton Park after 112 years – to make the move over to the Olympic Stadium.
Their final game was against Manchester United where the Manchester side lead 2-1 with 18 minutes left after two goals from Anthony Martial, but goals from Michail Antonio and Winston Reid gave West Ham a well deserved final victory at Upton Park.
Following this was a closing ceremony, fireworks, light shows, and even Paolo Di Canio in a purple suit.. oh.
NUMBER 6 – RASHFORD’S RISE
Teenage star Marcus Rashford, who was locally born and bred in Wythenshawe, scored twice on his debut game for United against FC Midtylland – and just three days later, he added a brace to his tally to sink Arsenal in a 3-2 victory.
Billions of internet searches of “Who is Rashford?” Followed, and it didn’t take long for the world to learn the answer to this question, Rashford is now seen as one of England’s brightest future stars – and with good reason.
NUMBER 5 – MOURINHO MISERY
Jose Mourinho, ‘The Special One’, ‘The Happy One’, and according to the british press after he returned to former side Chelsea as Manchester United’s new gaffer, ‘The humiliated one.’
After just 30 seconds Mourinho’s Men were 1-0 down thanks to Pedro, and by the end of the game the score line was 4-0. Ouch.
It’s hard to imagine how Mourinho would have taken the defeat, but I can only assume that he spent a long while trying to figure out where it all went wrong, before ultimately coming to the conclusion that he had been well and truly embarrassed by his side.
NUMBER 4 – BIG SAM SENDS DOWN NEWCASTLE
Sunderland were a completely different side under Sam Allardye, and after a 3-0 victory at Everton, in the most important game of the season for Sunderland, meant Allardyce’s former side Newcastle was condemned to the Championship, never to return. (Maybe a little over dramatic, they’ll likely be back next season.)
What happened to Allardyce you ask? Well, he went on to enjoy a very successful spell as England manager, with a 100% win record – after one game and 58 days in charge.
Now he’s at Crystal Palace. Aw.
NUMBER 3 – FLIP FLOP KLOPP
Flip flop as in, the up’s and down’s of Klopp’s mood and performance. Nothing to do with an actual flip flop, that would be silly – but then, there was that time with the beach ball..
Liverpools 5-4 win over Norwich had it all, incredible attacking play, blown wide open defending, crazy celebrations and someone losing their glasses.
Norwich were 3-1 ahead in the second half of the game, before having to recover to 4-4 during injury time, before Adam Lallana’s late goal bitterly disappointed Norwich.
Llana ripped off his shirt, everyone jumped on top of Klopp, who in the midst of all of this somehow out his glasses.. it was a a sight to behold.
NUMBER 2 – TOTTENHAM’S TRAGIC LOSS
Oh boy. (Again.)
Imagine being so close to the title you can taste it, and to get yourselves over the line all you needed to do was get a win against one of your biggest rivals, and a club that you really, really don’t like.
Then imagine drawing the game 2-2, throwing away your title hopes, whilst your players and the players of the opposing team clash together in a dirty, foul-full, unforgiving game, complete with a mass brawl that saw the opposing teams near OAP aged manager get knocked to the ground.
This is exactly what happened to Tottenham when they played Chelsea, with a goal from Eden Hazard winning the title for Leicester City.
Which, leads us on to number one, as if you didn’t know already..
NUMBER 1 – CHAMPIONS!
Nobody saw it coming.
No, not even you – don’t act like you did.
Leicester City winning the Premier League will go down as one of the most memorable moments in the HISTORY of English Football, and rightfully so.
Everybody expected the foxes incredible run to stop, but Claudio Ranieri’s side showed no sign of slowing down.
They came up against Manchester City in February, and walked away with a convincing 3-1 victory, enough to send them FIVE POINTS CLEAR at the top of the table.
Leicster City, FIVE points clear, top of the table?
Insane, and highly unlikely we will ever see an achievement like it in our life time.
Unless Burnley or Hull City surprise us and storm up the table whilst dismantling every side along the way with 3-0 wins.
Hey, worth a punt.