Analysis

Ranking the best wingers in the Premier League is a task so onerous that it may seem foolhardy, because even restricting the time span to the last five years doesn't make the task even easier. How do you rank, for example, a new breakout star like Anthony Gordon against a fallen superstar like Sadio Mane? Where does a gifted footballer like Riyad Mahrez stand against a former goal-scoring machine like Raheem Sterling? I tried my best to be fair and account for the unique merits each player brought to the table and avoid any club-based bias. I also decided to discard players who mostly offered value at non-winger positions, specifically Bernardo Silva, mostly to make my own job easier. (Don't worry, I'll have plenty of nice things to say about Silva in other pieces.) Finally, I did...

Liverpool sit second in the Premier League behind only Manchester City, and they are coming off two fantastic cup performances with a 3-1 win over AC Milan in the Champions League and a 5-1 blowout victory over West Ham in the League Cup. As much as the Premier League has been positioned as a two-horse race between Man City and Arsenal, Liverpool have been contenders against City for longer and did usurp them in the 2019/20 season. Last season, Liverpool returned as legitimate Premier League title contenders, and though they finished behind both Manchester City and Arsenal, it's a little puzzling to see them discounted by some pundits as title hopefuls on equal footing as the others. Although Liverpool have started the season strongly, the club's ambition should be to continue to ...

West Ham were one of the most active teams in the summer 2024 transfer window, bringing in the likes of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo to bolster the defense while landing Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Fullkrug to add different dimensions to their attack. So far, some of the new signings, like Kilman and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, are working out wonderfully, while others like Carlos Soler and Fullkrug have yet to play key roles in the first team. Overall, West Ham have been disappointing on the pitch, as they are 14th in the Premier League and recently lost 5-1 to Liverpool in a result that shows an especially vast gulf in class between the Hammers and the true top English teams in terms of midfield quality. West Ham don't need to go out and buy a whole new squad by any means, but t...

It’s been almost two years since the Premier League announced its 115 charges against reigning champions Manchester City. Despite the unprecedented number of allegations, the league has yet to even try to punish Man City.  That could be changing very soon though. The Premier League is set to present their charges against Man City to an independent panel on Monday, September 16. The hearings are expected to last at least two months. For the sake of the Premier League’s credibility, let’s hope it results in some real punishments. If it doesn’t, I don’t see how the league and its financial rules can ever be taken seriously.  ‘115 charges’ explained If you’ve watched Premier League football at all over the last year and half, you will have almost definitely seen banners or heard chants di...

Bayern Munich are one of the three biggest clubs in the world alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona, and even in a down year in the Bundesliga last season, they still came agonizingly close to returning to the Champions League Final. This season, Bayern Munich look even more dangerous, and it seems like they are bouncing back with a vengeance in the Bundesliga, having just beaten Holstein Kiel 6-1 in a demolition reminiscent of their peak days with "Robbery" and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Bayern kept the momentum going with a 9-2 barrage of Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League opener, pulling away from the Croatian side after the opponents cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2; Bayern then put six past Zagreb. As Bayern Munich continue to rack up the results under Vincent Kompany, they must continue ...

From a trio of Liverpool superstars and a duo of Manchester City icons to Tottenham forward Son Heung-min, here is a look at the best XI of impending free agents in the summer 2025 transfer window. The formation utilized will be a 4-3-3 without a playmaker, as this remains the most common formation utilize by the top teams in European football. Contract expiry is based on data from Transfermarkt. GK Alex Meret, Napoli Alex Meret is capable of producing fabulous saves and is one of the best goalkeepers in Serie A, which just might have the most goalkeeping talent of any league in world football. Although Napoli's poor 2023/24 season has caused Meret to fall by the wayside in discussions of the better keepers in Europe, the 27-year-old is a top player in his prime who is capable of t...

Arsenal are one of the biggest clubs in European football, and in recent years, they have shown a renewed willingness to spend and return to the summit of both English football and Europe as a whole. In the past two summers, Arsenal have made two high-profile midfield signings in Declan Rice and Mikel Merino. Rice cost the club over a 100 million euros, as Arsenal needed to spend big in order to make sure they signed the West Ham star over title rivals Manchester City. There's no doubt that Rice was a big splash, but is he the biggest in the history of Arsenal midfield transfers? And where does the 32 million euro deal for Real Sociedad's Mikel Merino rank? Here are the top 10 most expensive midfield additions in Arsenal history. All prices are courtesy of Transfermarkt. 10. Sant...

Ligue 1 carries the tagline "The League of Talents", which is pretty much their only claim to fame now that PSG have completely unbalanced the league from a competitive standpoint due to Qatar's ridiculous spending power. Perhaps Roberto De Zerbi can shift that paradigm with some smart underdog coaching at Marseille after previously turning Brighton into a Europa League side after they toiled in the Premier League mid-table for years. Ligue 1 may not be the most competitive league, but it's still producing top talents who fetch a pretty penny on the transfer market. Look no further than center back Leny Yoro, who joined Manchester United this summer from Lille for over 60 million euros after pretty much every big club wanted to sign him. The Premier League has always been a destin...

Even though the Bundesliga season is actually the shortest of any top five league since there are only 18 teams in the first division, meaning every team plays four fewer games per season, the German top flight has become known for gaudy goal-scoring statistics. But in case anyone keeps trying to apply the "Bundesliga tax" to downplay the accomplishments of top strikers in German football, Erling Haaland quickly dispelled that notion by breaking the single-season Premier League goals record in his first season with Manchester City, scoring more goals (36) than he ever did with Borussia Dortmund. Haaland is actually the only Dortmund player who scored at least 20 goals in a single season in the 2020s decade, and while there's only been four completed seasons in the 2020s, that speaks ...