Premier League Post-Christmas Blues: 3 Teams that went from glory to despair after Christmas
Ultimately as a sports fan, it's the hope that kills you!
In today's blog we'll consider the 3 Premier League teams who suffered the worst change in form after Christmas leading in 2 instances to relegation and in the final case a last day scrabble to avoid the drop down from England's top flight.
Finally we'll consider a few of the teams who are currently in similar positions and ask if this season we might see another Premier League team suffer from the post-Christmas blues.
Norwich 1994-95
League position at Christmas: 7th
Final league position: 20th (22 team league)
Norwich City have a reputation for being the ultimate yo-yo team, relegated one season, promoted the next. However, in 1994-95 the Canaries demonstrated that their form can be just as fical within a single season!
The first 19 games of the 1994-95 season saw Norwich pick up 8 wins and 6 draws leaving them with 30 points and sitting 7th in the table ahead of the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and Spurs and only 3 points behind Liverpool who occupied the final European qualification spot.
By Christmas, the Canaries had already recorded impressive wins against eventual league winners Blackburn as well as a strong Leeds team with their success mainly built around a solid defence (how present day Norwich fans yearn for those days). Perhaps their decision to play in a more conservative manner was to be expected in some regards with Norwich having lost their main goal threat in Chris Sutton over the summer transfer window.
Chris Sutton scores on his return to Carrow Road but Norwich come from behind to inflict a rare defeat on eventual champions Blackburn
However, it seems like the bulk of Norwich's squad had been on Santa's naughty list but rather than getting coal they received defeat after defeat as their post-Christmas form went out of the window!
They managed victory against Newcastle on New Years Eve 1994 and thereafter they picked up 0 wins and 6 draws from their first 11 matches of 1995 leading up to a derby win on 20th March 1995 against bitter rivals Ipswich who themselves finished bottom of the league.
Defeat at home against Spurs on Boxing Day ended an 8 month unbeaten sequence at Carrow Road. They would lose 4 more games at home post-Christmas
Even then Norwich were still 11th in the league and while any hopes of European qualification had all but faded, surely they wouldn't get sucked into a relegation battle?
Unfortunately, the Canaries form went from bad to worse as they lost 7 Premier League matches on the trot conceeding 15 goals in the process with their relegation being confirmed in the penultimate game of the season which saw them lose 2-1 at Leeds.
It feels wrong to pick on Norwich supporters at the moment given their woeful showing in the league this season but perhaps the likes of @rmsadkri can take hope from the fact that Norwich are the ultimate example that the Premier League is like a giant game of snakes and ladders. Maybe this year they can find one of the ladders instead?
Blackpool 2010-11
League position at Christmas: 10th
Final league position: 19th
Love him or hate him, Ian Holloway has always been one of the more entertaining managers in English football and his Blackpool side of the 2010-11 Premier League season certainly mirrored his personality.
It's worth remembering that while Blackpool have had their struggles in recent years they have in the past been one of the top teams in the country and their opening day 4-0 win at Wigan briefly put them top of the league for the first time in over 50 years.
However, we were quickly shown just what a Jekyl and Hyde team Blackpool would be as they were hammered 6-0 by Arsenal in their second game of the season! This kind of pattern would continue throughout the first half of the season as Blackpool recorded a famous victory at Anfield while also suffering another mauling in London, this time at the hands of Chelsea.
Blackpool's form was up and down for the first part of the season before later on finding some consistency. Unfortuantely it was consistent losses... source
However, despite their unpredictable form, Blackpool found themselves 10th at Christmas just 5 points off European qualification and with a couple of games in hand on most teams following the postponement of fixtures due to poor weather.
Indeed, Blackpool won both those postponed games against Liverpool (again) and Spurs later in the season representing 2 of the 3 wins that they managed post-Christmas. Had the matches gone ahead on the scheduled dates and assuming Blackpool would have achieved the same results then they would have found themselves 6th in the league on Boxing Day just a point behind Spurs in 5th.
Off the back of taking just 3 points from 5 games in January, the club decided to try their luck with loan signings but the likes of James Beattie, Jason Puncheon and Andy Reid couldn't arrest their slip and they endured a home defeat to bottom club West Ham before conceeding 5 at Everton to confirm that they were now in free fall.
4 home fixtures on the trot in April looked like it might offer the Tangerines some salvation but they lost to fellow relegation candidates Wigan and could only draw against Newcastle and Stoke.
Blackpool give themselves hope with 4-3 victory over Bolton
In one of the most entertaining finishes to a Premier League season the bottom 6 were all in with a chance of survival or relegation and Blackpool took a massive step towards safety by willing a 4-3 thriller against Bolton to give the fans hope.
However, their final game of the season was at Manchester United who had already been crowned Premier League champions. Blackpool went a goal down early on but fought back to lead 2-1 after the hour mark and take themselves out of the relegation spots. Tragically though an Evatt own goal and the fact that Wigan won at Stoke saw the Tangerines brief return to the English top flight ended.
Last day heartbreak for the Tangerines
Hull City 2008-09
League position at Christmas: 6th
Final league position: 17th
The 2008/09 season represented Hull City's first in the English top flight full stop. I once heard an interesting fact that prior to that, Hull was the largest city in Europe to never have had a football team in the top tier of their respective domestic league. As such, you'd imagine that for the long suffering Tigers fans, 2008 represented a time of real excitement and expectation!
That expectation grew further when Hull won 6 of their opening 9 Premier League matches including famous wins against both Arsenal and Spurs, a sequence that took them level on points at the top of the Premier League table with both Chelsea and Liverpool.
A Geovanni screamer helps Hull shock Arsenal and send them temporarily top of the Premier League
However, their form began to fall off through November as the next 9 games delievered just 7 points but that haul was still good enough to see them sit 6th at Christmas a finish that would have seen them qualify for the UEFA cup and just 5 points behind Man United in the hunt for the Champions League.
That however was to be as good as it got for the Tigers as they suffered a humliating 4-1 home defeat to Sunderland on Boxing Day that was part of a 6 match losing streak that saw them slip to 10th and just 6 points above relegation.
In fact, Hull City managed just a single win in their final 22 Premier League games of the 2008/09 season and that was courtesey of a last minute winner at Fulham that would ultimately prove to be crucial to their survival!
In the end, Hull's great escape was more due the poor form of those clubs around them with both Newcastle and Middlesbrough unable to win on the last day of the season as Hull travelled to and lost against Manchester United.
With Hull and Stoke both surviving the drop it also became the first season of the Premier League where 2 or more of the newly promoted clubs had survived relegation although of course for Hull their wretched form at the back end of their inugral Premier League season would carry through to the next one where they weren't to be so lucky finshing as they did in 19th place.
The original Tiger King - manager Phil Brown sings following his team's lucky escape from relegation
All historic league table positions generated via 11 v 11
Post-Christmas Blues in 2021/22?
What about this season? Well we certainly have a few teams that have overachieved in the first half of the season and with Covid-19 threatening the fixture list and the AFCON placing even greater strain on squads we do have some clubs that might yet slip down the league.
Add to that the fact that we have the likes of Everton, Leeds and Newcastle who will be looking to 2022 as a fresh start and the 2nd half of this season could yet see some movement both up and down the league table.
Wolves
Wolves have had a fairly quiet season to date. They sat in 8th position on Christmas Day with 7 wins from their opening 18 matches but perhaps the most worrying stat for Wolves fans is that they had only managed to score 13 goals in that time with only bottom club Norwich have a worse record in front of goal.
It'd still be some collapse to see them give up the 14 point cushion they currently have on the relegation spots and we'll probably know more about how their season is going to pan out by the end of January as they face crunch matches against sides around them in the league table including Manchester United, Brentford and Southampton.
Crystal Palace
Palace took something of a gamble in appointing the relatively inexperienced Patrick Viera as their manager this season, a risk that to date has paid off with the South London club finding themselves 11th at Christmas and now 10th following a comfortable win against bottom club Norwich.
What Viera has achieved is to make Palace very difficult to beat with the Eagles having lost just 6 matches all season (the same number as Arsenal and West Ham). At the same time, their failure to convert draws into wins leaves them looking nervously over their shoulder and with 3 big names departing for AFCON in the next few days the resolve of this Palace side is likely to be tested over the coming weeks.
Brighton
The Seagulls had a very bright start to the season with 4 wins from their opening 9 games seeing them up to 5th in the Premier League. However, they've managed just a single victory since then, that coming against Brentford on Boxing Day.
Much like Wolves they are not prolific in front of goal (just 16 EPL goals to date) and like Palace they struggle to secure all 3 points (8 draws this season). As such, it looks like Brighton's survival will be built on grinding out another 15 points or so from their remaining fixtures. They should do it, but stranger things have happened!
Brentford
Last but not least we come to Brentford, the club that most resembles the likes of Hull and Blackpool above based on this being their debut season in the league.
Indeed, the major advantage that the 3 clubs we've mentioned above have is that they've all been in similar positions before and managed to find ways to keep the points coming in. Brentford by contrast have few players with experience in the top flight and have done very well to date by playing an exciting brand of football in front of a home crowd that always gets behind the Bees. Will that be enough for them come the final reckoning?
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Youre spot on with Brentford. Their lack of experience could be their downfall.
Thanks for the flashbacks. I remember Charlie Adams and the tangerine orange you just couldn't miss for Blackpool.
With Hull, Dean Windass and his goal to send his boyhood club to the EPL is a moment I'll remember. I had a football manager game on PS2 around the time he was at Bradford City and remember him popping up on the goalscorers list here and there.
Thanks for reigniting memories!
For Spurs fans Charlie Adams is remembered for all the wrong reasons as this video of his best worst tackles against us shows
Yeah, heartbreak for me though as a Bristol City suporter although I dare say they'd have been relegated straight back to the Championship had they have won that play-off final.
Wow he really hated the Spurs!! That was unlucky for Bristol. Would've been interesting to know how they would've taken it getting promoted, and whether they go a sustainable route of recruitment or go all out and risk financial demise a la Sunderland.
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Make or break time for many teams and even though they say the League isn't won over Christmas it is won or lost by many who lose ground. Brighton has a habit of banking points up to the half way mark and then like magic are dragged back into the relegation battle every year. Maybe this year will be different but it is a trend that I can see a few others struggling. Maybe Newcastle will get out of this hole through some big purchases come January. Can see teams like United sliding as others around them start putting together a consistent run of results. Brentford, Norwich and Leeds are in big trouble at the moment. I think Watford, Burnley and Everton have enough fight and knowledge to stay up.
There have been quite a few teams who stop playing once they get to the magic 40 point mark every season. In years gone past Charlton, Ipswich and Bournemouth spring to mind as sides who were just happy to be safe and therefore stopped playing once they were.
The problem with that is that form is often transferred from the end of one season to the start of the other as I suggested in a previous post
https://peakd.com/hive-101690/@talesfrmthecrypt/does-premier-league-form-from-the-last-season-carry-over-to-the-next-season
Good greetings,rich write-up you put up there.
Just on Palace, I do not see how appointing Vieira was such a gamble,when an Arsenal can appoint Arteta,a Chelsea can appoint a Lampard or a Villa can appoint a Gerrard. First two clubs I mentioned are top clubs who you would think shouldn't be appointing "fresh graduates". Lampard was sacked,not that he did badly,it's just the Chelsea ruthlessness with coaches.
So a Vieira to Palace to replace a Roy Hodgson is no gamble whatsoever- a man who has more experience in first team coaching than Arteta or Lampard or Gerrard even. A man who was the captain of a top team like Arsenal,especially in the era of the "invincibles". I don't see any difficulty in parting with a Hodgson and bringing in an upgrade in Patrick Vieira.
Infact for me,I am thinking Vieira has underachieved at this stage. His team's have always been difficult to beat,if you have followed him up close,but he still needs to do away with the draws(something that has been with him before Palace got him) and he has a decent squad to do much more. The Vieira I know will,with his mentality want to improve because he can.
Yes as you rightly mentioned,the AFCON will present him with a new challenge, I hope he handles, but overall Palace would be fine.
By the way,I'm quite new and not consistent on Hive. How do you guys post videos(YouTube or videos in phones) I needed that for this my fresh post: https://peakd.com/hive-101690/@ogeewitty/im-tired-of-messi-who-is-he-even
Firstly in football there is no such thing as a "safe bet" when it comes to appointing a manager so there's an element of a gamble whenever a coach gets brought in.
The appointment of those 3 you've mentioned were gambles. I'd actually say the least risky appointment was Lampard because at the time Chelsea knew they were under the transfer embargo and as such weren't likely to be able to attract a top coach. Just a couple of months ago there were plenty of calls for Arteta to be sacked and Gerrard has only just started in the Premier League so it's too early to tell whether he'll be a success - winning in Scotland where at best it's a 2 horse race vs winning in the Premier League are 2 very different things.
Within the context of Palace and Viera, you have to remember how badly it went for them the last time they appointed a manager with no previous experience in the Premier League. De Boer was sacked with a Premier League record of no wins and no goals. It's clear that Palace want to move towards a different style of football that the likes of Hodgson and before him Allardyce and Pardew weren't able to offer but what those 3 guys did provide was Premier League safety and for a side like Palace who have traditionally been a yo-yo club that was good enough. Now they feel ready to take a risk by appointing Viera, let's see how it pans out!
Thanks for stopping by and engaging with my post, I really appreciate you spending the time to comment.
Cheers !BEER
My pleasure to stop by @talesfrmthecrypt. Internet challenges and so on in my area greatly limit me,but I know I have seen your posts before. I asked an important question in my last paragraph and I thought you would visit the post I referenced there.
Thanks, your first paragraph in your above reply,is not in question. For example we know that Conte to Tottenham can be risky, but you and I know that,that's a brilliant signing by Tottenham, with little risk involved.
Now to the major things,I disagree with your take on Lampard. You didn't put their status as a big club in England,in proper context. This is not Watford or Westham,with all due respect to them. That transfer ban wasn't going to be forever,so a bigger coach than Lamps would still be more than willing to come in. Haven't you heard of the Chelsea "loan army"? Meaning a world class coach still could have found quality players to recall from loan deals during that brief transfer ban,that is plus the big players(normal for a big club like Chelsea) that were already in the club.
All I am saying is that in proper context Lamps was high risk(his appeal, plus they banked on his knowledge of the English game,gave him the job), so please don't call it the least risky of the three. This is a Chelsea we are talking about here.
Please did you consider what I enumerated about Vieira? He has the requisite EPL knowledge ingrained in him that Frank De Boer didn't have. This is crucial in handling any EPL club,any of them.So please the De Boer case has no bearing here. If you recall in my first note,I said Lamps didn't do badly,his EPL knowledge was his crucial advantage.
I repeat, if top echelon clubs(like Chelsea and Arsenal) could take the risk to employ coaching freshers, Crystal Palace has taken little or no risk in appointing a coach,in Vieira, who has more coaching experience than Lamps and Arteta put together, a coach who has coached in the Europa league(he qualified the club for it even) handling Nice and worked satisfactorily in the United State's top league as first team manager for a club,that shares same ownership(and vision) with Manchester City. Like I said he has underachieved even, but he would comfortably be fine.
What is truly risky is a Newcastle hastily appointing a Howe mid-season, especially with their new status as a super wealthy club. A Howe that did initially okay with Bournemouth then got relegated with them. Norwich too is in hot soup.
Once again great write-up you put up. I hope you visit mine.
My regards
Then why didn't they pursue one?
Whether it's for players or coaches, Chelsea are generally shopping for the crème de la crème. As far as a manager is concerned, any of the top guys around the world are going to expect to be able to bring in players that they want and as you said previously, Chelsea (as with most sides these days) are pretty cut throat when it comes to the hiring and firing of managers so the idea that a top coach would wait a year before being able to shape the side as he'd want while simultanesouly being judged on the side's performance doesn't fit. Football is a results business!
As for players out on loan, essentially you'd be telling one of the top managers in the world that while he can't sign anyone, you'll happily be able to provide him with a group of players deemed surplus to requirements under the previous manager. In England, we call that "sloppy seconds". Which of those returning loan players was it that you were specifically refering to? Danny Drinkwater? Michy Batshuayi? Victor Moses? Tiemoué Bakayoko? They'd hardly be exciting additions to a middle of the table club and they certainly didn't fill the void left by the sale of Eden Hazard in the same transfer window.
Lampard then was the lowest risk appointment on what was probably a small shortlist of candidates that Chelsea could pursue in the summer of 2019. He knows the club , he knows a few of the youth team that following the transfer ban he'd have to work with, he is a fans favourite so by default would be given more support from thr stands and ultimately he was very cheap to get rid of once the transfer ban was lifted.
We are both entitled to our opinion on this matter but the above is fact, these things all happened.
Playing in the Premier League doesn't automatically make you a good manager. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a pretty good example of that! Not to mention, Alan Shearer, Ruud Gulit, Gianfranco Zola, Tony Adams, etc, etc (there's a good blog for you to write there on great EPL players who have made terrible managers).
But ulitmately the size of the club doesn't have much influence on the risk involved. OK, Palace aren't going to be challenging for the title but if they get their appointment of manager wrong then it will cost them their place in the Premier League.
The risk then is relavant to the ambitions of the club at any given time rather than whether you consider them a "big" or not. Chelsea's ambitions were naturally limited in 2019/20 season by the disadvantage they suffered that left them with fewer options when appointing a coach.
The same can't be said of Crystal Palace who as I've described already could have gone down a tried and trusted route of appointing a manager with plenty of Premier League experience but actively choose not to and instead brought in Viera who by any measure is still a rookie coach. Personally, I would say that anytime a large organisation (sporting or otherwise) choses a new strategy in pursuit of success that comes with a significant amount of risk attached to it!
As for the youtube links. Personally I post and comment either via the sportstalksocial or PeakD front ends. On both sites you simply copy and paste the youtube address into either the post or the comment and they will automatically generate the video within the text like so
Thanks for the reply.
Odegaard is on loan in Arsenal,that doesn't make him a bad player. If I say Chelsea has an enviable lone scheme I am not mincing words. Victor Moses is doing exceptionally well in a great team in Moscow, Bakayoko doing so well in Italy. I didn't want to mention these ones,there are others...Tuchel has called some back and they are doing well. So please don't create a certain notion that loan is a bad thing. No manager is perfect in judgement.
I therefore mean that experience-wise, it was safer for Chelsea to get a Vieira than a Lampard even. Vieira had more experience in coaching than Lamps then. THIS IS ON RECORD AND A FACT. Yet they chose Lamps for the reasons you and I have given. I repeat there were better coaches than Lamps,who would be delighted to have coached a super club like Chelsea with a minimal transfer ban. Just like even now after Koeman was sacked by Barca,world class coaches were willing to take-over despite Barca’s financial crisis.
We must accept that there is this new craze of clubs desiring ex-players as coaches. I laughed when I read recently that Everton's management have discussed with Wayne Rooney. But that's the craze now!
Chelsea were not limited to Lamps as a best-fit or low risk for that time. There is nothing like Chelsea having a limited ambition in 2019, if you know the Chelsea machinery well. They just fell for the temptation of an ex-player coming in,his popularity in Engand,etc.
That is why I repeat that appointing Lamps was a huge risk,certainly much more than any risk of Palace appointing a Vieira. If Arteta is surviving somehow in Arsenal,why won't Vieira in Palace,a Vieira that was more experienced than Arteta as at when Arsenal got Arteta.
Please, move those names you listed behind the curtain. We are talking of Vieira here and not because,he was an outstanding EPL player.We have watched his work,his discipline,his intellect for the game. Palace didn't just fall for the ex-player craze,they had researched him and with the kind of players they boast, they knew Vieira was the man. Vieira's appointment was getting a tried and trusted hand,if you know what I mean. I don't know how you see so much risk in that. I have said look at Howe as a monumental risk of high proportions, Vieira is too loaded to even struggle in Palace, he can handle a bigger club even, if you appreciate his coaching know-how.
AT THIS POINT, I RE-ECHO YOUR THOUGHTS THAT WE ARE BOTH ENTITLED TO OUR OPINIONS ON THIS MATTER,I THINK THERE IS NO HOPE ON OUR CONVERGING HERE.
That's the beauty of this football thing,sometimes we see guys in the studio running match commentaries disagreeing on some points. Na so e be(that's how it is).
Thanks a lot for registering your presence in my last blog with a positive gesture.
On the video,is it just YouTube videos allowed here? Recall I asked about normal videos in a phone. I use the PeakD front end too. Meaning all I need do is paste the YouTube link in the typing space and bingo it transforms?
Kk let me try any video right away:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vjTbXee3fOg&feature=youtu.be
I hope I got it? Big thanks for your efforts in answering me.I still await.
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That is really what makes Premiere League is so much thrilling, it is so competitive as not any single club can dominate the league so much. Its just full of surprises.
And yes christmas and new year is really can be a turning point for thw club form. Those club you mentions is just in a roller coaster ride of that season.
But Arsenal is always facing the same problem, sometime the lose their good form after christmas or new year.
Yep, it's definitely a case of anyone could beat anyone on the day and that's why we love it!
Arsenal seem to be hitting some good form at the moment but they've got some really big fixtures coming up against Man City and then the North London derby so they'll be hoping to ride the waves into those games and then into the Spring. That final Champions League spot looks like it's going to be really tight this year!
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Thanks for the mention, or not :P
I am sure, the team is struggling and is already thinking about going back. I am out of words on how to describe the situation the team is in. It is quite obvious that the players have their limitations on what they can do at the moment. I cannot expect a lot from them.
Yeah sorry mate, it’s looking a bit desperate at the moment
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