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Premier League is back!

August 18th, 2006 | sport

Oh I’m so excited. Why? Because the Barclays Premiership kicks off Saturday August 19 a.k.a. tomorrow. If you don’t know, Premier League is football/soccer/whatever. Some may say “why not just follow the MLS since it’s in the US, thus probably easier access?” Well, I prefer Premier League for a number of reasons.

First off, Premierleague.com is one of the most organized and stats-packed sites ever for any sports league. You can find detailed stats about every player and team going back a number of years. They don’t just track how many minutes a player has played and such no no. They go as far as showing graphs on the number of times a certain player scored with his left foot, right foot, or head, and where they were on the pitch (field) when they scored…and that’s for every player that’s played! If you like, go to the site and click on Actim stats. You’ll find all the stats you can handle. The MLS website can be a pain to navigate as there is no single place to find all the stats.

Another feature of the Premier League website is the best, most well-organized fantasy league game ever. I’m not big into fantasy sports, but I started playing Premier League fantasy simply to force me to learn about the league and other teams besides Fulham FC. Now I quite enjoy it. At the beginning of the MLS season started the MLS fantasy game. The game isn’t nearly as organized and is actually a pain trying to find player stats and such. Sure I’ve learned a little bit about MLS, but I still don’t know much more than I did before.

One other reason I prefer Premier League to MLS is because, well, the quality of play is better. I’m not saying MLS sucks, but Premier League is one of the top football/soccer/whatever leagues in the world, and attracts many of the best players in the world (kind of like the NBA and NHL here is the US). No matter how good MLS is it would be tough to top it. Plus, the closest MLS team is a nice 6 hour or so drive from here…Chicago Fire. Since I’m not about to drive that distance to watch games, and not ever game is televised, I depend on internet for stats and news. Well, keeping up with Premier League via internet is much easier than MLS.

Anyways, now you know why I like the league and such. Now I’m going on record with my predictions for the season:

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
4. Manchester United
5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Blackburn
7. West Ham
8. Newcastle
9. Bolton
10. Fulham
11. Everton
12. Charlton
13. Portsmouth
14. Aston Villa
15. Middlesbrough
16. Manchester City
17. Reading
18. Watford
19. Wigan
20. Sheffield United

I know picking anyone but Chelsea as #1 immediately puts up red flags, but I have my reasons (and it’s not just because I’m a Fulham fan). Cheers.

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