2015: A Year of Surprises For English Clubs

     For those of you keeping up with the Barclays Premier League, you know that we are 20 weeks into the 2015/2016 season, meaning about half way through. Personally, I have been pretty surprised with how the standings have been turning out. These are the standings as of the end of 2015:

POS		LP		CLUB	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1		(1)		Arsenal	20	13	3	4	34	18	16	42
2		(2)		Leicester City	20	11	7	2	37	25	12	40
3		(3)		Manchester City	20	12	3	5	39	21	18	39
4		(4)		Tottenham Hotspur	20	9	9	2	34	16	18	36
5		(5)		Manchester United	20	9	6	5	24	17	7	33
6		(6)		West Ham United	20	8	8	4	30	23	7	32
7		(7)		Crystal Palace	20	9	4	7	23	19	4	31
8		(8)		Liverpool	20	8	6	6	22	24	-2	30
9		(9)		Watford	20	8	5	7	25	22	3	29
10		(10)		Stoke City	20	8	5	7	21	21	0	29
11		(11)		Everton	20	6	9	5	36	29	7	27
12		(12)		West Bromwich Albion	20	7	5	8	20	25	-5	26
13		(13)		Southampton	20	6	6	8	26	24	2	24
14		(16)		Chelsea	20	6	5	9	26	29	-3	23
15		(14)		Norwich City	20	6	5	9	23	32	-9	23
16		(15)		Bournemouth	20	5	6	9	22	34	-12	21
17		(17)		Swansea City	20	4	7	9	17	26	-9	19
18		(18)		Newcastle United	20	4	5	11	19	35	-16	17
19		(19)		Sunderland	20	4	3	13	22	39	-17	15
20		(20)		Aston Villa	20	1	5	14	16	37	-21	8

http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html

     I have always been as strong supporter of Chelsea and with them coming out at first place last year it has been shocking to see them in the 14th slot. Another surprise to me has been Leicester in second with 11 wins in the past 20 weeks. Early in 2015 I would not have even known Leicester was an English soccer team, but now they are at the top, dominating teams that I have always known to dominate. Clearly 2015 has been good to Leicester and they certainly achieved their 2015 goals. Chelsea on the other hand, will have to work hard this year if they wish to go any further this season. Aston Villa has unfortunately only won one game out of 20 played so they could certainly benefit from a turn around such as that shown by Leicester.

     When you compare the 2015 results to those from 2014 I think you will agree that things went much differently than expected.

2014 Standings:

POS		CLUB	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1		Chelsea	38	26	9	3	73	32	41	87
2		Manchester City	38	24	7	7	83	38	45	79
3		Arsenal	38	22	9	7	71	36	35	75
4		Manchester United	38	20	10	8	62	37	25	70
5		Tottenham Hotspur	38	19	7	12	58	53	5	64
6		Liverpool	38	18	8	12	52	48	4	62
7		Southampton	38	18	6	14	54	33	21	60
8		Swansea City	38	16	8	14	46	49	-3	56
9		Stoke City	38	15	9	14	48	45	3	54
10		Crystal Palace	38	13	9	16	47	51	-4	48
11		Everton	38	12	11	15	48	50	-2	47
12		West Ham United	38	12	11	15	44	47	-3	47
13		West Bromwich Albion	38	11	11	16	38	51	-13	44
14		Leicester City	38	11	8	19	46	55	-9	41
15		Newcastle United	38	10	9	19	40	63	-23	39
16		Sunderland	38	7	17	14	31	53	-22	38
17		Aston Villa	38	10	8	20	31	57	-26	38
18		Hull City	38	8	11	19	33	51	-18	35
19		Burnley	38	7	12	19	28	53	-25	33
20		Queens Park Rangers	38	8	6	24	42	73	-31	30

http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/matchday/league-table.html

    

     The fact that all the standings were so different from these two years show us that what lies ahead could be drastically different. Arsenal, Leicester, Manchester City, and Tottenham held the spotlight this past year and I think we are all excited to see what 2016 brings for them as well as the rest. If this trend of ups and downs continues, Aston Villa could be our next winner of the Premier League.