EPL: Top 10 Events of 2012-13 Season
It is officially the off-season now.
Let’s quickly recap the interesting aspects—one new champion, three relegated teams, multi-million pound transfer deals, controversies after controversies, weird on and off the field acts and, last but not least, plentiful retirements.
Goals from Luis Suarez, Robin van Persie, Gareth Bale and Michu played a heavy role in pushing their respective teams up the ladder.
At the end, Gareth Bale swept all individual honors available for players.
A mad scramble for relegation ensued during the latter stages of the season with teams dropping in and out of the final relegation spot until, finally, the axe fell on Wigan Athletic.
Listed here are the most interesting and deserving events of note during the just-concluded English Premier League season.
1) Manchester United: Champions
1 of 11Manchester United snatched the league title back from the hands of their noisy neighbours Manchester City.
It was the twentieth league success for United as Alex Ferguson’s men went two clear of Liverpool’s 18 league titles at the top of the pile.
But they did so in some style by clinching the title with nearly four games remaining, and in the process establishing themselves as the top dog in English football.
Robin van Persie proved to be decisive in the title chase as his 26 goals fired them to victory.
2) Arsenal Finish Fourth
2 of 11Same old, same old Arsenal!
In what has now become a ritual, Arsenal once again finished fourth in Champions League places at the expense of—you guessed it—archrival Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite Gareth Bale’s heroics, Arsene Wenger has yet again gate-crashed the Spurs’ party, leaving Andre Villas-Boas and the team of directors at White Hart Lane wondering about ways to retain Bale’s services for next season.
The Welshman looks set to leave the club following a period of heightened interest from clubs such as Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Arsenal can look forward to a happy preseason without the headache of transfer speculations concerning any of their leading players—as Arsene hopes—and plan a title onslaught for the next season.
Or so they thought.
And Arsenal have not won a single trophy in the past eight seasons.
Same old, same old!
3) Chelsea Break Records
3 of 11It has been a record-breaking season for Chelsea.
No, really. They have broken records during the course of the season.
First, the club snatched Eden Hazard from under the noses of both Manchester clubs and made him the most expensive signing of the season.
Then, the club broke its own record for sacking managers. Roman Abramovich replaced Roberto Di Matteo with Rafa Benitez, which angered many supporters who hated the Spaniard for his Liverpool connections.
Despite scoring 20+ goals for the season, Fernando Torres experienced spells of goal drought in the Premier League. His only goal since the turn of the year came when he scored the winner against Everton in the final game of the season.
What few Chelsea supporters seemed to realize was that Fernando Torres had set a club record for most European goals scored during a single campaign. He netted 9 goals—6 of them in the Europa League—to better his predecessors.
Frank Lampard broke Bobby Tambling’s 40-year-old record to become Chelsea’s all-time highest goal scorer. He finally put to rest speculations about his future when he signed a one-year contract extension immediately after winning the Europa League.
Chelsea won the Europa League by overcoming Portuguese club Benfica 2-1 in the final. Branislav Ivanovic scored a headed winner in added time to secure the victory for his side.
This led to Chelsea becoming the only club in history to hold both the Europa League and the Champions League trophies at the same time.
Chelsea also ended a marathon season against Everton in their Premier League-record 69th game of the season. Their reward for this record is a pair of post-season friendly matches against Manchester City this month in St. Louis and New York City.
On a side note, John Terry must have been the only captain to miss consecutive European finals but then wore full uniform to lift the trophies!
4) Fergie Retires
4 of 11Sir Alex Ferguson has finally called it a day.
After 26 years in charge of a winning machine, the Scotsman hands over the reins to newly-appointed David Moyes, who leaves Everton after 11 years in charge. Moyes signed a six-year deal to assume the hot seat.
Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United, replacing Ron Atkinson, in November 1986. He won his first trophy—the FA Cup—in 1990.
Having lost the title to Leeds United by the narrowest of margins during the 1991-92 season—courtesy of Liverpool—Alex Ferguson clinched the Premier League in its inaugural season.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Alex Ferguson won a total of 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League titles, five FA Cups and four League cups, in addition to the Club World Cup Championship title and 10 Charity Shields.
In what was Fergie’s final game at the Hawthorns—his 1500th in charge—Manchester United played out a remarkable draw against West Bromwich Albion with the game ending 5-5.
5) Retirement Season
5 of 11Sir Alex Ferguson led a group of legends to quit the game at the end of the season, including the likes of Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen.
David Beckham, the world’s most popular footballer, former England national team skipper and one-time Manchester United player, also called it quits. He retires after having played for teams such as Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Los Angeles Galaxy and his current club, Paris Saint-Germain.
Jamie Carragher announced his retirement back in February following his comeback into the starting XI at the expense of Martin Skrtel.
Carragher made 737 appearances for Liverpool. Although the league title eluded him, Carragher still leaves football as one of its most decorated players.
Michael Owen started his final game on the bench. It was perhaps not how he envisioned the ending of his career.
It has been a long way downhill for Owen as his insignificance to the sport and to the clubs for which he played seems far removed from his heyday when he was the most natural finisher in Europe.
Another one-club man who decided to call time on his career is Steve Harper, who captained Newcastle in a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Harper’s most infamous moment came when he let Xabi Alonso’s 65-yard strike bounce past him into the net. Harper played for Newcastle for 19 years, making 199 appearances serving as No. 2 goalkeeper under various managers and only briefly managing to keep a run of starting XI appearances.
Paul Scholes announced his retirement for a second time after he initially made a comeback to the game in 2012.
Moreover, it was the second retirement announcement for Alex Ferguson. The Scot had earlier announced his intentions to retire from the game back in 2002, only to do a massive U-turn and decide to stay.
6) Everton Finish Above Liverpool Again
6 of 11Everton finished above Merseyside rivals Liverpool FC for the second time in consecutive seasons.
Liverpool, under Brendan Rodgers, have improved sufficiently, but early season failures put to rest their hopes of a top four finish. However, the Reds did collect nine more points than they did last season, scored in excess of 70 goals—against last season’s 47—and finished in seventh with a goal difference of +28.
However, far too many draws derailed their season, allowing Everton to squeeze a two-point lead to finish above the Reds.
David Moyes, who leaves the club after 11 years in charge, led his side to a sixth place finish once again on a shoestring budget.
Let’s just say the admiration and appreciation he earned from Alex Ferguson ultimately helped Moyes land the Manchester United job, rather than it being lucky inheritance.
7) Managers in the Firing Line
7 of 11Exactly half-a-dozen managers lost their jobs during the 2012-13 Premier League season.
Here’s the list:
Manager | Mode of dismissal | Replaced by | Club |
Roberto Di Matteo | Sacked | Rafa Benitez | Chelsea |
Mark Hughes | Sacked | Harry Redknapp | Queens Park Rangers |
Nigel Adkins | Sacked | Mauricio Pochettino | Southampton |
Brian McDermott | Sacked | Nigel Adkins | Reading FC |
Martin O’Neill | Sacked | Paolo Di Canio | Sunderland |
Roberto Mancini | Sacked | —??— | Manchester City |
Roman Abramovich dismissing Roberto Di Matteo and Nicola Cortese bringing in Mauricio Pochettino in place of Nigel Adkins attracted fierce criticism from the League Managers’ Association, who censured those clubs with benefactor owners for aiding to propagate an unhealthy practice.
But they didn’t know one truism: What Roman wants, Roman gets!
8) Cup Winners
8 of 11This season saw Premier League teams lift both domestic cups available to them.
While Swansea City lifted the Capital One Cup, Wigan emerged winners of the FA Cup despite their opponents—Manchester City—being the odds-on favorite.
The Capital One Cup provided for some surprising moments as favorites Chelsea and Aston Villa made disappointing exits to Swansea City and League Two side Bradford City, respectively.
Swansea went on to trump Bradford City in the final at Wembley, winning the game 5-0. It was the Welsh club’s first major title in their history.
Bradford City, perhaps spurred on by their cup run, recently achieved promotion to third tier in English football—League One—by overcoming Northampton Town in the play-off final.
Wigan Athletic had an up-and-down season.
Aside of their fight for survival in the top-flight, their extended cup run in the FA Cup competition made for interesting viewing.
They easily overcame Everton in the semi-finals, thrashing their Merseyside opponents 3-0, before going on to face Manchester City in the final at Wembley.
Manchester City reached their second FA Cup final in three years. Winning the trophy would have been a mere consolation for the multi-million pound team that had endured a difficult season in the Premier League by conceding the title to archrivals United and exited the Champions League at the group stages.
However, Ben Watson had other ideas for Wigan as he headed home a Shaun Maloney corner for an 89th-minute winner that would eventually allow the team to etch their names on the record books.
9) Relegated Parties
9 of 11Queens Park Rangers, Reading FC and Wigan Athletic have one thing in common.
They will have to ply their trade in the Championship next season.
Wigan Athletic ended up being the unlucky ones this time around as their annual end-of-season fight for survival did not finish well.
However, egged on by their FA Cup victory and the money that will be on offer for the clubs in the forthcoming seasons of the Premier League, Wigan will ensure that they are around to enjoy their deserved slice of pie.
So, expect them to bounce back immediately if they succeed in keeping the squad intact and retaining manager Roberto Martinez.
Both Reading and Queens Park Rangers went through two different managers during the course of the season.
While Reading’s woes were primarily due to non-performance and/or lack of favorable results, QPR's issues ran much deeper.
Backed by Tony Fernandes, QPR indulged in never-before-seen transfer spending by relegation battling clubs.
Here is a list of players acquired by QPR during the entire 2012-13 season.
- Ryan Nelsen
- Andy Johnson
- Robert Green
- Samba Diakite
- Park Ji-Sung
- Junior Hoilett
- Jose Bosingwa
- Julio Cesar
- Esteban Granero
- Stephane Mbia
- Tal Ben Haim
- Loic Remy
- Yun Suk-Young
- Christopher Samba
- Jermaine Jenas
- Fabio and Andros Townsend (Loan signings)
Without enough income to balance out the massive spending, QPR now face the tough task of having to offload several of these acquisitions in order to balance the books and bring about a semblance of stability.
It was ultimately disunity and lack of player power that undid QPR’s stay in the top-flight.
10) Luis Suarez Bites
10 of 11Luis Suarez and controversy are never too far apart.
How many times have we chanced upon a similar such sentence across various media?
It’s true that the Uruguayan’s antics now attract more attention than ever before.
However, that is not to rid the striker of any blame for this recent episode.
Luis Suarez technically bit Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea during a league match when the two sides met at Anfield.
I say "technically" because there were no bite marks on Ivanovic or traces of flesh discovered in Suarez’s teeth.
Anyway, the unprofessional conduct of the Uruguayan for the second time in as many seasons, following on from the Patrice Evra episode, invoked the wrath of the FA, who handed him a 10 game ban.
Conclusion
11 of 11What now follows is an intense summer gripped with transfer speculations.
Jose Mourinho’s confirmed departure only serves to increase the frenzy and big-money signing rumors that are just around the corner.
Catch up on the latest transfer news and rumors with Bleacher Report’s unparalleled coverage of the summer transfer window.






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