2011 Premier League Winners and Losers

Another year in English football came and went.

And boy, what a year it was.

2011 saw controversy, upsets, brilliant goals, awful blunders, thrilling matches, intense comebacks and much more—everything you'd expect from 365 days of football.

But more than anything, this past year had plenty of winners and plenty of losers. 2011 saw the dramatic rise of some clubs and the heart-breaking demise of others.

Without further ado, here are the Premier League winners and losers of 2011.

Winner: Robin Van Persie

Robin Van Persie has had the best year of his career, finding the net 35 times in the Premier League and scoring a massive 42 goals in all competitions.

Approaching the peak of his career, 2011 was the year that Van Persie established himself as one of the best players in the world and arguably the best centre forward in the world. Some say that he single-handedly turned Arsenal's season around with his prolific form, scoring four braces and a hat trick along with a handful of other goals.

Robin Van Persie had a brilliant 2011, so the sky is the limit for him in 2012.

Winner: David Silva

"Who is the best player in the Premier League?" is currently the biggest debate in English football.

Everyone knows it's between Robin Van Persie and David Silva, but not many people can give you a definitive answer.

On one hand, Robin Van Persie scores so much that it's actually smarter to bet that he will score instead of betting that he won't. But while the Dutchman is the best forward in the league, David Silva is the best midfielder in the league. The pint-sized playmaker is the heart of Manchester City's attack, just as likely to score a crucial goal as he is to place a defense-splitting assist.

Who's better? That's your choice, but both are undoubtedly winners in 2011.

Winner: Jack Wilshere

Although Jack Wilshere hasn't played a minute of Premier League football this season, he was absolutely phenomenal in the 2010-11 season.

Wilshere proved to be Arsenal's most consistent midfielder, putting in fine performances week in and week out including a Man of the Match performance against Barcelona in the Champions League. 2011 was the Englishman's breakout year, and he's now considered one of the brightest prospects in World Football and was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award last season.

Wilshere will have to be at his best when he returns from injury in order to help Arsenal cement their top four spot and to give England a boost for the Euros.

Keep it up in 2012, Jack.

Winner: Sheikh Mansour and Manchester City

What started out as a mediocre squad that happened to have Robinho and then Carlos Tevez in it is now a serious force to be reckoned with.

Five years ago, Manchester City was just as significant as Fulham or West Brom—an average English mid-table club. But just like Roman Abramovich with Chelsea, Sheikh Mansour bought out Manchester City and immediately pumped wealth into what is now known as the Etihad Stadium.

With Roberto Mancini as manager and a world-class squad, Manchester City's first team are now favourites to win the title—and their bench could easily challenge for a top-four spot.

Is it sad to see how mega-rich billionaires can use their oil money to completely change football clubs?

Yes. 

But is Operation Blue Moon Rising ultimately a success?

Yes...

Winner: The Transfer Market

The January transfer window of 2011 was phenomenally record breaking.

Clubs spend a whopping 225 million pounds, breaking the previous record of amount spent in this transfer window by 50 million pounds.

But that's not the only record that was broken. Fernando Torres moving from Liverpool to Chelsea for 50 million pounds broke the record for the amount spent on a single player from one Premier League club to another. Liverpool spending 35 million pounds on Andy Carroll from Newcastle was also the highest amount ever paid for a British player.

The summer transfer window was successful too (depending on how you define successful), with the Premier League spending more than any other league—a massive 435 million pounds.

Let's hope the 2012 transfer windows will be just as exciting as 2011's.

Winner: Sir Alex Ferguson

Although this may not seem timely, as Sir Alex Ferguson had to watch his Red Devils suffer a crushing loss to Blackburn on his 70th birthday, the Manchester United boss ultimately had a successful 2011.

The Englishman celebrated 25 years with the club he's brought so much success to, leading them to their 19th Premier League title and surpassing their arch-rivals Liverpool.

Sir Alex has continued to see his side crank out results and contend for multiple trophies every season, and even though Manchester United seem to be struggling at the moment, Ferguson has a way of producing the three points even when his side don't deserve them.

As hated as he is by rival fans and even his own players (cough cough Wayne Rooney), you've got to admit that Sir Alex Ferguson is a fantastic manager.

Winner: Demba Ba

Demba Ba has gone from an unknown talent to one of the best forwards in the Premier League, all in just a year.

Joining West Ham from 1899 Hoffenheim in the January Transfer Window last season, he scored seven goals in 12 appearances for the London outfit before leaving on a free transfer to Newcastle this summer. Ba is currently the second top scorer in the Premier League with 14 goals, scoring more than mega-million pound players like Sergio Aguero, Wayne Rooney and Mario Balotelli. 

At age 26, the Senegal international still has the peak of his career ahead of him and will be looking to improve on his impressive 21-goal haul in 2011.

Winner: Goals

The 2010-11 season saw a record breaking 1,063 goals scored, with an average of 2.8 goals scored per match. 

We're already halfway there this season, with 535 goals scored and 18 gameweeks left. There's been some brilliant goals scored in 2011, with the one pictured above in mind as well as a number of other incredible strikes.

Let's hope 2012 brings even more goals to feast our eyes on.

Winner: The Premier League

Yes, the Premier League is a winner for the 2011 Premier League winners and losers. I know that's a mouthful, but I'll explain.

The constant debate in world football these days seems to be between the Premier League and La Liga and which one is the best league in the world. There's an argument for each one: La Liga has the two best teams in the world, as well as the two best players in the world.

However, the La Liga title race is a two horse race, while with the Premier League, it's usually a four-horse race, and this season seems to even be a six-horse race.

In the Premier League, any team can go anywhere and win; we even saw exactly that this weekend. Twentieth-place Blackburn travelled to Old Trafford and grabbed all three points in a 3-2 win. Midtable Aston Villa went to Stamford Bridge and shocked Chelsea with a 3-1 win. Even league leaders Manchester City fell to 13th placed Sunderland, conceding a decisive goal right at the death. 

Can you see any team going to the Nou Camp and beating Barcelona? Even Real Madrid can't do it.

It's simple, the Premier League is just a whole lot more competitive than La Liga, and it showed us that with some shocking results in 2011.

Winner: Manchester United

Although it wasn't done in the prettiest fashion, Manchester United had a successful 2010-11 season, winning their 19th Premier League title to surpass Liverpool as the most successful English club of all time.

They took strong competition from Arsenal for the first half of the season and then Chelsea towards the end, but after all that fuss, the Red Devils ended up finishing nine points clear at the top of the table, winning the league with one match to go.

Although they usually find themselves favourites for the Premier League title, Manchester United are currently second in the league behind Manchester City, their noisy neighbors, and aren't considered favourites to lift the trophy anymore.

2012 could be an interesting year for Manchester United.

Loser: Fernando Torres

Since arriving at Chelsea from Liverpool last January for a record-breaking 50 million pounds, Fernando Torres has scored just three league goals—five in all competitions.

"El Nino" took until last April to score his first goal for the club, but didn't score again in the 2010-11 season. During the summer, he vowed that he'd be twice the player he was in the 2010-11 season, and so far, he's done exactly that, having scored two goals so far in 2011-12 as opposed to his one goal last season.

I can go all day with Torres jokes, but the point is that he's had an absolutely horrible 2011, and is undoubtedly a loser.

Loser: Andy Carroll

Andy Carroll is just as much of a flop as Fernando Torres is.

He too arrived at Liverpool for a record-breaking sum, but has scored just four league goals in 23 appearances, failing to find the form he had at Newcastle at the end of 2010.

The funny thing is, Andy Carroll usually has one or two really good headers every match, but they always seem to hit the woodwork or get saved by the keeper. The Englishman just can't seem to find the net and is another Premier League player who can't live up to his massive transfer fee.

It's been a quite awful year for Andy Carroll, and who knows where he'll be this time next year.

Loser: Carlos Tevez

Do I even need to tell his story?

After finishing the 2010-11 season as the joint top scorer in the Premier League, Carlos Tevez seemed to finally be settling in at Manchester City, captaining them to FA Cup glory as well as a Champions League finish.

But all of the Argentine's success in the first part of 2011 has been marred by his off-the-pitch problems in the latter part of 2011, refusing to play for Manchester City and since going AWOL somewhere in Argentina.

Where will 2012 take Carlos Tevez? Only he knows.

Loser: Roman Abramovich and His Champions League Dream

Chelsea have had a bad year.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that their squad is rapidly aging, and their second place finish in the league last season just doesn't reflect the problems at Stamford Bridge. The Blues currently sit at fifth in the league, and rather than mounting a strong title bid as people expected them to at the start of the season, they now must cement their top four spot.

It's a well known fact in football that Roman Abramovich's expectations for a manager are to win every trophy out there, and the Russian especially has a thing for the Champions League, Europe's greatest club competition.

Chelsea are currently miles away from winning the Champions League and need a lot of work in the transfer market in order to compete with the competition's favourites like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Loser: Referees

It's frustrating to see how one or two bad referee calls these days can completely ruin the outcome of a crucial match.

We've seen it plenty of times in the Champions League, with Robin Van Persie's ridiculous sending off giving the Gunners no chance of defeating Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the Round of 16 last year. In the semifinal, too, Dani Alves' despicable dive got Real Madrid's Pepe sent off, giving Barcelona a much easier route to the final.

There's plenty of dubious referee decisions in the Premier League too, with linesmen ruling perfectly fair goals offside and failing to disallow goals that are clearly offside.

Not only is technology needed in England's top tier, but better refs are needed as well.

Loser: Blackburn

Although Blackburn survived the drop last season, it's almost inevitable that they'll be playing Championship football this time next year.

Blackburn's start to the season has been a horror show. The fans are protesting every week, the club is owned by an Indian chicken company who doesn't seem to know the first thing about football, the players' wages could possibly not be paid and somehow, Steve Kean still has his job.

It'll take a miracle for the Rovers to get out of this mess.

Loser: John Terry

John Terry has had a bad year both on and off the pitch.

On the pitch, Terry has struggled to find form and is often the scapegoat for Chelsea's poor defense this season. He has good games every now and then, but hasn't consistently been a solid presence in the Blues back four that they desperately need.

Off the pitch, Terry isn't the best human being. His affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-wife is old news, but the Englishman's newest scandal is his race row with QPR defender Anton Ferdinand. Terry is already charged over it and is sure to receive the just consequences.

At age 31, John Terry has to prove that he's still got some good football left in him in 2012.

Loser: Avram Grant

Remember Avram Grant, the man who led Chelsea to the Champions League final and losing out on the trophy due to an unbalanced John Terry?

In case you've been living under a rock, Grant was sacked after that loss. He was then appointed manager of Portsmouth, who finished dead last in the Premier League, so Grant resigned and later joined West Ham. He led them too to a rock-bottom finish, getting the sack at the end of the season.

Avram Grant seems to be taking a break from management now after some stressful experiences of fighting the relegation battle and failing miserably.

However, at age 56, I doubt Grant is done in the world of football, and as he's a well respected manager, I wouldn't write off a return to the Premier League for him. Nonetheless, 2011 was a bad year for Avram Grant.

Loser: English Managers

Some Premier League fans are complaining that with every passing year the English Premier League is becoming less and less English. Personally, I think it's a good thing, something that cements the Premier League as the best in the world, but it's true nonetheless that England's top tier is becoming less English.

Believe it or not, there are now just four English managers out of 20 in the league, a small number that could get even smaller in the upcoming seasons.

It's true that the Premier League simply isn't very English anymore, but it's something that fans will have to accept with the game of football evolving and growing every year.

Loser: Manchester United

Nope, this isn't a mistake.

Although Manchester United were winners for the first part of 2011, they're undoubtedly losers for the second part of the year.

Crashing out of the Champions League with an easy group, losing to Crystal Palace in the League Cup at Old Trafford and worst of all, losing 6-1 at home to their bitter rivals, Manchester City. The Red Devils are losers just as much as they are winners.

Currently second place in the league, Manchester United's table position certainly doesn't tell the whole story, and there is much work to do at Old Trafford.

People are increasingly saying that Sir Alex Ferguson has his weakest squad for years, and the tables may just be turning in Manchester.