BREAKING NEWS: English FA brings Arsenal FC to the top
The English FA has taken action against five of the top 6 teams in the Premier League, deducting points from Liverpool, both Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur. The football organization in charge of facilitating the Premier League released a statement yesterday saying, “We apologize to supporters of the Premier League during the last 16 years for our leniency on the rules and regulations we have set for clubs to follow. We have revised the Premier League Rulebook and we will begin enforcing it onto Premier League clubs.”
The updated Premier League table after point deductions Courtesy of Premier LeagueT
The first two clubs to fall victim to the FA’s punishments were Chelsea and Manchester City for their extravagant spending in the transfer market. Roman Abramovich’s financial takeover of Chelsea in 2003 and Sheikh Mansour’s of Manchester City in 2008 have brought unprecedented domestic success, but at a costly price. The clubs have each spent extravagantly on players ever since the clubs’ takeovers, creating a significant gap in quality between them and the bottom half of the league. Many teams and fans have accused them of buying their success, which the FA has acknowledged and taken action by deducting 25 points from both teams. This leaves Manchester City in 3rd and Chelsea in 12th. Of the two clubs, Chelsea have been dealt the heavier blow, since their results this season haven’t been impressive and they have been dealt a 2-year transfer ban, meaning they can’t sign any new players in that time period.
Liverpool have been dealt a 20-point deduction due to an accumulation of obvious dives from winger Mohamed Salah that have been wrongly called and a slew of absurd excuses for their losses from manager Jürgen Klopp. Salah has singlehandedly won multiple matches for Liverpool by cheating, falling inside the penalty box, with or without any contact by the opposition player. He has also been fined £100,000 for his actions. Whenever Liverpool have failed to win, Klopp has made various ridiculous claims to cover up for his team’s performance. From blaming the weather, specifically the wind and snow, to blaming the other team’s injuries, the FA has deemed his comments “unreasonable and insulting to the other teams”.
Manchester United star midfielder Paul Pogba has gained a reputation for his unique hairstyle and celebrations, of which the latter has violated Premier League regulations. His dab celebration in particular has been considered “too excessive” by the FA. Furthermore, several coordinated dances by midfielder Jesse Lingard have also violated the rules set by both the FA. As a result, United have been deducted 10 points.
Tottenham suffered the greatest point deduction, being reduced by 36 points. This has come as a result of Tottenham declaring at the start of the season that they would be playing in their newly constructed home stadium. However, due to the stadium being incomplete, the North London club have played their “home” games at Wembley Stadium. Now that the stadium has been completed, they have moved back to their new stadium, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and played several home matches there. This action directly violates the Premier League’s Rulebook, which states that no team should share two home grounds in a single season. For this, 3 points have been deducted for every home game they have played away from their original stadium, bringing them down to 18th in the table.
After the investigation, Arsenal was the only team in the top 6 that is free of any accusations. Due to the deduction of the other teams’ points, they have suddenly risen to the top of the Premier League, with a 1-point lead over second-place Liverpool.
These events have caused a divide between fans. David Kim (9B), a Manchester City fan, expressed his opinion of the incident, saying, “I am agitated that [Arsenal] is above my beloved Manchester City. The punishments against the teams were a bit harsh, but they were somewhat necessary. I think there will be more discipline amongst Premier League teams because of it.”
Featured Image – Arsenal celebrate returning to the top Courtesy of The Guardian