Posted on 05/21/2015 6:04:09 AM PDT by kevkrom
EUROPEAN LEAGUE QUALIFYING AND RELEGATION
The top 3 teams in the Barclay's Premiere League (BPL) qualify directly to UEFA Champions League group play. The BPL champions will be a seeded team in EUFA.
The 4th place team qualifies for a UEFA play-in series against a club to be determined by draw among other qualifiers. The winner of the home-and-home series proceeds to UEFA group play.
The 5th place team qualifies for Europa League play, entering the competition at the play-off stage.
The Capital One Cup (League Cup) winner qualifies for Europa, entering at the third qualifying stage. Since the Capital One Cup was won be a team in the top 4 (Chelsea), this position will go instead to the team finishing in 6th place.
The FA Cup winner qualifies for Europa, entering at the group stage. If the FA cup winner is qualified for UEFA, the runner-up team will qualify instead. Since Arsenal will finish in the top 4, Hull City qualifies as either the Cup winner or runner-up.
A bonus Europa slot is available for the leader in the Fair Play table, as BPL as been declared one of the three top leagues in EUFA according to Fair Play rankings, entering the competition at the first qualification stage. Teams already qualified for UEFA or Europa will be passed over. (Fair Play score is determine by a combination of: taking minimal cards, “positive” play, respect for opponents, respect for officials, manager/staff behavior, and crowd behavior. Only the cards are objective, all others are at least partially subjective measures.) Note: this is the final year this bonus spot will be awarded.
BPL teams finishing between 18th and 20th are relegated to the Championship.
FINISHING SCENARIOS
Chelsea have won the BPL and the Capital One Cup.
Arsenal (72 points, +32 goal difference) and Manchester United (69 points, +25) will finish 3rd and 4th, but there’s still a long-shot chance Manchester United could overtake Arsenal for 3rd.
Hull City, despite being under threat of relegation, has qualified for Europa via the FA Cup.
5th and 6th place teams qualify for Europa; three teams are in the race to finish between 5th and 7th, and any of the teams can finish in any of the positions: Liverpool (62 points, +9), Tottenham Hotspur (61 points, +4), and Southampton (60 points, +23).
Omitting teams already qualified for European play, West Ham currently sits atop the Fair Play table, but Everton and Burnley are close enough that the final week’s play matters.
Queens Park Rangers and Burnley will both be relegated.
The final relegation spot (18th) will either be Hull City (34 points, -18) or Newcastle United (36 points, -25).
All other teams are, at best, just jockeying for a slightly better position in the final table. Only Chelsea, Manchester City, Swansea City, and Stoke City are locked into their current positions, at 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th, respectively.
MATCHES WITH POTENTIAL IMPACT ON QUALIFYING AND RELEGATION
Hull City / Manchester United (NBC) - Hull must win to have a chance at avoiding relegation. Manchester United is almost certainly in 4th, but a lopsided win coupled with an Arsenal loss that can flip a +7 difference would move them to 3rd.
Newcastle United / West Ham (USA) - If Hull does win, Newcastle must win to avoid being stuck in the 18th slot, as they lose tiebreakers to Hull. Note, Newcastle is 0-1-9 in their last 10. West Ham qualifies for Europa with a clean, positive game.
Stoke City / Liverpool (ScyFy) - If Liverpool wins, they’re in Europa, otherwise they’re at the mercy of the other results. They lose out on goal difference against Southampton do a Draw/Win combo there puts Southampton ahead. They beat Tottenham on goal difference, so Draw/Draw sees them in the top 6. Stoke has nothing to play for but pride.
Everton / Tottenham Hotspur (CNBC) - If Tottenham wins, they’re in Europa, otherwise they’re at the mercy of the other results. They lose out on goal difference to the other two. Everton can still qualify via Fair Play if West Ham stumbles.
Manchester City / Southampton (MSNBC) - Southampton needs help in any event to qualify for Europa, but a win puts the most pressure on the others and their chances are actually quite good. Manchester City has nothing to play for, but they have been dominating recently.
Arsenal / West Bromich Albion (Bravo) - Unlikely to matter, but if Manchester United is winning big and Arsenal is struggling, this can become interesting.
Aston Villa / Burnley (Esquire) - Mostly an after-thought, but Burnley can still squeak into Europe via Fair Play if they can nip ahead of West Ham and Everton.
Liverpool were playing more like a team coached by Kenny Rogers.
“You took a fine time to leave me Lucille.”
Klopp at the Kop, next season?
And Slaven Bilic potentially to West Ham, that should be very interesting and of course, Bilic managed Croatia successfully. He played for them, they have wanted him for quite a while, a fan favourite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaven_Bili%C4%87
Sam Allardyce is money in the bank though, he was at West Ham for 4 years. Now, they have parted ways, he brought them up from the Championship League.
Norwich City beats Middlesborough 2-0 in the playoff to win promotion to the Premier League next year, joining Bournemouth and Watford.
I watched the Hull game - I thought they played with heart and spirit, just couldn't et that finishing touch (unless they were offside, it seems). In the end, it was meaningless as Newcastle would up winning anyway, but they fought like... dare I say... tigers.
Arsenal wins the FA Cup 4-0 over Aston Villa.
Wait... that was actually a game?
I thought it was Arsenal running a practice-ground simulation against reserves wearing Villa jerseys. At least, that’s what it looked like.
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