01 THE MOST UNIQUE SEASON… EVER
There have been 123 seasons in Football League history, stretching back to 1888. Not one of them had a whacking great World Cup in the middle of it… until now.
OK, so people weren’t exactly thrilled when the first ever winter World Cup was declared, after FIFA suddenly realised it was 40 degrees during Doha’s summer. Who knew? And let’s face it: we’ve missed having a World Cup this summer – June weekdays are actually quite barren without looking up what time Ecuador versus Senegal kicks off.
But the winter edition is on. Not only does that give us all something to look forward to, it also adds a genuine novelty factor to this domestic campaign – even if two years of COVID mean an interrupted season won’t be quite the shock it was once expected to be.
Who’ll profit most of all from the Premier League shutting down on November 13, eight days before the Qatar opener? While many exert themselves in the most important tournament of their lives, Mo Salah, Erling Haaland and others absent from this World Cup will be resting, ready to terrorise again when action resumes on Boxing Day, eight days after the final in Qatar. Might clubs with fewer players involved lower down benefit?
SOME CAN WATCH FOUR WORLD CUP GAMES AND STILL VISIT THEIR CLUB
And that’s before you factor in the top sides playing six European group games by November 3: two seasons ago, a similarly condensed Champions League group phase had a knock-on effect in the Premier League, when Man City sat seventh in December.
The Scottish Premiership also stops on November 13, resuming on December 17; England’s Championship returns one week earlier, maybe with the odd player missing if their country has got as far as the World Cup quarter-finals. Lower down, there’s no break at all – will Jonny Williams make the Wales squad and miss a host of crucial League Two fixtures? Swindon wait nervously.
For the first time, though, fans can watch four televised World Cup matches a day and still go to their local team on a Saturday. Take your smartphone and keep an eye on Poland versus Saudi Arabia from the terraces.
Through to the Champions League final on June 10, thousands and thousands of hours of football lie ahead. Make the most of it – there won’t be another season like this one.
02 MITROVIC TO SILENCE TOP-FLIGHT SCEPTICS
No one doubts that Alex Mitrovic is quite handy in the second tier: the Serb bagged 26 times for Fulham in 2019-20, then an incredible 43 across 44 matches last term. With it, he broke the previous record of 42 for a 46-game EFL season, set by Portsmouth’s Guy Whittingham in 1992-93. In the Premier League, though? Well, he’s never scored more than 11 in a campaign. His last one produced three goals, albeit from only 13 starts as he tumbled out of favour. Not this time…
03 ROONEY’S NEXT JOB
Wayne Rooney’s first experience in management wasn’t ideal: he suffered relegation from the second tier, just like Bobby Charlton – his predecessor as Man United and England’s top scorer – five decades earlier at Preston. He came out with huge credit, though, for the way he handled Derby’s financial crisis – the Rams bagged 55 points last term, enough for 17th but for their 21-point deduction. But unlike Charlton, there’s no chance of Rooney shying away from management. Linked with Everton and Burnley last term, Wazza’s next position could be defining.
04 FODEN TO DOMINATE FOR ENGLAND AT LAST
Phil Foden has been PFA Young Player of the Year two years running – but he’s yet to make the same impact with England. Euro 2020 wasn’t the breakthrough tournament he hoped for – Foden then missed most of the summer’s Nations League through COVID; when he came on with 22 minutes to go against Hungary, England shipped three to lose 4-0. The 22-year-old is capable of being one of the planet’s best – might the World Cup be his moment to show it?
05 ERLING HAALAND TO BREAK THE PREMIER LEAGUE GOALS RECORD
What’s the Norwegian for ‘help’? Erling Haaland is back in the country of his birth and looking to maintain the devastating goal-per-game ratio from two and a half successful years at Borussia Dortmund.
Last season’s title winners and top scorers have signed one of the most prolific hitmen in world football. Should we just hand Man City the Premier League trophy right now?
Well, perhaps not yet – Liverpool may have something to say about it – but Jurgen Klopp will know as well as anyone that Haaland’s addition will make his rivals even stronger.
After failing to nab Harry Kane last summer, then Cristiano Ronaldo, Pep Guardiola pushed ahead without a recognised centre-forward – instead, Jack Grealish, Gabriel Jesus, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne were all deployed through the middle. A fourth title in five years showed they didn’t exactly miss an out-and-out No.9.
Even so, there were times when a proven scorer wouldn’t have gone amiss. Goalless draws with Southampton and Crystal Palace might have been avoided if City had a fox in the box prowling the opposition area. Instead of edging out Liverpool by only a single point, Guardiola’s side may have won the title more comfortably. Perhaps even in Europe, too?
INJURIES MIGHT BE ONE OBSTACLE – HIS MOST LEAGUE STARTS IN A SEASON IS 27
So, enter Haaland. Nearly every major club in Europe was linked with the 22-year-old, but it’s testament to City’s progress over the last five years that he picked them. This is their biggest superstar signing – and there’s good reason to think it could be one of their best.
In Haaland’s most productive campaign at Dortmund, he notched 27 goals in 28 games – or 0.96 per game. Were he to replicate that and feature in every game this term, Haaland would score 36 goals; that would set a new Premier League record for a single campaign, surpassing the 34-goal hauls in 42-game seasons from Andy Cole (1993-94) and Alan Shearer (1994-95). It’s far from impossible.
Injuries, though, are one potential obstacle to Haaland making history – the striker was restricted to 21 Bundesliga starts last season due to a hip flexor issue and various muscle problems. He’s never started more than 27 games in a league campaign full stop.
“The worst thing is not being able to play,” he said in January. “My biggest wish for the rest of my career is not to be injured.”
Provided he can stay fit, Haaland’s track record shows he’s as close to a guarantee of goals as it’s possible to find. City routinely create an abundance of chances that the Norwegian will gratefully gobble up, and on the rare occasions when their spellbinding passing game isn’t working out, the powerful 22-year-old could just simply bludgeon the opposition’s backline open. Gulp…
06 MORE WAG WARS
Admit it: you spent lunch breaks devouring the Wagatha Christie trial too. Rather than a one-off, though, perhaps Rooney vs Vardy was merely the start of a new series where partners of ex-England stars get nasty in public. Alex Gerrard calling out Christine Lampard on TikTok; Victoria Beckham slamming Abbey Clancy in a barbed remake of . In the meantime, Coleen could use her investigate skills to unearth the truth behind footballing mysteries. First: does Sean eat worms?
