Here are some of the most interesting Premier League stories you may not have read this week:
  • UK Internet Traffic to Top Premier League Football Websites (Hitwise): Chelsea may be near the top of the table, but the volume of web traffic to its web site still pales in comparison to clubs such as Arsenal, Spurs, Man United and Liverpool. Take a look at the charts to see who has the most amount of traffic. The statistics may surprise you.
  • Receive A Free Russian Hat When You Travel With Villa (Aston Villa Web Site). I’m not making this one up, and every time I read it, I can’t get the Seinfeld episode out of my head wihen George leaves a Russian hat at his girlfriend’s apartment as an excuse so he can come back.
  • Why Are Liverpool Fans So Angry With Me? (Liverpool Echo). If Liverpool fans need to be convinced that the American owners should get out of Anfield as quickly as possible, read this article. Co-owner George Gillett tries to play innocent to a representative of the Spirit Of Shankly (SOS) fan group, but comes off looking like a fool (again).
  • Behind The Scenes At Setanta Sports For a Live Premier League Broadcast (The Daily Mail). A British reporter spends the day with Setanta Sports and learns that Steve McManaman is as addicted to betting as Sean Ingle, and that commentator Jon Champion (yes Daily Mail, it’s Jon not John) spends 2-3 days researching for a big match.
  • Renewed Interest In Pompey Sale (BBC Sport). Now that the Premier League has confirmation that four of its six TV packages in the UK have been sold for more money than last time, expect a flurry of stories in the next few months of business owners willing to purchase Premiership clubs.
  • Premier League Finds Buyer For African Rights (Bloomberg). African readers will be relieved to know that a new owner of the African rights for the Premier League is on the horizon after current rights holder Gateway Broadcast Services went out of business.
  • Boring Fulham Supporters Are The Best Behaved (Fulham FC). Craven Cottage fans are number one in the Fair Play League, again.
  • English Premier League Still Spending Millions (BusinessWeek). Premier League clubs spent more money in the January transfer window than the top leagues in Italy, Spain, Germany and France combined.

And, before I go, here are two unabashed plugs:

  • Check out my interview on this week’s episode of BBC World’s Service World Football Programme. The show did a segment about how easy it is to illegally stream Premier League football matches for free via the Internet, and I had a few words about my experience watching England against Croatia on Justin.tv.
  • Irish blog Football Corner was kind enough to interview fellow EPL Talk colleague Johnathan Starling in a recent post.

Behind the scenes at EPL Talk, I’ve been busy the past two weeks recruiting new writers and getting ready for the launch of the redesign of EPL Talk. If everything goes according to plan, that’ll happen this weekend and I’ll be able to return to my regular posting. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the excellent articles from an array of EPL Talk contributing writers.