After 10 games, one might think that Frank Lampard, the engine and inspiration behind most of Chelsea's offensive production over the past 5 seasons, has run into a torrid patch of form. This is mostly due to his low goal return – one in the Premiership and one in the Community Shield. Most fans expect […]

I think it's apt to finish this series with perhaps the player who is often held up as the reason that allowed footballers to earn the wages that they do in this day and age. Yet, to simply think of Johnny Haynes' only contribution to football was being the first player to earn £100 per […]

After Liverpool comfortably dispatched Hull this past weekend, I went into the Fiorentina match with soaring expectations. I tucked all of Liverpool's defensive and central midfield problems under the carpet of Torres' hat trick adorned with Gerrard, Babel and Riera's collective fuel for the goal-momentum fire. Fiorentina (whom I knew little about) would be no […]

After two successive weeks of top of the table clashes and fiercely contested derby matches, last weekends fixtures had looked about as attractive as a day trip to a pencil museum (there's one in Keswick, believe it or not). A shock result at Wigan and 37 goals later and all of the sudden this Premier […]

The England team are currently busy training for their World Cup qualifiers over the coming weeks. EPL Talk and Umbro are giving one lucky EPL Talk reader (and a friend) the opportunity to go and watch the team train on Tuesday October 6, 2009. Access to the training ground is restricted to only a handful […]

There's more in common between Americans and Brits than you may think. While many Americans still sit down on a late weekend night to watch NBC's Saturday Night Live, the Brits have a similar tradition. But rather than laughing at comedians perform skits, they choose to guffaw at overpaid actors of a different variety — […]

Die-hard Portsmouth supporters may be very familiar with the club's new third kit for the 2009/2010 season, but chances are the rest of us haven't seen pictures of it until now. Designed and manufactured by Canterbury, and sponsored by Jobsite, the new third kit is black with blue trim and blue horizontal pin-stripes. For the […]

After week 28 the numbers look like this... 5 year comparison WK 28 198 GP YTD Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP 2005 17,148 9 15,949 15,001 186 2006 19,097 11.37% 6 16,225 1.73% 15,244 1.62% 186 2007 18,727 -1.94% 7 16,578 2.18% 16,672 9.36% 188 2008 […]

Patrick Barclay is one of Britain's best known and respected football journalists. With a career of over 30 years working for a variety of publications and numerous appearances on television talking about the game, Patrick is always worthy of attention.Currently writing for the Times, Patrick has a wide knowledge of the beautiful game and many […]

It’s one of the worst situations in football business, when you have no more opportunities to resort to excuses, especially when you’re mainly responsible for the prosperity of your team. Hertha BSC-manager Lucien Favre lived through this said situation at the press conference after Hertha’s 1:5 loss against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the six straight […]

We knew coming into this U-20 World Cup that the US had a deep, talented squad filled with professional players. My hunch was that the US could perhaps contend to win the title under the right circumstances thanks to the numerous withdrawals of European club based players from other teams. But the opening match was […]

My distaste for Manchester City's business model has been well-documented on EPL Talk, but watching City host West Ham United yesterday, I am starting to begrudgingly accept it: City have arrived. Last season, poor away results and hit-or-miss form proved while City could spend on the top players, they couldn't will consistent chemistry into their […]

On Sunday at 11:00 AM, the Premier League will be treated to its first significant title clash when Liverpool take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Indulge me while I set the scene for the match. Chelsea and Liverpool have met 4 times or more for the past five years and until quite recently, the matches […]

EPL Talk blogger Alex Caulfield recently returned from a trip to England last week where he went to two Carling Cup matches — Leeds versus Liverpool at Elland Road, and Manchester City versus Fulham at the City of Manchester Stadium. Both matches were entertaining for different reasons. Leeds deserved to be level at the end […]

In the latest episode of the EPL Talk Podcast, Kartik Krishnaiyer and Laurence McKenna go through all the action in the Barclays Premier League from the past week. Learn which EPL Talk.com posts generated the most attention and controversy in the last week, as well as: Brilliant Liverpool Did Pepe Reina's comments spur on Liverpool? […]