Six of the season’s best

SINGAPORE — Leicester City’s scarcely believable title triumph has ensured that 2015-16 will go down in history as a truly vintage Premier League season. Here are six of our columnist Adrian Clarke’s (sports [at] mediacorp.com.sg ()) personal highlights from a campaign we will never forget…​

19 Minutes of Magic

You can trawl through tapes of every single one of the 356 Premier League matches played out so far this season, and I guarantee you won’t find higher quality football than that briefly produced by Arsenal at home to Manchester United on a sunny October afternoon at Emirates Stadium.

Flying out of the blocks with the kind of passionate intensity that hoodwinked fans into thinking this was their year, the Gunners ran amok, serving up enough high-speed triangles, barnstorming breakaways, snippets of sublime skill, mesmeric movement, and picture perfect goals to keep them entertained for weeks.

Remarkably, they crammed all that magic into 19 minutes that utterly obliterated United.

Two stunning Alexis Sanchez goals, and another from Mesut Ozil made it game over at 3-0, and that explosion of brilliance won’t be easily forgotten.

Frustratingly, those standards weren’t maintained for the rest of the season.

“I have nothing to say”

Managerial meltdowns are always great fun to watch unfold but when it’s Jose Mourinho losing his dignity in front of live TV cameras, the tickle-o-meter is definitely cranked up a few levels.

We’d grown used to his snowballing crankiness during Chelsea’s unimaginably atrocious start to the season, but after losing 3-1 at home to Liverpool on Halloween, all of the Portuguese’s famed charm evaporated before our eyes.

Playing interview tennis with a dogged, and no doubt rather confused reporter, the not-so-Special-One batted away 11 consecutive questions with the phrase, “I have nothing to say.”

Even though it wasn’t his intention, given how nasty he’d been for months, this car-crash Q&A brought a welcome and healthy dose of light relief.

Just a few games later, Mourinho was sacked. Had I been given more space, that would also have made my ‘season highlights’ piece too!

City getting Klopped!

I’m not a big fan of the term ‘gegenpressing’. Closing down high up the pitch in feverish fashion by hunting in packs is not a revolutionary tactical trait that’s either new, German, or the property of Jurgen Klopp.

However, his trademark philosophy aired itself quite spectacularly in only his eighth contest in charge of Liverpool in November.

Put simply, the Reds blew Manchester City away in front of their own fans with the most devastatingly impressive away performance of the season.

Pumped up to rattle the cages of Manuel Pellegrini’s men, Liverpool’s super-charged game plan saw them turn over possession at will, before picking City off with some of the smoothest interplay we’ve seen from the Reds since Luis Suarez left for Barcelona.

This was the day every hipster had been waiting for. Liverpool’s squad had bought into Klopp’s much-vaunted style, and could have won by seven or eight instead of 4-1. It was a glimpse into the future.

Vardy Mania

The 32,000 delirious Leicester City fans inside the King Power Stadium who deafeningly acclaimed Jamie Vardy’s record-breaking goal at home to Manchester United in late November, thought they’d just witnessed the most exciting moment in the club’s 132-year history.

How wrong they were! Yet this occasion was still hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck-standing-on-end special.

In scoring a wonderful trademark breakaway goal, Vardy, famously a graduate of non-league football, had crowned a purple patch stretching back three months, to claim a goal in his 11th consecutive Premier League match, eclipsing the previous record held by Ruud van Nistelrooy.

As celebrations took the roof off, with the sound reportedly echoing right across the city, it might easily have been a dream finish to an unbelievable rags-to-riches tale for Vardy.

Little did we know that it was only the beginning.

Alli’s Arrival

Watching a gifted young player burst onto the big stage with a prodigiously good moment is one of my favourite things about being a football fan. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it’s a thrill.

Dele Alli’s breathtakingly impudent goal at Crystal Palace in January falls into that category and it gave us a glorious snapshot of the talent Tottenham Hotspur have on their hands.

If you can’t remember the strike, Alli casually controlled Christian Eriksen’s knockdown 25 yards from goal with his thigh, before cheekily lifting the ball over Mile Jedinak’s head with the outside of his boot. Swiveling 180 degrees while it was airborne, the Spurs whiz kid then thumped home a glorious volley that whistled into the net.

It was the kind of goal, only top-notch players can execute. This was the arrival of a seriously promising teenager.

The Barbaric Battle of the Bridge

When Eden Hazard came out of hiding to bend home the beauty that sent Leicester City fans (and 99 percent of the footballing world) into utter delirium on Tuesday morning, I was holding my sleeping four-week-old daughter in my arms.

I so wanted to scream, but instinctively came up with a silent, but manic fist pump celebration instead. It was a good job no one was looking.

It was the kind of goal, moment, and match that will stay with most of us who witnessed it, for decades.

Spurs were brilliant and brutal in equal measure. Their late implosion was staggering.

Chelsea for their part transformed themselves from meek to magnificent, to successfully ruin their bitter rivals’ dreams.

The intensity of the contest bristled, crackled, and boiled like no other match I’d seen this season and created the kind of spectacle only the Premier League can deliver. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

BIG-MATCH PREDICTION:

Leicester City v Everton

All eyes will be on Leicester City tomorrow morning when they take on Everton because everyone wants to see the Foxes lifting the Premiership trophy. Jamie Vardy and his title-winning pals have spent most of the last few days partying their hearts out, so heaven knows what kind of shape they will be in for the King Power’s trophy-lifting celebration day.

If they’re feeling hung over, Everton are decent enough away from home to dampen the mood, but with Wes Morgan and company eager to avoid a flat finish, personal pride should ensure they don’t get beat.

With nothing on the game, concentration levels will be lower than usual, so I see goals in this one.

Prediction: 2-2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Former Arsenal midfielder Adrian Clarke has played at every level of the English game. Now an experienced sports journalist, he writes for several well-known football websites, and international publications. Follow him @adrianjclarke
 

TV TIMES:

Tonight:

Norwich v Man United (Singtel Ch102 and StarHub Ch227; 7.45pm)

Sunderland v Chelsea (Ch102 and Ch227; 10pm)

West Ham v Swansea (Ch103 and Ch228; 10pm)

Crystal Palace v Stoke (Ch104 and Ch229; 10pm)

Aston Villa v Newcastle (Ch105 and Ch230; 10pm)

Bournemouth v West Brom (Ch106 and Ch231; 10pm)

Tomorrow

Leicester v Everton (Ch102 and Ch227; 12.30am)

Tottenham v Southampton (Ch102 and Ch227; 8.30pm)

Man City v Arsenal (Ch102 and Ch227; 11pm)

Liverpool v Watford (Ch103 and Ch228; 11pm)