I don't know, they're title contenders on paper but somehow I just can't see Mourinho doing better than Benitez. I think this whole Messiah complex the Chelsea fans have about him is absurd. The whole league seems to be in flux at the moment with all the managerial changes and so on but it still seems inevitable that those will be the top four in some order!
To be fair, if we look at a map showing all the Prem teams at the moment... 7 in the North (Liverpool, Everton, Man U, Man City, Hull, Sunderland, Newcastle) 6 in London (Chelsea, Fulham, Spurs, Arsenal, Palace, West Ham) 3 West Midlands (Villa, West Brom, Stoke) 1 East Anglia (Norwich) 1 South (Southampton) 2 Wales (Cardiff & Swansea) Interesting to see that 10& of teams in the English Premiership are not English, and if you look at the map it is interesting to see where the big gaps are... Nothing really between London and Hull going up the A1 / M1 corridor. The real strength of prem teams is London and has been for a long time. Yorkshire has been well under represented for a long time, The Sheffield teams and Leeds really notable by their absence, East Midlands have been missing for a heck of a long time (Forest, Leicester and Derby spring to mind). I don't think there is a decline in the north as much as some rejigging of the strong teams in the area. for all the Boltons and Blackburns disappearing, the likes of Boro and Leeds will surely battle back at some point. If there is a decline I would say it is us bucking the trend as we strengthen whilst the other southern teams (Reading and Pompey) are on the slide.
Based on what? It really depends what figures you're using, for example, Greater Manchester has more multimillionaires than any other county (excluding London) and most of the top 18 are in the North: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/data...oney-uk-multi-millionaires-regional-breakdown
West of Bristol? As in Devon and Cornwall? Why? I think it's based on house prices, and perhaps a few other factors.
OK, it won't happen, but it's an interesting point. The balance of the whole division has perceptibly shifted just a bit, despite the location of the teams who came first and second last season.
Well the population of England and Wales is about 57m, and the population of Yorkshire (and the Humber) is about 5m, so on that basis they should have between 1 and 2 teams in the premier league. So, underrepresented perhaps, but not by much. Greater Manchester's population of about 3m makes it probably the most overrepresented area (historically at least)!
With Leeds in the EPL, I think that'd be just about the right amount of representation for Yorkshire. I do hope they come up soon, as it's nice to have a team you love to hate.
Should really only count the population of England as Cardiff and Swansea are only in the English leagues because they are honorary English.
