United breaks through for English lineal soccer honors in 2020-21

Manchester United has had little about which to boast since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013. In 2020-21, though, United finished second in the Premiership and won the lineal championship across England for the year.

The years since Alex Ferguson retired at Manchester United, eight of them now, have not much resembled the 26 previous years under his management.

It's been a trophy here and there, but not two or three every year. There was one season, 2016-17, when José Mourinho coached the team and Zlatan Ibrahimović hit 28 goals in 46 appearances. That year, United won the EFL Cup, the Community Shield and the Europa League. And finished sixth in the Premiership (Word of note: Mourinho and Ibrahimović are back together this year at AC Milan, trying to climb through Serie A.).

Since then, four years come and gone, and United hasn't won a trophy, anywhere. They haven't gone so long without a trophy in a very long time. There was a run of seasons, 14 of them, 1968-69 through 1981-82, Matt Busby's retirement and the first dozen years of aftermath, when all United won the whole time was the FA Cup in 1977. Ferguson arrived in 1986 and, starting with 1990, United had more than two decades of true greatness.

United started playing in 1878 and opened its stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910, but it took another 35 years for United became United. Then, for 25 years after World War II, Busby's Manchester United teams won frequently and dramatically. Following that lull through the 1970s, United found even greater heights under Ferguson, in part, because of the European tournament's huge expansion during the 1990s.

Perhaps, United is waiting on its next great coach. It's amusing to remember that United hired Busby and Ferguson, more than 40 years apart, off the Scottish National Team. 

Anyway, we have some good news for Manchester United, which dominated the lineal championship across the top level of English professional soccer in 2020-21. United won two championships and held each for a long time – an 11-game title from late November to late January, and a seven-game title from early March to early May.

Before 2020-21, United was two wins, three draws and seven losses in lineal championship games going to the start of tracking with the 2015-16 season. Now, United has 20 games of title, still well behind Liverpool, which has 55 games of the title, 51 of them from 2018 to 2020. 

Manchester City had one eight-game championship, improving its second-place historical total to 34 games. United now is third with 20 games of championship, followed by Chelsea and West Ham (17 each) and Tottenham Hotspur (16).

Liverpool flies past City to capture 2019-20 English Big Six

Liverpool blitzed through the English Big Six just as it dominated the Premiership in 2019-20, taking this elite division by a whopping six points over two-time defending champion Manchester City.

Manchester City entered the 2019-20 soccer season defending the first two championships of the English Big Six, amassing a record of 17-0-3. City was riding high.

Along with all of that, City entered the season defending all four English domestic championships, an unprecedented achievement. 

But the end of all this was signaled on Nov. 10, when the Citizens ventured to Liverpool and faced a rival on a collision course with the Premiership title. With it's 3-1 win, Liverpool was off. The Reds didn't lose at all in the Premiership until Feb. 29, by which time they had 26 wins and a draw. 

When play resumed in June after the covid pause, Liverpool no longer was such a dominant force – four wins, a draw and two losses. One of those losses came at Manchester City. The Citizens already had a strong hold on second place. But it wasn't as good as the hold Liverpool had on first.

At the bottom of the Big Six, Everton and West Ham are going down. Everton finished 12th in the Premiership and West Ham 16th.

The teams coming up will be Arsenal and Southampton, which took second place with a total goals tiebreaker over Crystal Palace. Arsenal turned in a peculiar performance even for a Middle Six winner, winning only four of its 10 games. But the Gunners didn't lose any, and that does come to matter. As these standings show, Southampton and Crystal Palace each lost two games that Arsenal didn't.

It does seem odd, finding Manchester United lingering in the Middle Six, especially when they came up third in the Premiership standings. Against this Middle Six, though, United won only two home games and one road game. The two United beat at home, Bournemouth and Watford, also are the two teams being demoted to the Third Division. United lost to both of them on the road.

Watford and Bournemouth had both just been promoted to the middle, and now they're headed back to the bottom. 

Leicester City, which had just been demoted to the bottom, will return the middle after a dominant Little Six(ish) performance in which it lost only two of 14 games.

The other promotion goes to Sheffield United, which had just rejoined the Premiership as the second-place team in the 2018-19 Championship and produced a fine Little Six(ish) runner-up performance. Norwich City, which won the 2018-19 Championship, flopped in the Premiership, finishing on the bottom of the league ladder and the Little Six(ish) standings.

 

Liverpool leaving English Big Six behind

Liverpool is shooting for the all-time English record for most consecutive domestic league games without a loss. Included in the Reds ongoing streak are six wins in as many outings against the English Big Six in 2019-20.

Liverpool has gone 43 consecutive games without losing in the English Premiership, approaching the record of 49 set by Arsenal in 2003-04.

Through 26 games, it's 25 wins and a draw for Liverpool. No one is beating them, not even in the English Big Six, where the Reds have won all six of their game and appear poised to knock Manchester City off the perch it held the first two seasons of the internal pyramids.

Liverpool is newly promoted to the Big Six after being demoted from it following the 2017-18 season.

City, which thoroughly dominated the first two years of the Big Six, remains a strong second-place club, but only in the sense that it is well ahead of the two third-place clubs. At the bottom of this group, West Ham United and Chelsea are ticketed to the Middle Six in 2020 if they don't rally.

Nobody wants to win in the Middle Six this year. The top club is the one that simply doesn't lose. That would be Arsenal, which has fought to draws in six of its eight games, which, paired with two wins, put the Gunners in first place.

Crystal Palace, Southampton and Watford all are within three points of Arsenal, but Palace has a game at hand on Arsenal, while Southampton and Watford both have two games at hand. Any of these clubs also could drop into relegation territory.

Remarkably, we find Manchester United facing almost certain relegation to the Little Six(ish) in 2020. United has failed to win a Middle Six game in six tries.

In the English Little Six(ish), we find Leicester City cruising to a comfortable lead. Across the Premiership, Leicester is positioned to be the league's second Champions League qualifier now that Manchester City faces UEFA sanctions over finances. In the Little Six(ish), Leicester City has a five-point lead over second-place Ashton Villa, promoted back to the Premiership this year.

Liverpool leaves Premiership behind with 25-game unbeaten streak

Liverpool is blowing through the Premiership, winning 24 of 25 games so far, and drawing the other. Now, the Reds suddenly have produced a huge lead all-time in the lineal championship.

With an all-time title streak of 19 games last season, Liverpool broke open a fairly tight race for the all-time traveling championship in English soccer.

This season, the Reds are topping that, topping the Premiership, topping just about everything. Already, they have accrued 25 games of lineal championship in 2019-20, one more than last year's all-time record of 24 games. This year's 25 games is, in fact, the entire season, so far.

Additionally, the Reds ended 2018-19 with five games of title, bringing their new streak up to 30 games. In their first 25 games of the Premiership this season, Liverpool's only blemish is a draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford in October. Since then, Liverpool has won 16 consecutive games in the Premiership.

Put it all together, and Liverpool, well down in the standings through 2017-18, now is well above everyone in the standings. In these first five years of tracking, starting with 2015-16, Liverpool now has 53 games of title, blowing open its lead. The second-place team, Manchester City, has 25 games of title.

Manchester City again dominates English Big Six

Manchester City has embarked on an historic crushing of top English competition for the last two years, one lopsided win after another, cruising to two straight English Big Six championships.

Manchester City took another happy romp through the English Big Six in 2018-19, winning nine of its 10 games and finishing well ahead of everyone else.

In two years of the inner pyramid, which comes to 20 games, City has outscored its opponents 54-16, an astounding mark of dominance against this level of competition. The Premiership is easily the deepest league in the world and it makes a strong argument for being the best. The Big Six is the cream of that league. For some one team to tear through that competition and come out of it with a goal differential of almost two per game in its favor is all but inconceivable.

If Paris Saint-Germain outscores its French Big Six opponents 59-15 in 20 games, which it has, big deal. Everyone knows that Ligue 1 is an inch deep. The English Big Six goes all the way down, and then some. Liverpool, which won the 2019 Champions League, wasn't even in the 2019 Big Six because it had been relegated a year earlier.

And look who is being relegated from the Big Six this year – Manchester United (!) and Southampton. Mind-blowing truth: in two years of running the English Big Six, it already has demoted Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. The only teams that have survived the two years in the top tier are Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

Hotspur lost the 2019 Champions League final to Liverpool. In the English Big Six for 2018-19, Hotspur finished fourth, losing six of 10 games. Chelsea finished a distant second place to City with 16 standings points, 11 back. West Ham United came in third at 13. Hotspur and United actually tied for fourth, but Hotspur won the first tiebreaker, which is victories.

Southampton, which won the Middle Six in 2017-18, won only one game in the Big Six a year later and will join Manchester United in relegation to the second level.

Somewhere back in the mists of time, Monty Python sent up a Beatles documentary with a news reporter offering this account of one rock star: "He was born in Liverpool, raised in Liverpool, educated in Liverpool, and his football team is Everton." Something like that. Anyway, it's how the English Middle Six came up in 2018-19, with Liverpool winning it and crosstown rival Everton coming in second.

Liverpool went unbeaten in the second tier with seven wins and three draws. At the bottom of the Middle Six table, Burnley went winless after claiming the Little Six(ish) championship in 2017-18. Joining Burnley in relegation is Leicester City.

Watford, which finished at the bottom of the Little Six(ish) ladder in 2017-18, came all the way to top in 2018-19. The second promotion to the Middle Six goes to Bournemouth, which finished tied for the position with Newcastle. Bournemouth prevailed on total victories.

Manchester City dominates English soccer traveler in 2017-18

Manchester City set the all-time title streak record for the English traveling soccer championship in 2017-18, moving to the top of the all-time standings through three years.

Manchester City went on a record tear through England's top division of soccer in 2017-18, a 16-game streak of championship that not only won the English traveling title for the season, but also put it on top of the all-time standings.

The traveler made quite a few stops through England in its first eight games of the year, during which it belonged to six different clubs. That changed when Manchester City took the crown from Burnley with a 3-0 win at home on Oct. 21. City held the title for 14 games, 13 of them victories.

Liverpool finally took down Manchester City with a 4-3 home win on Jan. 14. But Liverpool couldn't hold on for even another game. Manchester City added a one-game championship at the end of March.

All-time, Manchester City now has 19 games of championship in this competition, which has lasted three years. Manchester City and Liverpool are the only clubs that have won at least one traveling championship in each of the three years. But Liverpool has defended its three championships one time between them, while Manchester City has defended its four titles 18 times.

Second on the all-time list now is West Ham with 16 games of championship, all of them in 2015-16, the first season of the traveling competition. West Ham's nine-game title streak late that year had been the record before Manchester City raced past it in 2017-18.

Tottenham Hotspur is third with 14 games of title, none of them in 2017-18. Chelsea is fourth at 13, followed by Leicester City with 11.