Author: Stephen Donovan

I have written for A Different League since May 2013, contributing over 3,000 articles, most notably match previews. I am a Bristol Rovers supporter, and can be found on Twitter @stephen1308

Premier League Season Review – West Bromwich Albion

Stephen Donovan

West Bromwich Albion: 14th FA Cup: Round Five Capital One Cup: Round Three As is the case for his great friend Sam Allardyce, having Tony Pulis at the helm is a virtually foolproof way of maintaining a club’s Premier League status, and West Brom continue to profit from that. This season they avoided the threat of relegation much more comfortably than they had in the previous two years as they spent long periods battling in mid-table, though never really in with a serious chance of breaking into the top half. The summer…

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Premier League Season Review – Tottenham Hotspur

Stephen Donovan

Tottenham Hotspur: 3rd FA Cup: Round Five Capital One Cup: Round Three Europa League: Round of 16 With a talented young squad and one of Europe’s most promising managers at the helm, Tottenham were clearly on the up when the season began and their target, as ever, was to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League. However, very few would have expected them to achieve this with several weeks still to spare and indeed make a sustained challenge to win the title. This they did, and as…

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Premier League Season Review – Watford

Stephen Donovan

Watford: 13th FA Cup: Semi-finals Capital One Cup: Round Two At the beginning of each Premier League season each English football pundit, journalist or columnist makes a prediction on which three sides will be relegated, and this time around one would have needed to go a long way in order to find a forecast that did not include Watford as one of those three clubs. There are few things more satisfying in professional sport than proving people wrong, and under the astute guidance of manager Quique Flores, they set about doing…

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Premier League Season Review – Swansea City

Stephen Donovan

Swansea City: 12th FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Round Three After guiding the club to eighth and attaining 56 points in his first full season in charge, it was always going to be a difficult ask for Swansea manager Garry Monk to improve on that this time around. Still, he had players in form and full of confidence, and they looked well capable of fighting for another top half finish, so nobody could have envisaged that one of English (or indeed Welsh) football’s brightest coaching prospect would be out of a job by early December. It…

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Premier League Season Review – Sunderland

Stephen Donovan

Sunderland: 17th FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Round Three It has become an annual occurence for Sunderland to look like relegation certainties, change the manager and kickstart a revival by defeating arch rivals Newcastle United in the new man’s second match in charge. It is a case now of lightning striking four times, and on this occasion it was the wily Sam Allardyce who defied the club’s league position when he took over in October to lead them to safety, while reminding everyone of his managerial ability. After guiding the team…

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Premier League Season Review – Stoke City

Stephen Donovan

Stoke City: 9th FA Cup: Round Four Capital One Cup: Semi-finals Since appointing Mark Hughes as their manager in the summer of 2013, Stoke cannot be faulted for their consistency, as they have finished in ninth place for three successive years with a similar number of points. The only concern about this is the lack of further progress, which has not arrived despite pulling off a number of high-profile signings and putting together a squad with excellent strength in depth. Finishing three points worse off than in 2014-15, this season was…

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Premier League Season Review – Southampton

Stephen Donovan

Southampton: 6th FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Quarter-finals Europa League: Play-off round The rise of Southampton just goes on and on. Whenever people seem to doubt them they seem to come up with the most emphatic shows of defiance and continuing to set new highs in the Premier League, led by the magnificent Ronald Koeman. The Dutchman was not expected to improve on the seventh position and 60 points he achieved in 2014-15, but proved just how good a manager he is by masterminding a storming second half…

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Premier League Season Review – Norwich City

Stephen Donovan

Norwich City: 19th (relegated) FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Round Four Norwich are quickly earning a status as the new yo-yo team of the top two divisions in English football. After suffering relegation in 2014 they made an instant return to the Premier League through the play-offs, but a further year later they are left to reflect on another failure to make their mark on the top table after failing to win their lengthy battle against the drop. Manager Alex Neil entered the season with a terrific standing…

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Premier League Season Review – Newcastle United

Stephen Donovan

Newcastle United: 18th (relegated) FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Round Three A worrying slide down the table that almost resulted in relegation in 2015 tested the patience of Newcastle supporters. They had long since grown tired about the club’s apparent lack of ambition and its policy of seemingly prioritising profits over success on the pitch. Merely staying in the top-flight appeared to be the only significant aim of those at the top, but the squad had been allowed to fall into disrepair and as such even that modest…

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Premier League Season Review – Manchester City

Stephen Donovan

Manchester City: 4th FA Cup: Round Five Capital One Cup: Winners Champions League: Semi-finals There was a degree of surprise when Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini signed a contract extension to remain at the club for a third season, where there was a great determination emanating from the top to atone for a trophyless 2014-15, as well as reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. In the final reckoning both of those targets were met, but regardless of that Pellegrini’s days were always numbered. That was confirmed by the…

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Premier League Season Review – Manchester United

Stephen Donovan

Manchester United: 5th FA Cup: Winners Capital One Cup: Round Four Champions League: Group Stage Europa League: Round of 16 There were many talking points during the 2015-16 season in the Premier League as defending champions Chelsea fell from grace, Tottenham emerged as serious contenders and Leicester City defied the odds in spectacular fashion to win the title by a massive 10 points. But still no club attracted more debate and more column inches than Manchester United as criticisms over the team’s style of football and speculation over the future…

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Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid – Champions League Final Preview

Stephen Donovan

For the second time in three years, the Champions League final will be contested from the two footballing giants of Madrid as Real go searching for their 11th European crown while Atletico will be going all out for their first. Back in 2014 Atletico came agonisingly close to breaking their duck as they led going into stoppage time, but a Sergio Ramos header denied them and during the extra 30 minutes energy sapped and allowed Real to run away with it, emerging as winners by the somewhat flattering scoreline of…

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Premier League Season Review – Liverpool

Stephen Donovan

Liverpool: 8th FA Cup: Round Four Capital One Cup: Runners-up Europa League: Runners-up Even before the 2015-16 season began, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was clearly under considerable pressure. Given a second chance after a largely disappointing year which had culminated with an embarrassing 6-1 thrashing at Stoke City, he had to make a strong start in order to remain at Anfield for the foreseeable future, all while no longer able to call upon the influence of Steven Gerrard. The long-time captain had finally said goodbye to the club to which he…

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Premier League Season Review – Leicester City

Stephen Donovan

Leicester City: 1st (champions) FA Cup: Round Three Capital One Cup: Round Four Leicester City are without doubt the architects of the greatest triumph in recent sporting history; a case of David overcoming a whole army of Goliaths; a team largely made up of bargain buys and players who failed to make the grade at some of those supposedly elite clubs winning the Premier League title at the end of a season which they began among the favourites for relegation. The word ‘fairytale’ is used much too often in football,…

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Premier League Season Review – Crystal Palace

Stephen Donovan

Crystal Palace: 15th FA Cup: Runners-up Capital One Cup: Round Four A feature of many Premier League seasons is when an unfancied side does brilliantly up until the turn of the year and is riding high in a position where qualification for Europe becomes a potentially realistic ambition, before fading away dramatically in the final months as performance levels deteriorate and opposition sides become more adept at eliminating their threat. This time around that team was Crystal Palace. Appointed manager in January 2015, Alan Pardew had seen the club to…

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Premier League Season Review – Everton

Stephen Donovan
lukaku everton

Everton: 11th FA Cup: Semi-finals Capital One Cup: Semi-finals The distraction and the fixture congestion caused by the Europa League was the main reason provided for an indifferent campaign for Everton in 2014-15 as they fell way below the standards set when narrowly missing out on the top four in Roberto Martinez’ first season in charge. This time there was no such excuse and there were some encouraging signs to begin with, but it all ended up going horribly wrong as a squad full of talent flopped badly once again.…

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Premier League Season Review – Chelsea

Stephen Donovan

Chelsea: 10th FA Cup: Quarter-finals Capital One Cup: Round Four Champions League: Round of 16 Not a single footballing observer of sound mind would have predicted Chelsea not to at least threaten to successfully defend the Premier League title that they won so convincingly in 2015, so it was more than a little startling to witness such an incredible decline that some were discussing the prospect of a potential relegation as the season headed into the festive period. The opening months made of mockery of the team’s reputation as they suffered defeat…

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Premier League Season Review – Arsenal

Stephen Donovan

Arsenal: 2nd FA Cup: Quarter-finals Capital One Cup: Round Four Champions League: Round of 16 For the first time in several years, there was a genuine belief at Arsenal and elsewhere that this would finally be the season where they make a sustained challenge to win the Premier League title; a squad gaining in confidence following successive FA Cup triumphs and a terrific end to the previous campaign. Victory over their nemesis Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea side in the Community Shield represented another psychological boost and optimism was sky-high,…

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Premier League Season Review – AFC Bournemouth

Stephen Donovan

AFC Bournemouth: 16th FA Cup: Round Five Capital One Cup: Round Four As Bournemouth came into their first ever season in the English top-flight, there were regular reminders that this particular bow came just six years after narrowly escaping relegation from the Football League itself, amid severe financial difficulties. It is an incredible rise led by the mercurial Eddie Howe, who epitomises the spirit of the club and was always up to the task of preventing an instant return to the Championship. In a rather better financial position these days,…

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Premier League Season Review – Aston Villa

Stephen Donovan

Aston Villa: 20th (relegated) FA Cup: Round Four Capital One Cup: Round Four It is difficult to know where to start with Aston Villa, but 2015-16 has to go down as probably the worst season in the club’s history as a squad of misfits and three different managers were relegated with just 17 points, the third lowest total by any side since the Premier League began in 1992. Add to that the off-field antics of several players, countless comings and goings at boardroom level, and almost constant protests at the…

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Crystal Palace vs Man Utd – FA Cup Final Preview

Stephen Donovan

An FA Cup tournament of few major upsets will see its winner crowned on Saturday as Crystal Palace and Manchester United contest the final, where both sides will be hoping to gain some form of redemption following a season of relative underachievement. It is a repeat of the final in 1990, the last to ever go to a replay. A late goal from Mark Robins broke Palace hearts as it denied them the chance to lift the famous trophy for the first time in their history, and Man Utd won it the…

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Man Utd vs Bournemouth – Premier League preview and team news

Stephen Donovan

After the original fixture was postponed in unprecedented fashion on Sunday, Manchester United take on Bournemouth in the ignominious knowledge that a top four finish is now beyond them. Only a defeat for bitter rivals Manchester City away to Swansea City could have enabled United to snatch a spot in next season’s Champions League, but they came away with a draw, so it looks set to be a major failure for both the club and manager Louis van Gaal. It remains to be seen whether this will be the Dutchman’s last league…

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Liverpool vs Sevilla – Europa League Final preview

Stephen Donovan

Liverpool are just 90 minutes away from winning their first silverware in four years as they contest the Europa League final, but in order to do so they need to find a way past a Sevilla side that is looking to win this competition for a third successive year. As well as the trophy, there is another big prize to play for as the winner will gain a spot in the group stage of next season’s Champions League, so with neither having managed to qualify through their domestic league it…

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Swansea vs Man City – Premier League preview and team news

Stephen Donovan

Manuel Pellegrini’s three-year reign as manager of Manchester City will end in South Wales as they take on Swansea City aiming to secure the point they need to achieve qualification for next season’s Champions League. The home side are finishing with flourish and victory here will make it five in a row at the Liberty Stadium, but it was on their travels where they excelled last weekend as they took a very strong West Ham United team apart with a dynamic and clinical attacking display. Despite resting several key players,…

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Stoke vs West Ham – Premier League preview and team news

Stephen Donovan

West Ham United can make sure of a top-six finish in the Premier League by claiming all three points away to Stoke City, who will determined to end the season on a high having gone six matches without victory. For all of their controlled possession and neat style of play, Stoke are suffering at present due to a lack of intensity when they do not have the ball, as well as the absence of a quality centre forward. Another mid-table finish is acceptable enough for a club of their standing,…

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