When Aguerooooooo changed the landscape of English football

The 2011-12 English Premier League title was won by Manchester City in one of the most dramatic league seasons of football ever played anywhere in the world.

2-1 down going into the closing stages and needing to win, goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero, the latter in the third minute of injury time, secured a triumph City had done their level best to throw away.

Manchester United had been eight points clear at one stage but capitulated in the run-in and, even then, thought they had won it, some fans celebrating prematurely in Sunderland before news filtered through that, agonisingly, City had done it.

CHANGES

Manchester United looked to freshen up the side with youth, replacing the retiring Edwin van der Sar with the hugely talented David de Gea from Atletico Madrid, while English duo Phil Jones and Ashley Young were brought in at significant cost.

City continued to not only build their side, but plunder from Arsenal; Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy came in, but those deals were dwarfed by the capture of the much-coveted Sergio Aguero for a huge fee, a move that felt like a paradigm shift for the blue side of Manchester.

Arsenal, meanwhile, started to appear weak. As well as Nasri and Clichy departing, key tenet of recent seasons, Cesc Fabregas, finally secured his long-awaited move to Barcelona, and Arsene Wenger’s business to replace that trio was haphazard at best. Mikel Arteta, Gervinho, Park Chu-Young and Andre Santos were added, but those deals struggled to convince.

Liverpool had done most of their spending in the previous January with the acquisitions of Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, but added Jordan Henderson from Sunderland (£16m) and Stewart Downing, £20m from Aston Villa.

In the dugout, the most prominent change was the removal of Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, young up-and-comer Andre Villas-Boas joined from Porto. Elsewhere, former Birmingham manager Alex McLeish received a hostile reception when he moved to the other end of the city to manage…

Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/season-reviews/when-aguerooooooo-changed-the-landscape-of-english-football-the-2011-12-premier-league/46

Author : [email protected] (Martin Macdonald)

Publish date : 2024-08-01 10:00:00

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