There are 20 teams in the English Premier League and while some have been paragons of virtue, others have let themselves and their fans down. Who is who? Check out all of the teams and how they are coping below.
Arsenal
A busy quarantine period for The Gunners kicked the Premier League hiatus off when Mikel Arteta was confirmed to have Coronavirus, leading to the postponement of the game at Manchester City.
Since then, Arsenal have seen most of their players agree to a wage cut, but Mesut Ozil looks to be making a stand to avoid being included in that number, and with contract negotiations reportedly not going to plan with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, an already unsettled period could yet lead to the loss of the North London side’s prime asset.
Aston Villa
If Arsenal were looking for a team to copy during the global pandemic, they could hardly do better than Aston Villa. All players have agreed to a 25% wage deferral so that they can pay non-playing staff and the club has been widely praised for how they’ve handled the crisis.
With Villa Park opened up for use by the NHS, the following statement led to support from football fans around the country for helping others during a time of need.
The update from our CEO Christian Purslow can be read in full below… #AVFC pic.twitter.com/axRC8VPlNl
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 25, 2020
Bournemouth
After initially furloughing their staff and calling on the government to pay 80% of their staff wages, Bournemouth have since retracted that stance and paid their own staff in full. Eddie Howe was also the first Premier League manager to take a pay cut during the Coronavirus crisis.
Brighton & Hove Albion
It’s all been fairly quiet on the South Coast, despite a Brighton player being identified as having caught the virus (and since recovered). Both manager Graham Potter and the Brighton board have taken pay cuts in order to help pay their staff, and 1,000 tickets have been donated to NHS workers for when football returns.
To provide a little light relief, Brighton striker was one of many Premier League footballers taking part in the ePL Invitational. Maupay eventually made it as far as the quarter-finals, where he was beaten 1-0 by a golden goal scoring Dwight NcNeil of Burnley.
Burnley
Burnley themselves are one of a number of clubs to highlight the amount of money that the period has cost them – £50 million according to manager Sean Dyche. He’s also been keeping his team fit, as he recently declared that Burnley wouldn’t require a full ‘pre-season’ to get match-fit and finish the season.
Sitting in mid-table in 10th place, you can see why Dyche and the Burnley squad might wish the season was voided entirely.
Chelsea
Chelsea players have attracted criticism in some quarters for failing to pay any of their wages to help the club’s non-playing staff. With club captain Cezar Azpilcueta putting out a vague statement about the squad focusing on other charitable endeavours, some fans have been disappointed by this stance, despite initiatives like #PlayersTogether being something many clubs – including Chelsea – are a part of.
To add to a bad break all round for Chelsea, former goalkeeper Peter ‘the Cat’ Bonetti passed away.
Crystal Palace
Winger Andros Townsend was one of the first players to speak out demanding that players give back to their communities and the NHS in general during the crisis. Elsewhere at Palace, former midfielder and F.A. Cup finalist Geoff Thomas gave some advice to the BBC on dealing with isolation, referencing his courageous cancer recovery back in 2003.
Everton
A classic game of two halves for Everton, as they’ve shown the best and worst natures of people during lockdown.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti’s heart-tugging call to an isolated fan with Motor Neurone Disease during lockdown made the whole football world smile.
Just a couple of weeks later, however, Moise Kean was filming himself at a house party. The club themselves have said they are “appalled” by his behaviour.
Leicester City
After three Foxes players went into self-isolation at the start of April, it’s been fairly quiet at Leicester City, with one of the most settled and happy squads in the Premier League allowed to kick back responsibly with their families by Brendan Rodgers.
Jamie Vardy even had time among his busy family life to challenge mascot Filbert the Fox to a virtual Penalty Shoot Out. Could Vardy win? Check it out below.
🕹️ Virtual Penalty Shootout 🕹️
City striker Jamie Vardy challenges Filbert Fox… pic.twitter.com/BExWeN0R5N
— Leicester City (@LCFC) April 16, 2020
Liverpool
Initially attracting a lot of negative attention for furloughing their staff despite having a billionaire set of owners, Liverpool reneged on that decision and paid their staff in full. Jordan Henderson was one of the most prominent captains behind the #PlayersTogether initiative, though.
The UEFA Champions League tie at Anfield that saw Atletico Madrid dump the holders out of the competition in extra time has led to a full-scale investigation into the spreading of Coronavirus via a massive crowd at Anfield that night.
In happier news, former Jamie Carragher has been boiling people’s brains with his #CarraChallenge on Twitter.
Manchester City
Both Manchester Clubs donated over £100,000 to local food banks back when the Coronavirus lockdown was first announced. Pep Guardiola then made a personal donation of a million euros to help people back in Barcelona.
Tragedy then followed when Guardiola’s own mother died due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Manchester United
Manchester United players have taken a pay cut across the board to help the NHS, while the club immediately put non-playing staff on full pay during the crisis. With the lights altered at Old Trafford to read ‘NHS United’, captain Harry Maguire was integral in the #PlayersTogether movement to donate to the NHS, while players such as Brandon Williams and Angel Gomes have learned new skills at home according to first-team coach Kieran McKenna.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfcJ5HnT_Xg
Newcastle United
Almost all of the talk at St. James’ Park has been of the imminent takeover rather than the Coronavirus crisis. The proposed takeover from a Saudi consortium has come under pressure to be investigated by the government. Sadly, for Newcastle fans, they’re rather busy at the moment, leading to further delays in Mike Ashley finally selling the club that has come to be a millstone around his considerable neck.
Norwich City
The Canaries are one of the only clubs to furlough staff and stick to their guns, citing a £35 million loss as the main reason they’ve had to take the decision to remain as they currently are.
It’s not all been official news, though, at Carrow Road. Todd Cantwell proved that he “can’t well” when he took to the FIFA20 pitch and was well beaten by Sheffield United striker Lys Mousset, leading some good old-fashioned teenage rage quit business.
Sheffield United
Like Mousset’s great ePL Invitational victory, Sheffield United have been a model of quiet victory during the Coronavirus crisis. Former owner Kevin McCabe has been bringing face masks from China and donating them to the NHS. Elsewhere, striker Billy Sharp has spoken emotionally about how proud the players are to have been helping a great cause like the NHs, something Sharp’s personal history lends more emotion to than ever.
Southampton
One of the best charity donations of the crisis has come as a result of former Southampton player Francis Benali, whose ‘Garden Marathon’ efforts have raised thousands for the NHS. Benali was joined in the remote ‘2.6 Challenge’ which replaced the London Marathon, by former teammate Matt Le Tissier.
Tottenham Hotspur
On the slide in terms of league form before the crisis, things have gone from bad to worse for Spurs during the pandemic. Arguably the club who have handled the crisis the worst during this time, Tottenham have flouted the rules in many ways, with players such as Tanguy Ndombele and Serge Aurier and manager Jose Mourinho all breaking quarantine rules over the past month.
Add into the mix that Daniel Levy initially furloughed the non-playing staff despite being a billionaire and it’s been a disastrous period in the history of the club. Still, at least Amazon Prime aren’t filming the team all year for an exclusive ‘warts and all’ documentary. Oh, hang on…
Watford
The Hornets have offered the use of Vicarage Road by NHS and hospital staff and have paid their staff in full during the crisis. Nathaniel Chalobah enjoyed a fine first round in the ePL Invitational event to raise funds for the NHS and bring cheer to Premier League fans at the same time.
West Ham United
It’s been a spirit of giving for The Hammers as Mark Noble made a sizeable donation to the people of Basildon and David Moyes delivered fruit and vegetables in his local area.
All I would do was drop the fruit and veg on the doorstep, knock on the door and then move away.” Moyes told TalkSPORT. “A lot of the customers were families. They were beautiful, colourful boxes of fruit and veg. I was thinking ‘this is great’. I was actually enjoying it.”
Wolverhampton Wanderers
It’s been a fairly quiet period of reflection and responsibility for Wolves, whose Chairman Jeff Shi warned ‘Old Gold’ fans of the dangers of Coronavirus very early and encouraged fans of the club to take the virus’ threat seriously.
Providing some relief to housebound supporters was the ePL Invitational Tournament victory for Diogo Jota, as he overcame Trent Alexander-Arnold in the final.
It was a stunning golden goal that won the day for Jota as his real-life strike partner Raul Jimenez smashed in the winner to see the diminutive Jota nearly hit the ceiling in celebration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ixTaWDmoE&feature=youtu.be&t=162
Who knows when the Premier League will return? Until then, how each club deals with the day-to-day impact of the Coronavirus may go some way to how their own supporters feel about them when football is back in our lives again.
