It has been a terrific year of Premier League football.

A thrilling title race and a ferocious battle to avoid the drop kept onlookers fascinated until the final minutes of the campaign. And in the midst of all the excitement came a host of high-scoring, memorable matches. Footballing World pick out the top five from the 2007/08 season.

1. Portsmouth 7-4 Reading
Saturday, 29 September 2007

Early season excitement as Portsmouth run riot against a Reading side seemingly incapable of defending. The drama was reserved for the second half as an incredible eight goals were scored along with a missed penalty; Benjani netting a hat-trick as nine different players got their name on the score-sheet in a match that set a new Premier League record for the most aggregate goals scored in a single match. Sadly, it proved an exceptional afternoon for the home side and their supporters: Pompey finished the season failing to score in 10 of their 19 home games.

Portsmouth goals: Mwaruwari 7, 37, 70, Hreidarsson 55, Kranjcar 75, Davis 81, Muntari 90 pen.
Reading goals: Hunt 45, Kitson 48, Long 79, Shorey 90.

2. Tottenham 4-4 Chelsea
Wednesday, 19 March 2008

These two London sides provided various classic encounters against fellow Premier League sides during the season, but they managed something even better when they met in late March. A bustling, high-octane clash ended with Robbie Keane’s stunning late equaliser to earn the hosts a point, just weeks after they had beaten Chelsea in the Carling Cup final. Three goals in the opening 20 minutes set the tempo, but Tottenham left the happier after coming from 3-1 and 4-3 down to rescue a point while helping to ruin Chelsea’s title ambitions, who added to their poor reputation when Ashley Cole threw a tantrum after receiving a yellow card for a challenge that deserved red.

Tottenham goals: Woodgate 12, Berbatov 61, Huddlestone 75, Keane 88.
Chelsea goals: Drogba 3, Essien 20, Joe Cole 52, 80.

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Italy’s number two goalkeeper has shone above everyone else at struggling Serie A outfit Livorno Calcio and, as an extremely competent back-up to Gigi Buffon, plying his trade at the bottom end of the league and fighting against relegation rather than turning out for a major club participating in European competition seems incongruous for the talented 26-year-old.

A summer move appears probable. Amelia may be contracted to Livorno until 2011, but his discontentment at the club’s precarious position in the table - just a season after participating in the Uefa Cup - and dislike of President Aldo Spinelli, with whom he had a row, ascertains that a transfer is seemingly inevitable.

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In 10 years time the monopoly of English Football held recently by Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool will be over. This will not happen overnight but gradually, season-by-season, other ‘big’ clubs will be challenging for domestic honours. Money continues to flood into the game and worldwide popularity for the Premiership grows each year – be patient and watch the game even out and become less predictable, as foreign investement benefits those dreaming of breaking into the Champions League places.

Man Utd A money-making global machine which will never stop. However, at some point Alex Ferguson will and Ronaldo will play in Spain. United’s next manager will still have the undoubted superstar that is Wayne Rooney but the pressure of following Alex Ferguson will be a massive challenge. They will remain in the top four but trophies will become more difficult to collect in the future.

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The Premier League is all about pace.

In fact, one of the league’s main attractions is the frenzied pace and nature of any given top-flight game. That’s why clubs look for pacey players to go at speed past ageing defenders - and not many are faster than England duo Gabriel Agbonlahor and Aaron Lennon.

The Aston Villa forward has been in terrific form and earned a first England call-up accordingly while Tottenham’s attacking midfielder has found his best form again and has been the inspiration behind the Juande Ramos revolution at White Hart Lane with Spurs reaching the Carling Cup final and Lennon expected to star at Wembley against Chelsea.

Yet which of the pair can claim to be the quickest? Nike are working on the new
Mercurial Vapor IV boot and created a test to find out just how fast the fastest players in the Premier League really are.

Working with top coaches they set up a challenge to test who was the fastest to the ball and who was the fastest with the ball. This way we wanted to get a better test of a player’s real ‘football speed’ rather than a simple sprinting contest. So they organised for two of England’s fastest players to take part in the timed challenge. The results certainly prove interesting, not just settling the debate on which player is fastest, but also giving us an insight into their speed and technique.

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The January transfer window has now closed and the Premier League clubs who have invested big money on new signings are going to want to see a good return for their money. Bryan Sanchez looks at who went where and how much for, although as is tradition with the winter window most transfers came with undisclosed fees attached.

Tottenham

Juande Ramos’s reign at White Hart Lane has been stop start so far this season.

He has raised Spurs’ commitment and fitness level on the pitch but their ever-unreliable defence is still the Spaniard’s main problem, not to mention the lack of natural left sided players. The 5-1 hammering of their north London rivals Arsenal in the Carling Cup showed us they are a major attacking force but the late equaliser against Manchester United in the league highlights their ongoing defensive frailties.

It is no secret there will be mass clearout come the summer but already he has come down on those he feels are surplus to requirements. Paul Stalteri, Antony Gardner, and surprisingly Jermain Defoe have all left Tottenham with the pint-sized England international joining Portsmouth having been quoted as saying he would stay at Spurs only last week.

Even so, Ramos seems to be happy with just Berbatov, Keane and Bent as his side’s main attacking threat. His signings in January are an indication that he wants to bring in quality in the areas that need improving. In comes central defender Jonathan Woodgate (Undis, approx £7m) from Middlesbrough and highly-rated Scottish right-back Alan Hutton (£8m). Add wing-backs Welshman Chris Gunter from Cardiff City (Undis) and left-sided Brazilian Gilberto (Undis) from Hertha Berlin and the Spurs defence looks to be strengthening, but only time will tell given Woodgate, King and Bale’s fitness troubles in recent times as to how solid the backline will be.

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Jonathan Woodgate’s career has patently not fulfilled its immense potential. Calm, confident and commanding at the back, his talent was such that he made his England debut aged just 19. Ever since, however, a combination of bad luck – club turmoil and changes in management - off-field misbehaviour and, above all, injury has prevented him achieving the success so many had predicted for him. At 28, the time to deliver has arrived. He should hope his move to join Juando Ramos’ Tottenham revolution is his last.

The quality Woodgate possesses is undeniable. He is that rare breed: a centre-half combining the best of archetypal British traits – grit and an indomitable spirit – with the classical Continental skills – ease and grace on the ball. In short, he has all that is needed to be amongst the world’s best defenders. Why else would Real Madrid have gone to such lengths to signing him, pushing through a £13.4million transfer in the summer of 2004 even though he was not fully fit at the time?

Ah yes. ‘Not fully fit’. This state of affairs has been so regular during Woodgate’s career that it is in danger of being his footballing epitaph. Darren Anderton was nicknamed ‘Sicknote’ such was his propensity for obtaining injuries. But even that does not do Woodgate and his capacity for getting injured justice. When he was at Newcastle, he famously played just 37 out of a possible 128 games. It was all well and good producing some sterling performances during those 37 games, including keeping clean sheets against Arsenal and Manchester United, but a star centre-back fit for less than one in three games is less use than an average one fit every week.

Similarly, after a nightmare debut at Real Madrid, it is generally believed that he helped to bring solidity to their defence. But quality only means so much when you can only muster 12 games in two seasons. Eventually, they decided the perennial uncertainty over the state of his fitness could only be having a debilitating effect on their already porous defence, and Woodgate was allowed to join hometown club Middlesbrough.

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Brazilian forward Fred – otherwise known as Frederico Chaves Guedes - will finally have his wish of a departure from Lyons granted during the January transfer window, but the 24-year-old must decide where he wants to play for the next few years, with immediate options in France and England and further offers expected from Spain.

Lyons have been in dispute with Fred from last summer onwards yet were keen to retain the talented striker despite his unremitting appeals to exit the French powerhouse. Fred’s attitude has constantly been called into question and after he arrived eight days late from the winter break - more than a week after his team-mates had returned - Lyons president Jean-Michel Aulas said, “If he wants to leave, he can do so.”

Fred has played only 366 minutes of first-team football this season and cost Lyons 16 million euros less than three years ago, but his departure is imminent following accepted bids from three clubs.

Aulas has stated his desire to see Fred go to Paris Saint-Germain, “As vice-president of the Ligue de Football Professionnel, and for the value of television rights, I would prefer Fred to stay in France. That’s the reason we’re ready to do what we can to help him secure a move to PSG.” Their 10 million euros bid was accepted but Portsmouth and Tottenham each came in with offers, 12 million euros from the former and 15 millions euros from the North London outfit; sums his current employer could not afford to turn down.

Lyons now say it is up to the player to make up his mind, and Fred may well wait for further offers now that the asking price has been set. Interest from other Premier League clubs has been rife, including inquiries from Middlesbrough, Manchester City and West Ham, and the latter two may return with bids with the fee well within their budgets. A move to Spain is also in the offing, though only lowly Real Betis have declared an interest and they lie inside the bottom three.

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Abuse of footballers is like literature; its most interesting aspect is what it reveals about its creator.

So what can we learn about the composers of the unedifying rants, insults, insinuations and single-entendres so unedifyingly aimed at footballers and managers in recent weeks?

The obvious common denominator is prejudice. An irrational hatred of the different; it used to be foreigners, then it was black players, now it is anybody who is - or, more often, isn’t but is perceived to be - fat, gay (or even slightly effeminate), middle class, a Muslim, corrupt or any combination of the above.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that followers of a sport harnessed, to a certain extent, by pious English headmasters to distract public school boys from ‘the sin one need hardly mention’ (masturbation) - if we believe David Winner’s excellent, if somewhat melodramatic book “Those Feet, A Sensual History Of English Football” - still see the game as the embodiment of unapologetic machismo, although its working-class image is somewhat ironic. Consequently, football remains grotesquely homophobic - scan the 606 discussion on Sol Campbell’s recent sentiments for proof.

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Juande Ramos is the hottest topic in the Spanish Primera Liga in the last few seasons. Rightly so, as he is the man that transformed Sevilla into a footballing force to be reckoned with in La Liga and Europe.

While in the past the city of Seville is better known as the capital of Andalucía and its flamenco, but of course, this is no longer so after Ramos led the unfancied club to back-to-back UEFA Cup triumphs.

His other achievements at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan include the European Super Cup, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup, which was attained by defeating Real Madrid. The impressive brand of football that they dished out against the Spanish champions is pleasing to the eyes to say the least but this has been the trademark of Sevilla under the tutelage of Ramos.

So it came as no surprise that Tottenham Hotspur were thought to have made a ‘dizzy’ offer to prise Ramos at the start of the 2007/08 campaign when there were rumours that the Spurs board planned to get rid of Martin Jol.

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Juande Ramos has flown into Luton Airport - by private jet no less - after resigning from Sevilla and the Spaniard now takes up one of the toughest tasks in European football: to break up the Premier League’s top four monopoly.

Unlike in Spain or Italy, it has become an almost impossible task to dislodge the four incumbents at the summit of the Premier League. Everton managed it in 2005 though only after their rivals for fourth place, Liverpool, were distracted by their epic Champions League run and Tottenham themselves came extremely close a year later as Arsenal progressed into a European Cup final, only to bottle it at the season’s end. Ramos was the most successful Sevilla coach ever, earning the club consecutive Uefa Cups along with the Copa del Rey over the last two seasons, but it is league form that will determine whether Tottenham’s gamble will be vindicated.

Like any ambitious club, trophies are highly desirable but Martin Jol was sacked because he did not believe Tottenham could make it into the top four. Spurs fans have overwhelmingly condemned the board’s decision to get rid of the Dutchman and were even more critical of the treatment of a man who has brought consecutive top-five finishes to a club that had previously been steeped in mediocrity. Thus, even though the supporters will back Ramos, anger at the Tottenham hierarchy means the 53-year-old must deliver results quickly. The next 19 months will put into perspective Jol’s achievements, and ultimately settle whether the board’s public relations disaster over the last month was worth the bedlam it caused.

“If Ramos plays the same brand of football as he did in Spain, undoubtedly he will take Tottenham up to the level required to earn a Champions League berth”

Ramos’s Sevilla side won the hearts of neutral Spanish fans last season, their attacking and scintillating brand of football winning them plaudits and matches in equal measure. Injuries and fatigue put paid to their title hopes - had they won their final two matches instead of earning just one point, they would have triumphed in La Liga - but their efforts were highly commendable after extended runs in European and domestic cup competitions, both of which they eventually won.

Tottenham fans pay the most of any Premier League supporters and rightly expect progress, especially after such heavy summer investment. It seemed Jol had taken the club to its limit, or at least he had reached his limitations as a coach, and penetrating the top four hasn’t looked likely since that lasagne-inspired 2-1 defeat to West Ham in May of last year. Ramos is a more talented coach but his command of English is nowhere near up to scratch - the reason Gus Poyet will act as his assistant - and he has no experience outside of Spain. Yet if he plays the same brand of football in North London as he did in Southern Spain, and with similar results, he can undoubtedly take Tottenham up to the level required to earn a Champions League berth.

Ramos will take home £4m a year in his new job, and will have significantly more to invest on new players if he desires a makeover. Bringing in some of the best players from his Sevilla squad is an option - perhaps even former flop Frédéric Kanouté - but the team he has inherited from Jol is the strongest outside of the top four and the envy of most of their Uefa Cup rivals. Immediate results are not expected, but by the end of the 2008/9 campaign Ramos will have had time to stamp his authority on the team and integrate his coaching methods, so the supporters would be justified in expecting a certain degree of progress and a sustained challenge on the top four’s cartel by then.

By 2010, if Ramos continues to receive ample transfer funding, Tottenham fans have reason to anticipate a spot amongst Europe’s elite or a piece of silverware.

The new coach’s first task will be to reassure the players that Tottenham are heading in the right direction. Sven-Göran Eriksson lured so many top imports in at Manchester City because of his vision for the future, something prospective players bought into and accordingly signed for the club. Ramos first has to keep the current squad content, including the highly coveted Dimitar Berbatov who reportedly is still striving to leave the club, and the four strikers who seemingly all want to play at the same time. There is a goalkeeping and defensive crisis, and morale is understandably low following a dreadful start to Spurs’ biggest and most promising campaign in a decade.

Ramos has a lot of work on his plate, starting Monday morning.

Ramos to deliver Champions League football by 2010? Share your views by leaving a comment below.