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LE2: Didier Drogba, Chelsea, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

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The new Premier League season is less than a week away and, as always, clubs will be entering the campaign with the baggage of hope, expectation and new challenges to overcome. As hilarious as it was to watch it is unlikely that the plucky underdogs of Manchester City will be quite as inept this time around while Arsenal will look to avoid yet another season of near misses. Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace will have the added burden of European football while Tottenham Hotspur have turned to Thomas Frank to spearhead their Champions League jaunt with a clear remit to avoid finishing seventeenth however comical it might be. Reigning champions Liverpool, meanwhile, have endured a horrific summer following the tragic death of Diogo Jota which highlighted that none of this really matters in the grand scheme of things. Chelsea enter the season with a potential target on their backs following their summer exploits in the USA. Although they have been denied the physical evidence, owin...
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450: Francis Benali, Southampton, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

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Emlyn Shepherdson-Jones takes on a request post for Mark Smith about a man who impressed on and off the pitch on the South Coast. Today’s subject has been on the blog’s longlist for a while but it’s fitting he gets his moment in the sun in light of his club’s struggles last season. That and Mark deserves a request following his sublime physical comedy exploits on Cardiff’s Queen Street during Emlyn’s stag last year. Over to Emlyn. Prior to an evening game of cricket at the Oval a few weeks ago, I was sat at a pub table catching up with my good friend Mark. Mark is a massive Southampton fan, so definitely deserves some sympathy for the season just gone by. My team, Reading , have shared a number of players with the Saints over the years, but haven't played each other often of late, so we've been unable to enjoy a matchup between the two sides. Sadly I was yet to meet Mark in 2012, and so Reading's late surge to usurp the Saints from the top of the Championship table was a m...
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156: Barry Horne, Everton, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

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Everton Football Club’s men’s team bade farewell to Goodison Park at the end of last season after 133 years with a 2-0 victory over Southampton . The Grand Old Lady has hosted more top flight games than any other English ground, owing to Everton spending all but four seasons up there since their move across Stanley Park in 1892, as well as an FA Cup final and five games during the 1966 World Cup. Somewhat fittingly it also hosted the infamous Dick Kerr’s Ladies team in 1920 in front of 53,000 spectators in a match that was seen as part of the reason for the FA’s ban on women’s football. While the men’s team move to the imaginatively named Everton Stadium for 2025/26 the women’s team will inherit Goodison for their Women’s Super League campaign. During their time at Goodison the club won eight league titles, five FA Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup and enjoyed the brilliance of Dixie Dean, Graeme Sharp and Neville Southall . Since the advent of the Premier League, however, such ...
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285: Denis Irwin, Manchester United, Merlin’s Premier League 97 Official Sticker Collection

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Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look back at happier times at Old Trafford when the Manchester United faithful could rely on players to turn up for big occasions and put themselves about to pick up important results. Luckily they have had good reminders of this from Scott McTominay’s Serie A victory with Napoli, Dean Henderson’s FA Cup final heroics for Crystal Palace and Jadon Sancho providing a goal and an assist to help Chelsea win the Europa Vauxhall Conference League. Over to Mat to get all misty-eyed. Under appreciated footballers. Cult Heroes. The tireless workers. That is the backbone of who we write about here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words. No player more so than today’s subject epitomises that. One Joseph (who knew?) Denis Irwin. Mr Reliable. He comes to mind off the back of a YouTube (or possibly Facebook) poll to Manchester United fans: if your life depended on it, who would you want to take, and score, a penalty? Many votes went the ways of messrs Ronaldo, Rooney , Fernandes, et...
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467: Gifton Noel-Williams, Watford, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2000, Millennium Edition Sticker Collection

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In 1892 the Football League introduced its Second Division and the first two clubs to experience promotion to the top flight were Darwen and Sheffield United. While the Blades enjoyed a relatively comfortable 1893/94 campaign, finishing in tenth, Darwen finished second bottom and, having lost their “test match” against Small Heath, began a footballing tradition of suffering an instant return to the second tier. At the end of the 1898/99 season Darwen finished bottom of the Second Division with just nine points having conceded 141 goals and decided not to stand for re-election to the competition. They spent the entirety of the twentieth century playing in regional leagues and were dissolved in 2009 having fallen into financial difficulties. Darwen were one of the founding members of the Football League and were also the first club to be officially relegated after finishing bottom of the pile in the season prior to the birth of the Second Division. Yo-yo clubs were clearly a thing before...
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179: Danny Simpson, Leicester City, Merlin’s Premier League 2015 Official Sticker Collection

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Mat Jolin-Beech brings us something resembling a season review of what has been an interesting campaign for a number of reasons. Newcastle United won the Carabao/Worthington/Coca-Cola/Rumbelows Cup to end a trophy drought stretching back to their Intertoto Cup triumph in 2006 (and their first domestic success since 1955). Crystal Palace won the FA Cup to register a first major trophy in their history because apparently the Zenith Data Systems Cup doesn’t count. Tottenham Hotspur managed to finish one place above the relegation zone and win the Europa League to take the term “Spursy” to strange new places. Over to Mat to take a closer look at the top flight. Leicester City have had an awful season. Relegated. Many, many home games with straight defeats without scoring. Only Southampton being even more terrible has saved some of their blushes. It wasn’t too long ago that they won the league.  Now, Danny Simpson is not a bad player. True, he’ll never top many Ballon d’Or lists or ...
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140: Chris Armstrong, Crystal Palace, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

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It’s FA Cup final day and Crystal Palace take on Manchester City at Wembley in what should be the showpiece finale to the English football season. As the Zenith Data Systems Cup apparently doesn’t count as a major trophy this presents the Eagles with a chance to win the first piece of significant silverware in their history while City will be competing in their third consecutive FA Cup final aiming to win the world’s oldest cup competition for the ninth time. At the time of writing Palace are in their now traditional twelfth position in the Premier League while City are contemplating a devastating campaign battling for a Champions League spot having surrendered their league title to Liverpool. All neutrals are obviously deeply concerned for their plight and have definitely not been basking in their misery. There are a number of reasons why I want Palace to win today. 36 years of following the Eagles is clearly the most important of these and I am so happy that we’ve taken the cup c...
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