Football Superstition 2 Year of the Monkey Edition

What is it about the year of the monkey that turns up so many weird stories in football?

In 1980, Nottingham Forest defended its European Cup, shock winners 2 years in a row. They are the only former winner of the European Cup to have more European Cups than league wins.

In 1992, the Danish football team won the European championships, although in those days it was only 8 teams and very easy to have a shock champion.

In 2004, Greece won the European championships. Also, Arsenal managed to go through one whole season in the English Premier League without getting beaten. That was difficult back then and impossible now: these days even the smaller clubs are very competitive. England is a little unusual because there are around 40 clubs which boast a great history. I'm sure there are around 10 clubs outside of the top flight who are former league winners.

In 2016, if one of the top two teams – Leicester and Tottenham win the English Premier League, it would be very unusual. So far, there have only been 5 winners of the EPL – Man U, Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City. In the first 10 years, only Man U, Blackburn and Arsenal have been champions. Suddenly, we have a situation where there are 4 different winners in 4 years – Man U, Man City, Chelsea and one of those three. That is what it’s like when Alex Ferguson is not around. It’s no longer the case where the only way to win a title is to beat Man U.

Also, on the relegation front, there are 2 big clubs that are going down - Aston Villa and at least one out of Sunderland and Newcastle.