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All Premier League Football teams as football videogames: A thread.

ARSENAL: FIFA

Revolutionary in 96/98. Technically brilliant, and so much fun back then. Increasingly bloated, expensive and flawed every year since. They always say that next year will be better...

/1 Arsenal FC badgeFifa 96 game cover
ASTON VILLA: MICROPROSE SOCCER

A bit rubbish and limited to your eyes, but your dad keeps banging on about how revolutionary they were in the eighties, so you just nod along for a peaceful life.

(See also: Leeds)

/2 Aston Villa badgeMicroprose Soccer cover
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION: FIFA STREET

Kind of a cool idea and felt fresh at one point, but just awful in reality.

/3 Brighton and Hove Albion badgeFIFA Street cover
BURNLEY: PONG FOOTBALL

Super cheap, basic as hell and people laugh, but you can't deny it's the essence of football done PERFECTLY, and secretly quite exciting to watch.

/4 burnley fc badgePong football screenshot
CHELSEA: CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER 5

The first time you realised money mattered more than the game. A shoddy, cash-rich mess that tried to 'leverage an existing brand'.

Bizarrely, still has some fans.

/5 Chelsea club badge.Championship Manager 5 game cover
CRYSTAL PALACE: PLAYER MANAGER

You can go months without thinking about it. Then someone will mention it in conversation and you'll be all "oh YEAH I'd completely forgotten that existed"

You'll have forgotten the conversation within minutes of it ending though.

/6 Crystal Palace badge.Player Manager game cover
EVERTON: FIFA MOBILE

I mean, TECHNICALLY it's football but it's nowhere near as good or as big as it thinks it is. Occasionally you see people hate-playing it on public transport.

Liverpool are always lurking in the background as well.

/7 Everton club badge.FIFA Mobile game wallpaper, showing a liverpool player behin
FULHAM: FOOTBALL DRAMA

Actually a LOT of fun. Hipsters and football podcasters love it. It's not really football though, is it?

(Editor's note: if you've not played this though, you really should)

/8 Fulham FC badgeFootball Drama cover. Reads: 'a football game about poets &
LEEDS UNITED: FOOTBALL MANAGER (KEVIN TOMS VERSION)

HUGE back in the day, but mostly forgotten until recently. Now everyone claims to have ALWAYS been a fan on Twitter. Not as good as people remember and way more limited than the modern version.

/9 Leeds united backlash badge, not the original.Cover of Kevin Toms football manager
LEICESTER CITY: UEFA DREAM SOCCER

For a very brief and surprising moment, glorious and the best thing out there. Then 'market forces' reasserted themselves. Fun while it lasted though, and someone will probably try (and fail) to kickstart a reboot at some point. /10 Leicester City logoUefa dream soccer on the dreamcast
LIVERPOOL: SENSIBLE SOCCER

Once the finest out there, no doubt. But fans will NEVER stop banging on about it, so you dislike it out of spite.

Which is annoying, because the modern revival is surprisingly fun and you'd quite like to get involved. But they make it so hard.

/11 Liverpool FC badgeSensible soccer game cover
MANCHESTER CITY: FIFA ULTIMATE TEAM

Not even football really. Just a collection of dodgy finances and questionable ethics hidden behind random shiny loot drops and a hefty marketing budget.

/12 manchester city logoFifa Ultimate team promo image
MANCHESTER UNITED: FOOTBALL MANAGER

Much imitated since the 90s, never truly copied. Infuriatingly good some years. Terrible others. Never seems to affect its popularity though.

Both fun AND boring at the same time, somehow.

/13 Manchester United club badge.Football Manager promo image
NEWCASTLE UNITED: KEVIN KEEGAN'S PLAYER MANAGER

A cheap version of a classic. Been trading on King Keggy's name for years. Never quite works properly, even if you get it running.

/14 Newcastle FC badgekevin keegan's player manager start up screen
SHEFFIELD UNITED: DINO DINI'S 'GOAL!'

No player names you recognise but stupidly fun and surprisingly deep. Big in the old days. Shame nobody has ever heard of it, and it'll never get a sequel.

/15 Sheffield United badge.Goal! game box
SOUTHAMPTON: NEW SOCCER

Useful for kids, back in the day. Not much point to it now.

/16 southampton fc badgenew soccer 2018 loading screen
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 4

Spent so many years defining themselves by their rival, that when they actually eclipsed them they almost-instantly bottled it.

/17 tottenham hotspur badgepro evo 4 cover
WEST BROM: ROCKET LEAGUE

Chaos and goals galore, but suspiciously lacking depth. Fun to watch though.

/18 West Brom FC badgerocket league promo image
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS: ONLINE SOCCER MANAGER

Niche at home but popular with casuals abroad. You can't shake the suspicion it'll disappear without warning at some point, so isn't worth getting emotionally invested in.

/19 Wolves badgeonline soccer manager promo shot
WEST HAM UNITED: A CARDBOARD BOX FULL OF TWENTY SCRATCHED, CASELESS FIFA PS2 DISKS AVAILABLE FOR £2 ON EBAY

'Nuff said.

/20 West Ham badgeEbay screenshot showing box of twenty scratch fifa disks.
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