I have no connection to England (or Britain) and started by watching Match of the Day (BBC's wrap-up of a matchday's action, one show for Saturday's matches, and one for Sunday's). The more advanced fan may scoff at the show, but I found it helpful in at least providing guidance on what other than goals to pay attention to. The next year, I was basically watching whatever large-ish match was on NBC and supplementing those matches with MotD. There are the obvious ones: any match between the current "big six" of Man City, Liverpool, Man Utd., Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham. Due to my personal worldview, there are a few teams I would never root for, so I'd often sneak a peak when a mid-table or bottom-table team is running the likes of Chelsea or Man City close. I'm not sure if there's an U.S. equivalent of MotD, but I felt that show really helped with my appreciation of the game.

Palace is a good mid-table team with a fighting spirit, although one could say that it's main star is a bit mercurial. Its head coach is a tad old fashioned, but he has a no-nonsense attitude, and the team can play in a style that is pleasing-to-the-eyes (unlike the teams that almost always play hoof ball). A few years ago, the team was even competing in the final match of the FA Cup (whose knock-out format is much more familiar to American sports fans).

The only caveat for following a mid-table team is that without some other meaningful connection to the team (parents/ spouse/ kids lived/lives there, etc.), a lot of stuff might be quite hard to stomach. Some mid-table teams may languish for matches without scoring, never mind winning, although the same was also true of Liverpool very recently. Managers come and go, and a team's playing style follows. What was once a prosperous mid-table team might see a sudden decline in form and get relegated, etc. It's not pretty much of the time, and just when you think your team is safely mid-table, the next year the team goes down (see Stoke City, West Brom, and Bournemouth).