re: I need an EPL team to root for

I don't know about that. If the Americans get a ton of playing time, I seriously doubt they would be disliked. And it wasn't the punt ball that was the problem. It was the recklessness with which they, the team, tackled that was. And it was their relative pride about playing that way. No one here has complained about West Ham's style under Allardyce, or Everton when they insisted on pumping diagonal after diagonal, or any of the other handful of teams that play that way, though there were plenty of complaints about Alex McLeish once he moved to Aston Villa. Long ball, as a general strategy, concedes too much possession willingly to actually win more than 40% of your games.

For Arsenal fans, it has everything to do with their recklessness in our games against them, and not their attacking style, though that certainly didn't endear them to us. In truth, that style is an extension of the Battle of the Buffet game between Man U and Arsenal, where Man U kicked us to pieces as a strategy, and other teams followed suit, leading three of our players to have double leg breaks in 4 years. Now that Pulis is gone, I expect most fans won't have a problem with them if they lose their overly physical style.