There are many factors to consider when assessing what makes one league better than another, but over the years the Premier League has been held up as a competition where anyone can beat anyone. That is, of course, true of any league, but it is an increasingly ill-informed assumption when applied to England’s top flight. The notion that the Premier League is more competitive than its competitors is being put to bed this season.
There are currently six unbeaten teams in Europe’s big leagues and half of them are from England, with Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and PSG all matching the unbeaten records of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. This is the first time in the history of English football that three top-flight sides have made it through their first 12 matches of the campaign without losing. To have three unbeaten teams is unprecedented but even having two is highly unusual. This is the 27th season of the Premier League and only once before have two clubs reached this stage of the season without losing – back in 2007-08, when Arsenal and Liverpool still hadn’t lost after 12 games.
Funnily enough, neither of those clubs went on to win the league that season. By the end of the campaign they had both fallen below Manchester United and Chelsea – the two teams who met in the Champions League final that spring. Arsenal and Liverpool may have been difficult to break down at the start of that season, but they were in no way as dominant as the current elite.
The Premier League was more competitive in the early days. In its very first season, 1992-93, the top three at this stage – Norwich, Blackburn and Coventry – had already picked up five defeats between them. It wasn’t until the 1995-96 season that a club reached this stage of the campaign without losing – and that team was Nottingham Forest, who finished ninth that season and were relegated the following summer.
The state of the league table this season – with three unbeaten sides at this stage – is in huge contrast to the early days of the league; there were only three unbeaten sides in the first decade of the competition: Nottingham Forest in 1995-96, Arsenal in 1997-98 and Aston Villa in 1998-99. And Arsenal were the only one of those sides who went on to be champions.
The picture is just as alarming at the foot of the table this season. None of the bottom seven clubs in the league – Newcastle, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Cardiff, Huddersfield and Fulham – has earned more than nine points from their first 12 games. The points they are winning are coming from games against each other. Their record against the top teams is terrible. This group have played 29 matches against last season’s top six and picked up just one point between them from the 87 available – a point earned by Crystal Palace in their 2-2 draw against Arsenal. Their collective goal difference in these 29 matches against the top teams is -69.
The teams at the bottom are not just coming up short against the very best sides in the league. They are struggling full stop. None of them has won more than two games; they have played 12 games each (a total of 84) but have just 11 victories between them (most of which are against each other); and none of the bottom five sides in the league has beaten a team from the top half.
The disparity between the best and the rest in the Premier League looks even starker when the division is compared to its competitors elsewhere in Europe. La Liga in particular has been written off by many in England for its perceived lack of competition, but fans in Spain are enjoying an unpredictable and highly entertaining season. Every team in La Liga has lost at least once this season.
Reigning champions Barcelona are top of the table but, after their 4-3 defeat to Real Betis at the weekend, their points tally would only be enough to put them fifth in the Premier League – just above Arsenal on goal difference. While the top five in the Premier League have suffered just five defeats between them, the top five in Spain – which excludes European champions Real Madrid – have been beaten 12 times so far.
The top four in Spain are separated by just one point, with just a 10-point gap between leaders Barcelona and 14th-place Valencia, who finished in the Champions League places last season. The gap from Manchester City to 14th-place Newcastle, for comparison’s sake, is 23 points.
There is some competitiveness in the Premier League but it is contained at the top and bottom of the league. The top four are separated by just five points – which is giving us the beginnings of a title race – and the bottom seven are separated by just four points – which is giving us a relegation battle. But the season has thrown up precious few shocks. Manchester United’s form has been surprisingly poor and both Bournemouth and Watford deserve great credit for their impressive starts but, all in all, this season is not shaping up as one that will live long in the memory.
The Premier League was once described as the best in the world and then the most competitive, but the strength of those claims is dwindling. There is no question that fans in England are seeing some of the continent’s top teams at present, but the predictability of the league has given us quite an underwhelming start to the season. If you want to see an upset, the Premier League is the last place to look.
(The Guardian)
