been meaning to write this for weeks
Manchester city spend fortunes and are already 1/3 shots to win the title
Arsenal are inconsistent, and have real issues spending money to strengthen what they have from who is available
Man U rebuilding
Liverpool permanently rebuilding..sell suarez, spend sell sterling, spend. spend badly, it might be said
Chelsea trouble behind the scenes?
that leaves space for the likes of Palace, Swansea etc to fill into the top 6 perhaps temporarily
at the other end there are bad teams
sunderland, newcastle, villa, west brom, three promoted teams grappling to adapt..jury out on stoke
performance in europe has been bad for 3 years, and the co-efficient that gets us 4 teams in the champions league must be in trouble
is this cyclical, an accident of so many teams with issues in the short term only?
or is it structural? overpaying average talent, a transfer of wealth from tv deals to players that means they have little incentive to perform?
City are stronger now than than at any point in the last 5 years including their 2 title winning years. Despite last night, I'd would say it is an inevitability that they will bridge the gap in the next few years to the Big 3 of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern.
Arsenal likewise IMO are stronger than they were 5 years ago.
Chelsea were the real deal just over a month ago before the season started.
United post Ferguson have not been great. I'd say it is inevitable they will become a major force again when the rebuild is complete. The problem now of course is they have been so dull - before the Liverpool game at the weekend they had only scored 6 times in their last 10 league games. That is unheard of for United and whilst personally I'm enjoying their struggles it is not what we are used to or good for the Premier League.
Liverpool/Spurs. Hmmm.
Looking at the teams City have played this year, we have had big battles with Everton and Palace, both very imprssive and, to a lesser extent, Watford. Comfortable wins only against WBA (very poor) and Chelsea. Of the games I've seen on TV not involving City I've also been very impressed with Swansea and, just for you, Leicester!
Sure, recent performance in Europe has not been the best. I don't think this is due to a lack of quality and it strikes me we play a completely different game. Using a poker analogy, the Premier League 90 minutes is like a "super turbo" and many European games are "slow structures".
The risk of losing the 4th spot to Italy is real. Ironically, this is due more to poor performance by English teams in the Europa League than the Champions League.
Thought I'd bump this thread in the event of English teams performing poorly in the Champions league this week and the inevitable comments that the Premier league wasn't what it once was.
Since my post above, about 6 weeks ago, City have a mixed bag of success but I'll stick to my guns that the PL is as good and competitive as ever. Literally, I have been impressed with every team City have played since for reasonable chunks of a game even if they have ended up with a battering.
Just read this from Pedro on his experience so far:
'It’s hard. It’s very different to what I’m used to at Barcelona. Everything is different, very different to the football I'm used to. I think there are a lot of differences, very physical football, very strong. A lot of players attack and it's always complicated. All the games are competitive and very balanced.'Yep, best league in the world...
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