Jonathan Wilson recognises in his book Inverting the Pyramid, “that excitement and quality are not synonyms.” He continues. “If goals were a mark of excellence, there would be thousands queuing to watch primary school football.”
Plenty of excitement is whipped up with the Premier League but quality is not ubiquitous in England’s top flight. Last season for example was described by a few as the best Premier League season of all time. Perhaps it was in terms of entertainment but in terms of actual quality, it wasn’t.
Look at the relegation fight last year. Over half of the league was involved in the battle for survival at one stage. This was part of the ‘entertainment’ for some – having so many teams embroiled in the mayhem of a basement battle. On the other hand, it demonstrates the amount of sides lacking quality in the division. The reason it lasted so long and went down to the final day was because no one had the quality and consistency to pull away. This meant an exciting final day for all supporters not affiliated with Blackpool, Wolves, Birmingham, Blackburn and Wigan.
The other side of the argument is that last season was brilliant to have such a competitive league where anyone can beat anyone. It’s great to have that sort of competitiveness and it also proved the teams behind the top six had improved. If anything though, it confirms they’ve weakened. For whilst sides outside the elite are able to compete from game to game, over the course of the season the top six still reign supreme in the overall standings. It wasn’t like they were at the peak last season either.
This is illustrated by the Champions, Manchester United winning five games on the road. The ability to be able to perform away from home on a consistent basis helps to define how good the Champions have been over the course of a season. The Red Devils spectacular form at Old Trafford, where they won 18 of their 19 matches, suppressed their travel sickness.
Arrigo Sacchi won Serie A and the European Cup twice in the space of three years with AC Milan. He once said, “If you want to go down in history you don’t just need to win, you have to entertain.” Sacchi has been also been quoted in the past as saying Arsenal are one of his favourite teams.
When the Gunners won the Premier League in 2002 and 2004, they fulfilled Sacchi’s creed in the process. They were unbeaten away from home in both seasons – an outstanding achievement. Beating Arsenal then was considerably tougher than it is currently.
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Very strange view of things. You use the fact that anybody could beat anybody as a reason why the league isn’t competitive when by every definition that means its competitive you praise the German league then criticize the English teams for only winning the champions league twice in 7 years….how many German victories? You also cherry pick the struggles of the Manchester clubs this year without pointing out the other English teams are all doing well in Europe including Arsenal who are struggling in our league (which is funny as you refer to a top 6 who are miles away from everybody else) and Birmingham who got relegated to the 2nd tier last year.