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On a recent slow boat to China or rather my train from West Croydon to Islington, a few friends and I decided to quash the impending boredom by debating the current state of the Premier League. We noted the irony that arguably the worst team of this seasons Champions League qualifiers (Chelsea) had managed to progress the furthest, in what has been another disappointing year in the competition for English clubs. There was a universal agreement that the once acclaimed ‘Top 4’ had become significantly weaker in seasons gone by, but a question mark surrounded whether this had impacted the standard of the Premier League.
The simple and perhaps short-sighted answer is a resounding ‘yes’, the Premier League elite have lost a number of their prized assets that has inevitably weakened the quality of their playing squad. Cristiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas have both achieved their desire to flee to Spain whilst Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri have joined the revolution at Eastlands. Liverpool’s former talisman Fernando Torres exchanged Merseyside for the nations capital and joined a side that has seen its once imperious team begin to show the effects of old age.
Each club undergoes a transitional period every few years, it’s in the fabric of the game, but it just so happens that the majority of our leading clubs have all decided to do so at the same time. It’s therefore vital that you remain successful during this period, a feat only Sir Alex can claim to have achieved.
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The main victims of this ‘process of change’ have arguably been Arsenal and Liverpool, who have gradually relinquished their roles as title contenders. This opportunity to infiltrate the League’s hierarchy has not gone unnoticed with both Manchester City and Tottenham asserting themselves at the summit of the table. It’s fair to say that the once unyielding ‘big four’ now consists of five or six teams who all look capable of competing with their rivals across the continent.
One of main arguments you’ll hear when individuals are criticising the state of the Premier League is that English teams are no longer present in the latter stages of the Champions League. “In 2008/09 we had three teams in the semi-finals” they’ll cry, as if that is the be all and end all of proceedings and the only way to judge the stature of a team. At the end of the day it’s essentially a cup competition, which teams can share equal measures of good luck and ill-misfortune. Cypriot minnows APOEL defied the odds to reach the quarter-finals but does that mean they’re one of the top 8 sides in the world? The fact that Manchester United were knocked out of the Europa League by Athletic Bilbao who are 7th in La Liga, is not a satisfactory means of claiming the Premier League is somehow inferior than its Spanish counterpart.
I believe the Premier League is nowadays a far more interesting and entertaining spectacle and not as a result of the standard slipping. Yes, the title race involves just two teams from Manchester but then it’s always historically been a two horse race. It’s important to consider the League as a whole entity when you deliberate over its apparent demise, as events at the bottom of the table tell an entirely different story. Long gone are the days of Derby County’s poultry 18 points with many promoted clubs often distancing themselves from their tag as relegation candidates as early as Christmas. Can you imagine a promoted club playing in the same free-flowing style as Swansea a decade ago? Relegated teams are no longer simply bouncing back up from the Championship, which has in itself vastly improved. Instead they have to revaluate their squads and build strong foundations in order to compete with the increasing intensity of the modern game.
Despite the current lull on the European circuit it won’t be long before the quality of the Premier League is once again reflected in the Champions League. The likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid will soon stutter and tumble from their lofty pedestals and I believe there will be an English side ready to take their place.
Join me on Twitter @theunusedsub where I’m currently looking at the best midfielder in the world…
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