By Tony Attwood
There is a growing feeling in the media that Chelsea have something called “momentum”. Put another way, they are on the up. Although perhaps not quite as “on the way” in the way that some of their talk might suggest.
Which leads to the point, how exactly does one define “on the up”? One phrase that can be used is that of building “priceless momentum” although what that actually means, is never defined. And when something isn’t defined, it is always worth dealing with it with some suspicion.
In the current context, t”on the up” seems to be defined as having “aspirations” which is a bit vague, and being “youthful, aggressive, motivated and extremely talented,” which is what most of the top eight clubs like to think they are. But still, aggression can be dangerous, especially in the hands of the young, and really, are any of the regular first teamers in a Permier League club around the top six not “supremely talented”? If there are, they really shouldn’t be there.
But no, Chelsea are “champions of the world” through winning the Club World Cup, which is an achievement that Arsenal haven’t got, as they didn’t enter. The next club world cup will be in 2029 and we know that it will include Paris St-Germain, for being winners of the 2024-25 Uefa Champions League, Egyptian club Pyramids, winners of the 2024-25 Caf Champions League League and Al-Ahli, from Saudi Arabia who won the 2024/5 AFC Champions League.
However, maybe this “priceless momentum” of which they speak so glowingly is something that comes from winning the league. Certainly, in England, if one looks at the top three then clearly Manchester City have consistency, having been in the top three for nine consecutive seasons. Arsenal also did it for nine years from 1996/7 although I am not sure it was called consistency then.
And what there is perhaps now is a persistence rather than a consistency, in the sense that of the top six clubs at the end of 2024/25, five were in the top six the season before, with just Fulham (sixth in 2024) dropping out and being reeplacd by Newcastle United who came fifth last season.
And that of course, can be a problem for the Premier League and indeed all other leagues – the same clubs coming in the top group, year after year. So we can welcome the occasional change, such as Tottenham finishing, in the last ten seasons, second once, third twice, fourth twice, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and then 17th each once. A consistent inconsistency, perhaps.
In fact if we do look at some of the larger clubs, there can be quite a bit of variation going on, in terms of where they finish. Chelsea’s run of late, for example, has been 4th, 3rd, 12th 6th 4th. Which perhaps indicates that the first drive of all clubs is to get that consistency of finishing in the top four, which Arsenal had from 1996 to 2015.
But maybe we should also notice that the end to such a run can come suddenly, as it was followed in Arsenal’s case by 5th, 6th, 5th, 8th, 8th, 5th in successive seasons. Put another way, when the run of successive seasons in the top four ended it took six seasons to sort matters out and start a new run, which we are now in.
So yes, although clubs like Chelsea can suddenly drop from third one season to 12th the next season, that isn’t that common, as indeed the drop from 3rd to 8th to 15th for Manchester United in the last three years is not the norm. But we can say, it can be very hard to climb out of such a run.
However, it is true that there can be some very erratic movements, such as Tottenham’s 7th, 4th 8th, 5th 17th, especially in a club that believes that changing managers very regularly is the way forward (which self-evidently it is not).
Indeed, in this regard, Tottenham do look like the sad old man of fables who seeing an idea fail, decides to do it again because eventually it must work. And yes, in the end, it might well work for Tottenham, but if it does it will as likely be as much due to chance as anything else.
There is obviously no clear-cut way to raeaching the top of the league and then staying there, other than being funded by a country with no human rights and more money than most of the rest of the world put together, and even then, constant success at the very top is not absolutely guaranteed. Plus there are still 125 claims on the table against that club.
Which brings me round to the point, or rather points, I make quite often: Why has there been no settlement of the Manchester City case?
The Guardian has written “Result of City case against league on APT due imminently; Premier League executives to meet on Thursday morning.”
Which might give you a bit of hope until you note that that headline appeared in the Guardian on 25 September 2024. And we still wait.
”Tottenham sad old man of fables – and we might ‘and foibles’.”