- PSG president indicted for complicity in abuse of power.
- Arsenal still on the up, while others slip and slide around disasters
By Tony Attwood
There is an argument that says that in effect the Premier League season is over, in that the gaps between the clubs at the top are so big that no one is going to change position at the very top. Maybe the battle for third and fourth place is not yet over, where three teams are fighting for two places, but at the very top, it’s done.
Certainly, as we know, Arsenal are seven points behind Liverpool which effectively means Liverpool have to start stumbling to allow Arsenal to catch up. Beyond that, Nottingham Forest are 13 points behind in third place, ManC are 16 points behind in fourth and Bournemouth are 17 points behind in fifth.
So I began to wonder if this isn’t like it always is at the 25-game marker. And it only took a moment of reflection to realise that no, last season was quite different. For instead of having gaps of 7, 13, 16 and 17 points that clubs were behind the leaders, last season at the 25 games stage, Arsenal were two points behind the leaders Liverpool, ManC were four points behind the leaders, Aston Villa were eight points behind the leaders and the mighty Tottenham Hots were 10 points behind (thus giving rise this season to the saying “how the mighty have fallen”).
Lookin gback we can see that ManC, Liverpool and Arsenal are all in the top four this season as they were last season, but the gaps are very different. Going back to 2023 we find that ManC were five points behind Arsenal, ManU were 11 points behind, Tottenham 15 points behind and Newcastle United in fifth were 19 points behind.
Indeed sometimes the table by the 25 game marker the top teams can be spread out, sometimes they are bunched. But seeing the name of Tottenham in fourth place just two years ago, I wondered whether the sudden drops (or indeed sudden rises ) were the norm, or whether the top clubs remain generally the top clubs.
You’ll know the top two of course for this season
2025
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 25 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 60 | 24 | 36 | 60 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 51 | 22 | 29 | 53 |
But what about last season at this point – the same two clubs were there but the gap was only two points
2024
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 25 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 59 | 24 | 35 | 57 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 25 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 58 | 22 | 36 | 55 |
The goal scoring gap in 2024 between the top two was just one goal, as opposed to nine this season, although the goals conceded were identical. But the main difference is that Liverpool in first place are doing slightly better, while Arsenal in third, undoubtedly due to the injuries, are doing a bit worse.
2023
| Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 25 | 19 | 3 | 3 | 56 | 23 | 33 | 60 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 25 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 64 | 25 | 39 | 55 |
2023 was the middle ranking of the three years with ManC having the most goals by this stage, while having equal points with Liverpool this season, and the same number of points at this stage as Arsenal had at this point last season.
Finally going back to 2022 we see the gap was six points at the top although ManC had played a game more…
2022
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 25 | 20 | 3 | 2 | 61 | 14 | 47 | 63 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 25 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 64 | 20 | 44 | 57 |
After 25 games Manchester City had 63 points and were six points ahead (although in the case of this year Manchester City had moved on to 26 games played by the time Liverpool got to 25, so this table takes the clubs’ records from two separate dates.
But what is interesting is that over the years considered, the top club after 25 games, always had between 57 and 63 points. The goals scored ranged between 56 and 61 and only once did the goals conceded drop below 20.
Overall there is an extraordinary similarity between what the clubs at the top have achieved by the 25 game marker. What’s more, only three teams have made it to the top two by this stage of the season across the last four years: Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Whcih rather suggests that all this stuff about the Premier League being highly competitive is perhaps just a little exaggerated. Yes the League is more competitive than France where PSG almost always win, and more competitive than Germany were Bayern won 11 leagues titles in a row before being tripped up last season, but less competitive than Spain where three different teams have won the league in the last four years. Or indeed Italy where four different teams have won the league in the last five seasons.
But that raises the question, how does one get greater competitiveness? Presumably by stopping one club from becoming able to spend anything it wants all the time – and that move in England is undoubtedly the reason ManC have just launched yet another court case. Some people just don’t like not winning everything.
More than that, this does show that several leagues are stuck with a problem and for the sake of competitiveness and entertainment they really need to overcome that. But that Italy and Spain have escaped the trap, at least to some degree.
“Which rather suggests that all this stuff about the Premier League being highly competitive is perhaps just a little exaggerated.”
Exactly. And it will only get worse.
As I will show bellow, the Premier League has indeed had periods over which it can be argued, just, that it is competitive, but by and large it isn’t. The teams may change, a little, but over the duration of it’s existence the premier League has mainly been dominated by duopolies. Once a triopoly, and more recently pretty much by a monopoly.
The Premier League just goes through phases.
Looking at the 9 seasons between ’95/’96 and ’03/’04 it was effectively a 9 season duopoly between Arsenal and Man Utd with Utd winning 6 and Arsenal 3 titles. Nobody else got a look in.
Very La Liga
Then Abramovic rocked up gazumping Arsenal and effectively turning it in to a different duopoly, but still a duopoly none the less, with Man Utd now swapping titles with Chelsea for the next 7 seasons between ’04/’05 and ’10/’11
We are now up to 16 seasons with just 3 different winners. Is that really that competitive?
Not the same as Spain and Germany for sure, with their constant duopoly and monopoly, but hardly sharing it around is it?
All the change from a Man Utd/Arsenal to Man Utd/Chelsea duopoly really proved was that if you get yourself unlimited financial backing you can buy your way to the top.
This was not lost on the Sheiks of Dubai.
Enter the Mansours and the ADUG’s quest for total sports domination throughout the Globe.
The emergence of Man City as a State Sponsored propaganda machine and it’s bottomless pit of money has effectively turned the Premier League into a monopoly. Since Liverpool won the title in season ’19/’20 the last 4 titles have gone to Man City. More telling though is the fact that 6 of the last 7 titles have all gone to Man City.
Okay, it took a while for them to achieve this level of domination, but they got there in the end. Alas, for them, this season it has all gone a bit Pete Tong. But here’s the thing. I don’t think this has come as a shock to them at all. I believe, that despite having the ‘best manager in the World’ at the helm, they have realised that to guarantee continued total dominance, which is clearly what they want, they were going to need to outspend everyone else, and they were going to have to do it pretty much, season after season after season
In other words, all these pesky financial restrictions just wont do.
As far as the ADUG is concerned it is completely unacceptable for Man City to fall back into a World of duopolies heaven forbid, triopolies. Their quest for Global domination is all consuming and non negotiable. The Abu Dhabi United Group haven’t spent North of ONE AND A HALF BILLION on players to be in a competition. They want a one horse race, and a one horse race is what they will get. Eventually.
It hasn’t happened yet. Not quite. But that is partly due to what little financial restrictions we still currently have. But once they are gone, and make no mistake they will go, Man City will get the one horse race they crave so much.
Will it be the end of the Premier League as we know it?
I think it will, but what it will look like once the dust settles I haven’t got a clue.
Nitram, as has been suggested before on this site and some of those that comment here. The only option is for the ⅔ majority of clubs to leave , because as looks likely the the Mancunian 130 club aren’t going to move , of course the handful of clubs that wish to stick they’re welcome to come 2nd to 6th from now into eternity.
Sky Sports have released the audio for MLS’ red card and man is it impossible to be angry to see how blatantly incompetent they are and Owen cluelessly backing them up.
It all started in the early 1960’s with first the abolition of the maximum wage and then freedom of contract. It took a little time to take effect, between 1959 and 1972, eleven different clubs won the league over those fourteen years. Probably the last time every team believed they had a chance at the start of the season.
Then came the Liverpool years, started by Bill Shannkly, with 11 titles in 18 years. It took the quality of some exceptional managers to stop a total domination. Brian Clough, Howard Kendall and George Graham.
The ManU era followed with 13 tiles in 21 years. Again it took managers of the quality of Dalgleish and Wenger to stop them.
The new money arrived and Chelsea and Man City took over. Jurgen Klopp the only manager, apart from the Leicester blip, to stop them.
@ Ben
I find it amazing that Owen comes out with the nonsense suggesting it is a red card for one very simple reason. He claims (as did Webb) that the studs were high and went down the leg but not once do they show a camera angle which confirms this. The angle which is repeatedly used is such that it is impossible to determine how high the studs were when contact actually occurred. Owen is just another hater who merely reaffirms the Sky agenda.
I still find Webb a loathsome creature too, despite him agreeing it wasn’t a red card. I would bet my house that if there hadn’t been such public outrage at the on-field decision and VAR confirmation, he’d have happily agreed that it was a legitimate red. He hated Arsenal in his refereeing days and has legitimised red cards and VAR decisions which were more obvious errors than this one. He’s a massive ego trying to behave like a diplomat but he knows the only public scrutiny he faces is from Sky. He knows Sky won’t actually take him to task over any wrong-doings and he won’t be asked awkward questions about odd refereeing statistics or punishment for refs. This TV appearance is actually just a premeditated PR opportunity for the PGMO and in no way a serious attempt to question anything about their behaviours or motivations. A complete sham.