{"id":1696,"date":"2016-10-28T21:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T01:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=1696"},"modified":"2016-10-28T21:12:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T01:12:47","slug":"premier-league-tightest-title-race-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2016\/10\/28\/premier-league-tightest-title-race-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"2016-17 Premier League Promises To Be Tightest Title Race Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

This season\u2019s Premier League<\/strong> championship may prove to be the most competitive English title race ever – and it is not just hyperbole to say that.\u00a0 The fact that after nine games the top three teams (Manchester City, Arsenal<\/strong> and Liverpool<\/strong>) are level on points and separated only by the tiniest goal difference (City are top by virtue of having scored just one more goal than Arsenal) is ample proof of the new, ultra-competitive nature of the English top flight.<\/p>\n

2016-17 PREMIER LEAGUE PROMISES TO BE TIGHTEST TITLE RACE EVER<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In addition, the next two teams (Chelsea<\/strong> and Tottenham<\/strong>) are only one point behind the top three, meaning that the top five teams are separated by just a single point.\u00a0 This is not only unprecedented in the Premier League era but arguably in the entire history of English football.<\/p>\n

So far, this is certainly the most competitive title race since the Premier League was established nearly 25 years ago. \u00a0In almost every other Premier League season before this one, even at this early stage in the season, there has been a much greater points gap between the team that is top and the team that is fifth.\u00a0 Invariably, the title race has gone on to be contested between a maximum of three teams and usually just two.<\/p>\n

This season, in addition to the five aforementioned\u00a0clubs, there is also Manchester United<\/strong> to consider, who, despite their early season struggles under Jose Mourinho<\/strong>, are still only six points off the top. It is also possible to make a case for newly rich Everton<\/strong> to compete, if not for the title then certainly for a Champions League<\/strong> place. They are already a point ahead of Manchester United and despite their defeat to Burnley<\/strong> last weekend (Turf Moor<\/strong> is clearly a graveyard for Merseyside teams, as Liverpool also lost there earlier this season), they look well placed under Ronald Koeman<\/strong> to translate the undoubted qualities of their squad into Premier League\u00a0points.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t stop there, as eighth-placed Southampton<\/strong> are perhaps the exemplar of the Premier League\u2019s ultra-competitiveness.\u00a0 They deservedly drew away at Manchester City last weekend and might well have won the game late on.\u00a0 With Charlie Austin<\/strong> and Nathan Redmond<\/strong> seamlessly replacing the likes of Graziano Pelle<\/strong> and Victor Wanyama<\/strong>, they look set to challenge for the European places \u2013 and perhaps not just the Europa League<\/strong> but the prized Champions League places themselves.<\/p>\n

Last weekend\u2019s round of matches showed that this strong vein of competitiveness, in which so-called smaller teams genuinely believe they can beat the bigger, more well-resourced clubs, extends right down the Premier League table.\u00a0 Of the top seven, only Liverpool and Chelsea managed to win. Many commentators noted that, unlike the other top clubs (with the exception of Everton), they had had a whole week to prepare for their games as they are not in European competition this season.<\/p>\n

Only Sunderland<\/strong>, who are yet to win this season, and Hull City<\/strong>, who after a strong start are now beginning to fade, look as if they will be cut adrift.\u00a0 Every other team in the Premier League can genuinely claim to be able to compete at the highest level, with at least one player who merits inclusion in a Champions League squad.\u00a0 For example, Swansea City<\/strong>, who complete the bottom three alongside Hull and Sunderland, have the superb Gylfi Sigurdsson<\/strong>, one of Iceland\u2019s<\/strong> stars at Euro 2016<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is as if the\u00a0Premier League\u00a0is beginning to achieve the supreme levels of competitiveness that have traditionally characterised American sport rather than European football.\u00a0 The major American sporting leagues – the NFL, NBA, MLB<\/strong> and NHL<\/strong> – have always been run on the basis that they are only as strong as their weakest team.<\/p>\n

Consequently, financial and sporting parity has been \u201cbuilt in\u201d, notably through the draft system<\/strong>, whereby the team finishing bottom of the pile gets first pick of the best players coming out of college.<\/p>\n

In England, that level of competitiveness has been achieved more through chance than planning.\u00a0 Smaller clubs are making the most of their TV riches to break their own transfer records and buy players that they would never have dreamed of owning in previous years.<\/p>\n

A similar situation prevailed in Italy\u2019s Serie A<\/strong> in its own golden years of the 1980s<\/strong> and 1990s<\/strong>, when even small-town teams such as Udinese<\/strong> could secure the signing of a global star like Zico<\/strong>. Now, for Zico at Udinese, read Shaquiri<\/strong> at Stoke<\/strong>, or even Dmitri Payet<\/strong> at West Ham<\/strong>.\u00a0 Every club, with the exception of Hull and Sunderland, has its standout player.<\/p>\n

HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This level of parity, of competitiveness, is unprecedented in the Premier League era.\u00a0 In fact, one has to go much further back than that to find a time when the English top flight was as competitive as it is now \u2013 nearly fifty years to the late 1960s<\/strong> and early 1970s<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For nearly a decade between 1967<\/strong> and 1973<\/strong>, there were seven different English title-winners in seven seasons, with no team winning the First Division<\/strong> (as it was then) more than once.\u00a0 The roll-call of champions in that period is extraordinary: Manchester United, Manchester City, Leeds United<\/strong>, Everton, Arsenal, Derby County<\/strong> and Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Of course, the last name on that list is the most significant one, as Liverpool won a third title (to go alongside two in the 1960s) under Bill Shankly<\/strong>. Two years later, Shankly would give way to Bob Paisley<\/strong>, who would then lead\u00a0Liverpool into their golden age from 1976<\/strong> to 1990<\/strong>, when they won\u00a0ten titles out of a possible 15.<\/p>\n

If anything, that period of dominance was exceeded only by that of their great rivals, Manchester United, in the next two decades. Alex Ferguson\u2019s<\/strong> men won 13 out of the 21 titles between 1993<\/strong> and 2013.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It now seems as if those two extraordinary periods of dominance by Liverpool and Manchester United, one almost immediately after the other, are being replaced by the proverbial level playing field.\u00a0 Since Manchester United last won the title in 2013, there have been three different winners \u2013 Manchester City, Chelsea and, most incredibly of all, Leicester City<\/strong> \u2013 and there is every chance of there being another different winner this season.<\/p>\n

So it seems that English football has gone back to the future, with the ultra-competitiveness of the last few years unmatched for nearly half a century.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that may not be the only way in which English football has returned to the 1970s. The appalling clashes between hundreds of West Ham and Chelsea fans at this week\u2019s League Cup<\/strong> tie provided a terrifying reminder of the dreadful hooliganism that blighted the English game in the 1970s and 1980s.\u00a0 Despite being found all over Europe at the time, the acts were known as \u201cthe English disease\u201d.<\/p>\n

Frankly, it is absolutely extraordinary that the problems at West Ham\u2019s new London Stadium<\/strong>, which formerly was the 2012 Olympic Stadium<\/strong>, have been allowed to persist for this long.\u00a0 Almost every home West Ham game so far has been marred by violence, some of it fought out between West Ham fans themselves.<\/p>\n

If that trend is allowed to continue unchecked, there is a very real danger of hooliganism returning to other grounds and then the newly enriched and newly competitive English top flight will be in grave danger of losing not only its lustre but its precious sponsorship.\u00a0 Global brands and TV companies will not be eager to sponsor and broadcast mass fighting rather than football matches.<\/p>\n

The message is clear: in an ideal world, we want to keep the competitiveness on<\/em> the field and lose the fighting\u00a0off<\/em>\u00a0it. \u00a0If that can be achieved, then the Premier League will genuinely be able to claim that it is the most competitive football league in the world, and arguably the most competitive sporting league of any kind.<\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n