To say that the Premier League is the best domestic league in Europe may sound like hyperbole. Can we really say that English football’s top flight is better than those in Germany, Spain or Italy? Yes, I think we can. But first we should be clear about what I mean by ‘best’.
I’m not necessarily referring to the ‘best’ football as that is often a subjective judgement. I’m talking about tension, surprise, drama; in short, the sort of pulse-quickening excitement that can only come from a truly competitive league, where predictability is kept to a minimum.
And every year, fans all over the UK and around the world tune in to the Premier League’s compelling action. This season, fans following the competition on Sky Sports have been treated to another dramatic run-in as Liverpool and Manchester City have duelled for supremacy, taking it in turns to lead the table, as the season winds down and the tension mounts. And while City have been the odds-on favourites with bookmakers for most of the campaign, they have been pushed all the way.
Compare this season’s Premier League drama to the state of domestic football in Italy, where Juventus have clinched their eighth Serie A title in a row, or Spain, where Barcelona and Real Madrid have taken the top two places La Liga in eight out of the last ten seasons. In France, Paris St-Germain have won six of the last seven Ligue 1 titles, and in Germany, Bayern Munich are bidding for their seventh Bundesliga success in a row.
Of course, there have been one-sided Premier League seasons. Last year Manchester City walked away with the crown, winning it by 19 points. But for several years now, ever since the Manchester United dynasty ended, competition for the Premier League has involved a rotating cast of teams.
For a start, there have been four different winners of the tournament in the last six seasons, including Leicester City, who won it in 2016 having started the season rated as a 5000/1 chance! And over that same period, five different teams have finished as runners up.
That isn’t to say that the Premier League is a completely open competition. There is a very clear hierarchy at the top of the league, consisting of the Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. Leicester’s success has proven to be a one-off, and while supremacy within the Big Six shifts from season to season, given the financial realities of modern top flight football, it has proven all but impossible for other teams to break into that mini-league.
That still makes for a more competitive league than any of the other competitions in Europe. It may be that the long history of English football has enabled the growth of a wider selection of big clubs. The fact that the game originated among the scattered industrial towns of the north rather than in wealthy London may also have helped to ensure that no single team could dominate in the early years.
But whatever the reason, and whatever the quality of the football played outside the Big Six, it remains almost indisputable that the Premier League is the most competitive top flight league in Europe, which is why this summer millions of European football punters who use the bigbetbookmakers site will be eagerly looking for the best prices on next season’s Premier League.
