The English Premier League praises itself as the best and the most competitive in the world. While it is certainly a very good and very successful league in terms of revenue and playing, the issue of competitiveness needs to be re-addressed as it appears that the English league is a rather closed shop and the title usually decided between four or five clubs. This however, has changed over the last two seasons and this season it has become too apparent that the title race is a two horse race.
[typography font=”Crimson Text” size=”19″ size_format=”px”]North-Western Dominance[/typography]
The gravity centre of English football has long been in the North West of the country and this dominance is manifested by Manchester United’s 19, Liverpool’s 18 league titles. Liverpool no longer are a serial contender for the title and have since been replaced by Manchester United. For a while it appeared that Sir Alex Ferguson’s team would be lone contenders for this season’s title but saw themselves confronted with a serious challenge from their city rivals Manchester City. This is dominance is visible in the table where City tops the table with 54 points and United with 51 are second. The gap is already six points on Tottenham Hotspurs in third place with 46 points.
[typography font=”Crimson Text” size=”19″ size_format=”px”]Manchester 18 – North London 6[/typography]
Against the clubs from North London, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs both Manchester clubs have scored eighteen (18) goals and only conceded 6. This demonstrates that Manchester is England’s football capital as the score line reads rather impressively Manchester 18 – North London 6. It has been pointed out at the end of last season after City and United shared FA Cup and League title that Manchester is England’s football heartland just as the Ruhr area is Germany’s football gravity centre as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 won the trophies last year.