Is the Premier League a "Farmers League?"

In this issue of Football Latest, we discuss a controversial topic about the competitive element of the Premier League with Manchester City's dominance. Keep reading for this topic and more.

Welcome back to Football Latest! I think this week is the perfect time to discuss a topic that is especially relevant after both Arsenal and Liverpool have dropped points at a pivotal point in the Premier League season for this title race. Manchester City now have an excellent opportunity to win their 6th Premier League title in 7 years, and this does raise a question, is the Premier League losing its competitive aspect? People are now drawing comparisons to the German Bundesliga (won 10 times in the last 11 years by Bayern Munich) and the French Ligue 1 (won 9 times in the last 11 years by PSG). As much as these seem like fair comparisons at first, there is a difference that I don’t believe is being emphasised enough.

Manchester City have dominated English Football in the last decade, and there is no doubt about it, but rarely in the last 10 years have they won a title by a large points margin, especially when compared to the Bundesliga or League 1. For 6 of their last 9 Bundesliga titles, Bayern have been 10 points or more ahead of 2nd place, and on two occasions in that time, they have finished 20 points or more ahead of 2nd. It is a similar story with PSG. They have won 5 of their last 7 titles by a 10 goal margin, and maybe even more impressively, they won one of those titles by 31 points, scoring 102 goals in the process. That is domination. There is no competition in that.

A very different story is Manchester City, who despite their title dominance, they do not run away with titles as often. They did manage their incredible 100 points season and a 2020-21 season where they finished 12 points clear, but most titles with Manchester City go down to the wire. Most recently was a 3-2 comeback win on the final day of the season from 2-0 down against Aston Villa that saw City win the title by a single point. Even last season, Manchester City found them 8 points behind Arsenal at Christmas, only to be crowned champions thanks to an incredible winning run for the final few weeks of the season. The point that I am trying to make is that there has almost always been a competitive aspect to the Premier League title race in the last decade, and that is what the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 have lacked. Maybe Leverkusen can be the team to change that in the Bundesliga, but PSG seem to be the only team able to compete in France right now.

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