The wondrous uncertainty of the Premier League

Manchester City claimed the 2011-12 title with a dramatic last day finish

‘The best league in the world’ is a compliment often bestowed on the Barclays Premier League by enthusiastic commentators and fans alike. This has become a point of contentious debate and rightly so.

Does the Premier League boast of the best team in Europe currently? None of the Premier League teams featured in the quarter-final stage of last season’s UEFA Champions League so I think not.

Do any of the 3 best players in the world feature for any of the 20 clubs present in the Premier League? Well, no.

Then why is it that the Premier League is so exalted in the eyes of so many fans worldwide?

There are a wide range of answers varying from TV right deals around the world to fast-paced football that the Premier League faithful are used to witnessing. In my own opinion, despite it’s shortcomings (and there are a few especially when compared to the likes of Spain and Germany) the USP of the Premier League is its unpredictable nature.

The duopoly of the Liga BBVA has been a hefty stick to beat the Spanish top flight with for a number of years now. Unflattering comparisons to the Scottish Premier League are extremely wide of the mark in terms of quality of the league, but in essence the accusation carried weight (at least while Rangers could still boast of being a superpower in Scottish football).

In Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Spanish football is home to unarguably the two best players of the world. And they’ve been integral to the freakish domestic domination of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

To be fair to the clubs though, their awe inspiring record dates back to days before that of Messi and Ronaldo. Since Valencia’s league title winning campaign in the 2003-04 season, one of either Barcelona or Real Madrid have won the league in each and every one of the subsequent seasons. Only the Villareal side of the 2007-08 came close to breaking this stranglehold at the top, ultimately finishing in 2nd place.

Tellingly this is the only instance of any side other than Barca and Real finishing in the top two since 2004. The likes of the above mentioned Valencia and Villareal along with Sevilla and most recently Atletico Madrid have all taken the battle to the big two but have ultimately found themselves wanting.

Looking at this season, a red-hot Atletico spearheaded by Diego Costa have thrown their hat in the ring, and given their more than impressive start to the season, deserve to be deemed contenders and yet one senses that come May it will be Barcelona and Real Madrid (or Real Madrid and Barcelona) sitting pretty atop the league table.

There’s an argument to be made that there are parallels between Manchester United’s dominance in the Premier League era and the success of the traditional big two in Spain. The major difference though is that very rarely do United dominate the league from the opening day to the last. Their propensity to make things difficult for themselves and slow starts mean that their rivals are more often than not in with a shout come the business end of the season.