Why the Premier League is about to get very interesting: Spurs, City, Villa, Everton ready to challenge the ‘Big Four’
Just over a year ago, Harry Redknapp was busy doing his bit to talk about the possible buys for Tottenham Hotspurs. He was brave enough to say that his team had a chance to be a top six team in the Premier League, and that’s exactly what they did. They beat the super spending Manchester City to the fourth place and now find themselves playing in the Champions League.
Just a year later, Redknapp is now talking about winning the title, and as for every pessimist there’s an optimist, winning the league might seem a farfetched idea, but there is no harm in believing they can.
A year ago, Alex Ferguson said he could not see past Chelsea or Liverpool as the team who could dethrone Manchester United, but this week he was looking past the usual suspects.
He said there is immense progress at Spurs, Villa, Everton, and of course, Manchester City, and he expects stiff competition this time around.
Premier League has been a 3 or 4 horse race in the recent seasons, and if you have to find a winner apart from Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, you’d have to go back 15 years when Blackburn Rovers won he title in 1995, but the winds are changing. Swiftly.
If you’d have to bet your house on the title winners next season, perhaps the money would be on either Chelsea or Manchester United, but if you are to bet your house on the 3rd and 4th spot, you’d be absolutely clueless.
Premier League is no longer what it used to be; it’s a global brand now, and with the foreign influx of money that has poured into the league in recent years, there are many teams that can now break the monotony of the usual suspects.
The established order has been challenged and perhaps disturbed as well: Tottenham Hotspurs in the Champions League is a glaring testament to that.
Any of the big four, plus Spur and City can now win the title this year, and any of the top 8 can claim a Champions League spot, the sole reason being the fact that Chelsea, United, Liverpool and Arsenal have not grown as rapidly as their nearest contenders have, and the gap at the top is thin as a hair.
In the 08-09 season, the top 4 only lost 17 games combined, but last season that tally stood at 33. Two seasons ago, the gap between 3rd and 7th was a staggering 30 points; last season it was reduced to 12 points only.
The concept of the ‘big four’ is dying fast or is perhaps already dead; it makes much more sense to talk about the big two or the big six because times have changed and so has the Premier League. And this year, it’s going to be competitive as h**l. The winners might be one of the usual suspects, but they will be given a fight for their lives.
For a change, perhaps even a pleasant one for a neutral, we can hear a manger other than Fergie, Wenger, Benitez/Hodgson or Ancelotti saying ‘we can win the league’ and why not?
Big team mentality is not to say ‘we’ll try to consolidate a fourth place finish’; how unambitious would that be? That’s not how big teams think, and that’s not how Harry Redknapp and Spurs are thinking.
With Roberto Mancini spending as much money as he has, he clearly believes that he can win the league. If Roy Hodgson plays his cards right even Liverpool can win the title. David Moyes must know that if his team plays like they finished last season, they will be playing in the Champions League next season and so does Villa.
While England’s national side may be dull as a wet Sunday in Hockenheim, the country’s top League is about to get very interesting.
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