No reason City’s rivals should be so far behind

This Premier League season is like the Ashes. The real contest is already over, so all that remains is a fight for honour, and a tangle of sub-plots, as the traditional battle for fourth expands into a struggle for second, third and fourth – and 10 teams or more fear relegation.

This is new ground we are on. Manchester City are 15 points clear with 18 games left to play. They have 58 points from a possible 60, a goal difference of plus 49 and have the best defence in the division with 12 goals conceded – mainly because the opposition never get a kick.

There has never been such dominance in England at the turn of the year in top-flight football, as the chasing pack ask: who will be our Alastair Cook?

The oligarchs and speculators with giant clubs chasing Man City crave respectability socially, but it is not what they sought in football.

And they have no grounds for complaint. They have all spent plenty of money.

Man City have simply spent more – on creative, match-winning, entertaining players. On the pitch, at any rate, they are the acceptable face of opulence, as they bear down on a record-equalling

19th successive top-flight win, at Crystal Palace, which would make them the equal of Pep Guardiola’s 2013-14 Bayern Munich side.

Through sheer weight of brilliance, and teamwork, this is a fascinating tale; the counterpoint, if you like, to Leicester City winning the league title with a team of artisans (mostly).

But as we approach 2018, City’s hegemony presents a new challenge. Will we just ride the carousel of their incisive passing for another five months or are there spectacles further down we can enjoy?

Arsenal v Chelsea on Wednesday night is an example of a fixture downgraded by City’s preeminence. A top London game, it has the feel now of a top-six skirmish with no relevance whatsoever to the title race.

And the date of it is Jan 3 – before the third round of the FA Cup is even under way. If relegation tussles are your bag, you are in luck, because there are eight clubs with 20 points or fewer after 20 games, although Swansea appear already doomed to life in the Championship next season.

Positions eight to 20 are highly competitive, so supporters of those clubs can expect some fierce exchanges between now and May, in a league where Leicester’s success in 2016 did not, despite the optimism of the time, herald an age of greater equality between the classes.

The second half of this near dead-rubber season will be enlivened by (below) Harry Kane’s goal harvesting, Mo Salah at Liverpool and a World Cup build-up. But the risk is that the Premier League’s storylines will become even more personality- and manager-driven, as Jose Mourinho continues his repetitive one-man theatre routine at Manchester United, the Arsene Wenger stay-or-go circus starts up again at Arsenal and “earthy” Sean Dyche discovers whether he is to remain rooted at Burnley.

There will also be a macabre fascination with the home-grown “football men” – Sam Allardyce, Roy Hodgson and David Moyes.

All this is a poor substitute for a proper Premier League title race, but you can take it if the other 19 teams are still busting a gut, and Man City are able to keep the sun of their football alive for a whole dark winter.