RISE OF A NEW DUOPOLY IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

One can’t help but feel sorry for Liverpool. The most number of points amassed by a team coming second in Europe’s top five leagues. More points garnered than all but three champions in the Premier League era. How thrilling, how resolute, how invigorating, how good a team it was this season. And still not good enough to win the Premier League title.

It was not, and it did not, because of the emergence of one of the finest sides to have ever played in the Premier League. Lethal

attack, purposeful in defence, goal shielded by one of the best keepers in the contemporary game, a blur of slick passand-go movement, this Manchester City team may have the financial muscle to buy any player it likes, but that is not the sole reason for its spellbinding success over the past two seasons.

The sense of a vision, a plan, a project, permeates its every move. Nothing is left to chance. And it shows in the 198 points the team has picked up over the past two league seasons.

In the years to come, whenever there is talk of the greatest of all time (GOAT) Premier League teams, this City side will be in the conversation, along with Alex Ferguson’s treble-winning Manchester United side of 1998-99 and Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles team of 2003-04.

It is a tribute to Liverpool that it went toe-to-toe with this City side and never once blinked. This Liverpool side, too, should be in the mix when the GOAT conversation comes around.

The emergence of these two teams changes the dynamic of the Premier League. It creates a new duopoly. Behind City’s 98 points and Liverpool’s 97, third placed Chelsea has 72 points; Tottenham in fourth has 71; and Arsenal in fifth has 70. The gulf between the top two and the best of the rest is vast. And it does not look like changing in the near future.

Both teams have recruited wisely, covering deficiencies they had in every posiin