BELOW THE TOP DOGS, THE LEAGUE’S A MESS OF MEDIOCRITY
CHRIS WIldeR has enjoyed his time in the Premier league but thinks it is nowhere near as exacting a division as he thought.
Speaking to friends after his Sheffield United team drew with Arsenal last weekend, he said he was disappointed they had not won. He said he expected a much tougher game against Millwall of the Championship in the FA Cup this weekend.
Wilder’s surprise has been based in part on the lack of physical challenge to his three central defenders. He has also been interested to discover how unwilling some Premier league players have been to do the more unpleasant parts of the game, like running and tackling.
But those are the details and they don’t matter terribly. What is more pertinent is the debate about how good the Premier league really is. We know it’s good at the very top. liverpool are a quite exceptional side and Manchester City remain so too. As for the rest, BT analyst Steve McManaman put it well while watching Manchester United lose to Burnley on Wednesday.
‘United are fifth in the table,’ he said. ‘But watching this, you would think they were 15th. Is there much difference?’ As it happens, the league table suggests McManaman was wrong. By just one place. Between United in fifth and Newcastle in 14th, there are just four points. Between United and leaders liverpool, there are 33. And liverpool have a game in hand.
United in fifth and Tottenham in sixth have 34 points and have won nine league games each from 24. That is the same number of victories as Burnley in 13th and only two more than Aston Villa who are fancied by many to go down.
It would be nice to suggest this strange bunching of the Premier league also-rans is indicative of fierce competition and a refusal of the lesser clubs to bow to the muscle of those with all the money. But I think we all know it is not that at all. It is a sign that — outside of a very small number of teams — nobody is really very good. Statistics can lie but these ones don’t. They are backed up by what we see on the field.
Apart from liverpool and City, who are the progressive teams in the Premier league? leicester, certainly, and Wolves, too. Nuno espirito Santo’s team were terrific against liverpool last Thursday and should have won. Had they not been hampered by the europa league, they would be threatening the top four. Wilder’s Sheffield United have impressed us — tactically and physically — and Southampton have started to move upwards after a poor start. And that is probably about it.
An awful lot of money has been spent elsewhere in recent times — especially at West Ham, everton and Arsenal — but to what end? Those three teams appear just as muddled and inert as ever and the blame lies with coaches, managers and sporting directors. The latter, in particular, rarely seem to be blamed for anything at all.
This time last year Chelsea were fifth with 47 points and 14 wins. The year before, it was Tottenham with 13 wins and 45 points. So the drop off, at that level at least, is very clear. It used to be imperative to win in order to make progress in the Premier league but this season it seems that the ability to draw will take you most of the way to where you wish to be.
There has been much talk about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United. They are a poor side, right enough. But what does the fact that they are fifth in the table say about everybody else?
SUPPORTERS of Manchester United are talking about walking out of their team’s next home game midway through the action in a protest designed to grab the attention of United’s owners, the Glazer family. It won’t work. Walk out during the game and the Glazers won’t care. By that time they have already banked your money. The only way to really make your feelings known is not to go at all.