The more things change, the more they stay the same
Like so many already have, John Nic is here to tell us how profoundly weird a season we have going on. It’s all supposed to be scraped off and disregarded as an anomaly; an asterisk on everything. But just how weird has this season been?
Sure the absence of crowds is a big loss and not just to a club’s bottom line. That atmosphere at Anfield for that glorious Barca game was truly something else and a joy currently not on offer. But does that, all on it’s own, taint a whole season of football? No.
Unlike what John thinks, this season hasn’t been a deviation from the norm nor unique in terms of the actual football played. There have been some unexpected batshit results but let’s not pretend we’ve not seen 7-2s, 9-0s, 4-3s, 5-2s before.
Starting from the top of the table, Man City sit comfortably (surprise surprise) with 59pts and 13 games left. On current form, they can concievably secure 30 more points – perhaps more. That leaves them just short of 90pts for the season. Not less than 20 of the 28 premier league seasons have featured champions with <90pts. That has been the norm; 98, 99, 100pts are the anomalies.
Perhaps Liverpool’s drastic fall (seemingly all down to lack of fans at home) has contributed to this weird season narrative. But a combined league table of the last ten completed seasons, and, indeed, the all-time Premier League table both have Liverpool in 4th. So maybe Liverpool scrambling around for a top four finish isn’t so strange but rather an inevitable regression to the mean. In fact one can legitimately argue that last season was a gross anomaly which saw Liverpool winning the premier league – which has literally never happened before.
Another reason to misguidedly think this season is unique is the whole lot of different teams to have been top of the league (9). That’s crazy right? Well not that much. Four other seasons (1998/99, 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2007/08) have had eight different leaders. One more team briefly sitting on top feels more like one of those things that just happens.
Aside from all that, the rest is pretty much standard fare. Manchester United have drifted frustratingly between brilliant and rotten in the post-Fergie years, finishing 7th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 2nd, 6th and 3rd. They’re currently on course for 2nd. Chelsea are still the same old Chelsea. Winning, losing, sacking managers, expensive strikers who flop really hard etc. Tottenham being a mess isn’t bucking any trend. Not for the club nor the manager. Mourinho’s Death Spiral is now a legendary trademark. Arsenal have been quietly sleepwalking to mediocrity for the better part of ten years. For Burnley, Newcastle, Brighton, Southampton (insert 9-0 gag here), West Brom, Crystal Palace, Fulham etc., it’s just another season in the EPL. While Sheffield United have reverted to a position far closer to what they merit in terms of squad depth and quality.
The notable surprises have been the form and performances of West Ham, Everton and Aston Villa. Everton are more familiar with struggling to finish in the top half than champions league ticket. But they’ve not had a manager of Ancelotti’s calibre, have they? Coupled with the quality of their squad, a European place is an easily predictable outcome. Aston Villa have spent significant sums since promotion, more than even some of the big boys. For that investment, a comfortable midtable finish isn’t an unreasonable expectation. That leaves West Ham whose continued brilliance is entirely unexpected and is in no way keeping with the recent history of club or manager. But then stranger things have happened. We all know football has the capacity throw up the genuinely odd once in a while. You know, like Leicester winning the sodding league or Greece winning Euro 2004. Lack of fans wasn’t responsible for those things then, it’s disingenious to attribute every new things to it now.
My point is: this season hasn’t been different at all so there’s no reason to write off the achievements or failures as merely a freak brought about by a global pandemic. We may not enjoy the games quite as much as viewers but it doesn’t seem like the competitiveness or the established order has been disrupted. The same way we’re not going to write off the last year of our lives and subtract one from our ages or put an asterisk on it (e.g I am 32+ *1 years old) because we have been affected by the pandemic. Whether we like it or not, life always go on and so does football. Even if some circumstances have been unprecedented like the shortened pre-season, packed-than-usual schedule, all teams play under those same conditions, so the winners are worthy of their achievements while the losers should not expect any asterisk nonsense but rather own up to their failures and move on.
So ladies and gentlemen, there it is, the 2020/21 season. The maddeningly strange and freakishly unique season in which nothing is actually changing.
AY
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