Rest of the Premiership has improved

[Sergi0 Na5r1]

Yep the league is worse this year in terms of standards. I would say out of the bigger teams only Arse has improved a bit (no longer losing by 4-6 goals) and chelsea in certain areas. Liverpool being wank has allowed a pitiful rag team back into Top 4.

 

[Wilf Wild 1937]

Yep the league is worse this year in terms of standards. I would say out of the bigger teams only Arse has improved a bit (no longer losing by 4-6 goals) and chelsea in certain areas. Liverpool being wank has allowed a pitiful rag team back into Top 4.

I agree.

2011-12 was probably the peak in recent years. We were brilliant, the rags were very good, Spurs threatened for a while
and Arsenal pipped them for third at the end. Chelsea have improved but aren't as good as we were last season and
the PL's performance in Europe has been dismal. As you say Arse have slightly improved but still lack consistency.
We've been shit for a long period and yet deservedly finished second. The whole league needs to get it's shit together
or we will lose the fourth CL place to Italy. Rags have marginally improved but given the fact they've spent £150m and
not played in Europe at all it's been a pretty dismal performance by them.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I don't think the league is worse at all. Overall, I still think the PL is the most competitive top league in Europe, hands down. The reason why there was no English club at semi-final stage of the CL is exactly because, unlike several other leagues, there are no two or three clearly stellar teams, but the quality is spread out far more regularly across those twenty teams. So you get Crystal Palace going to Liverpool and beating them, you get Swansea going to Arsenal and beating them (when there was nothing really at stake for the Swans), and now you get Sunderland going to Arsenal and taking a point. (And I won't dwell on the painful fact that the team that is second in the league couldn't hack it against Burnley home or away, or Hull at home…) Same thing happened, to some extent, last season: think of Sunderland, again. You don't get a team like Cordoba, for instance, getting absolutely whacked by all and sundry. You don't get 8-0 scores. The bottom is still, on their day, capable of beating the top. And that's even more true in the cup.
That's why — and many have said it to me over the years — the world's favourite league on satellite tv is the Premier League.

 

[baildon blue]

I wouldn't say so .
In fact our league gone backwards .
You only after look at the premier leagues struggles in Europe .

 

[sam-caddick]

I'm 23 and this is the worst bottom 10 teams I think I have ever witnessed in the PL and one of the worst top 10 albeit with the odd exceptions in Chelsea, Southampton, Swansea and Stoke, those teams have all performed pretty well this season and won the highest league positions they would most likely win.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

the 2nd half of the season table I've been compiling (as City were in the bottom half at one point) is quite interesting:

1) Arsenal P18 W12 D3 L3 GD: +21 Pts: 39/54.
2) Chelsea P18 W11D5 L2 GD: +12 Pts: 38/54.
3) Liverpool P18 W10 D4 L4 GD: +8 Pts: 34/54.
4) Man City P18 W10 D3 L5 GD: +19 Pts: 33/54.
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5) Man Utd P18 W10 D3 L5 GD: +11 Pts: 33/54.
6) Tottenham P18 W9 D3 L6 GD: +4 Pts: 30/54.
7) Crystal Palace P18 W9 D2 L7 GD: +5 Pts: 29/54.
8) Swansea P18 W8 D4 L6 GD: -3 Pts: 28/54.
9) Southampton P18 W8 D3 L7 GD: +6 Pts: 27/54.
10) WBA P18 W7 D6 L5 GD: 0 Pts: 27/54.
11) Everton P18 W7 D5 L6 GD: +1 Pts: 26/54.
12) Stoke P18 W7 D5 L6 GD: 0 Pts: 26/54.
13) Leicester P18 W7 D4 L7 GD: +1 Pts: 25/54.
14) Sunderland P18 W4 D6 L8 GD: -9 Pts: 18/54.
15) Hull P18 W5 D3 L10 GD: -10 Pts: 18/54.
16) Aston Villa P18 W5 D2 L11 GD: -14 Pts: 17/54.
17) West Ham P18 W3 D7 L8 GD: -8 Pts: 16/54.
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18) Burnley P18 W3 D5 L10 GD: -11 Pts: 14/54.
19) QPR P18 W3 D3 L12 GD: -14 Pts: 12/54.
20) Newcastle P18 W2 D4 L12 GD: -19 Pts: 10/54.

So the top 13 are within 14 points of each other over half a season, with the difference between 3rd and 13th just 8 points. The teams have dropped at least 15 points, with the champions being allowed to drop 16 yet still cruise to the title, we've dropped 21 in this half of the season. Also interesting that if Newcastle go down, then the bottom 3 will be the worst performing teams in the 2nd half of the season.

By contrast, here is last season's 2nd half of the season table:

1) Liverpool P19 W15 D3 L1 GD: +30 Pts: 48/57.
2) Man City P19 W14 D3 L2 GD: +32 Pts: 45/57.
3) Chelsea P19 W13 D3 L3 GD: +28 Pts: 42/57.
4) Arsenal P19 W11 D4 L4 GD: +8 Pts: 37/57.
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5) Everton P19 W11 D2 L6 GD: +9 Pts: 35/57.
6) Tottenham P19 W11 D2 L6 GD: +6 Pts: 35/57.
7) Man Utd P19 W9 D3 L7 GD: +11 Pts: 30/57.
8) Stoke P19 W8 D5 L6 GD: +4 Pts: 29/57.
9) Southampton P19 W8 D5 L6 GD: +2 Pts: 29/57.
10) Crystal Palace P19 W8 D5 L6 GD: +1 Pts: 29/57.
11) West Ham P19 W8 D1 L10 GD: -1 Pts: 25/57.
12) Sunderland P19 W7 D3 L9 GD: -2 Pts: 24/57.
13) Swansea P19 W6 D3 L10 GD: +1 Pts: 21/57.
14) WBA P19 W4 D6 L9 GD: -11 Pts: 18/57.
15) Aston Villa P19 W5 D3 L11 GD: -15 Pts: 18/57.
16) Newcastle P19 W5 D1 L13 GD: -21 Pts: 16/57.
17) Fulham P19 W4 D4 L11 GD: -23 Pts: 16/57.
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18) Hull P19 W4 D2 L13 GD: -14 Pts: 14/57.
19) Norwich P19 W3 D5 L11 GD: -18 Pts: 14/57.
20) Cardiff P19 W3 D3 L13 GD: -27 Pts: 12/57.

So basically either the rest of the PL have become better defensively, or the top teams have declined and become worse offensively, probably a bit of both. If United win their last game, they'd end up with 36 points and would still have been outside the top 4, this year they could end up 3rd in it, without making any real sort of improvement, so I think it shows the other teams have come back to them this season.

 

[jimharri]

I think the standard has been worse this season. Chelsea are nothing like as good as either we or even Liverpool were last year. Considering we are only 8 points behind them, how many silly points have we literally thrown away this year?

Agreed. Not sure where the OP gets the idea that the "rest" (his word) of the Premiership has improved. There's a lot of dross in the so-called best league in the world.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

I wouldn't say so .
In fact our league gone backwards .
You only after look at the premier leagues struggles in Europe .

So you judge a whole league on 4 teams at the top who just are a bit short
of maybe 3 european teams who hoover up CL ?

 

[yankcitizen76]

I am not surprised about of our drop of form. A lot of our players racked up a lot of minutes in the World Cup. I am sure someone has mentioned this?

 

[Deleted member 58678]

Im not sure. Some of the teams in the Premier League are a joke that would get hammered week-in-week-out by Sevilla Valencia Atléti Madrid and Barça from La Liga.

I think any of Bayern Juve Atléti Madrid and Barça would have pissed our league title this season far and above his Chelsea have with a poor 84points had they been in our league instead of Chelsea.