Wednesday, November 14, 2018

La Liga could teach the Premier League about being competitive

Football | The Guardian
La Liga could teach the Premier League about being competitive

Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool are disproving the theory that ‘anyone can beat anyone’ in the Premier League

By Martin Laurence for WhoScored

There are many factors to consider when assessing what makes one league better than another, but over the years the Premier League has been held up as a competition where anyone can beat anyone. That is, of course, true of any league, but it is an increasingly ill-informed assumption when applied to England’s top flight. The notion that the Premier League is more competitive than its competitors is being put to bed this season.

There are currently six unbeaten teams in Europe’s big leagues and half of them are from England, with Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and PSG all matching the unbeaten records of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. This is the first time in the history of English football that three top-flight sides have made it through their first 12 matches of the campaign without losing. To have three unbeaten teams is unprecedented but even having two is highly unusual. This is the 27th season of the Premier League and only once before have two clubs reached this stage of the season without losing – back in 2007-08, when Arsenal and Liverpool still hadn’t lost after 12 games.

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