This season will be a "strange" but interesting season for the top 4/title watchers. Compared to last season when there was an outstanding team running away with the title almost from week 1 we now have a bunching of the leaders - now that City have been caught by the group of chasers from the peloton. City have been brought back but may well attempt another break out. But the reality is that the levelling is not from the others catching with Chelsea but Chelsea collapsing and City falling down to a lower level. I think that there is definitely something in the top clubs not able to pinch the best players from the other clubs. Now that the clubs in the premeirship are almost as rich as some of the CL clubs outside England, Spain and germany, they can afford to keep their best players and will not be influenced by sums like £20-30m like they used to. Now the top English clubs need to spend really crazy money to get an outstanding player. United spent £56m for a youngster. We spent £32.5m on Benteke. Middle and lower clubs are refusing to jeopardise their premiership place. I have a feeling that the Mancs will surprise everyone this season. They are not outstanding and their play is very often quite boring. But they will win many matches at home and a few away. If they are allowed to score early, then it is very difficult to equalise unless they make mistakes as they keep 65%-70% possesssion. The next three matches will tell us a lot about whether they may win the title or do well in the CL. If they win them I can see them grinding their way to the title
Depends on who it was who dropped out and if FFP is stuck to, 2 years in a row out without the CL money for say Arsenal, and they would find it very hard to overtake the other 3 again. Either way I think it would actually make the league a bit more interesting. Also would be interesting to see how seriously the 4th placed team took the Europa.
Arsenal and man Utd would be best placed to survive a lack of CL football because they both have money in the bank. Man City and Chelsea would find it harder buying bankrolled by sugar daddies!
Just looking at the Italian teams this year, juventus won 2 in cl, Roma drawn 1 lost 1 in cl. Those are the only 2 teams in cl. In euorpa, Napoli won 1 out of 1, lazio drawn 1 out of 1 and fiorentina lost 1 out of 1. Only 5 teams in Europe compared to our 6 so we should easily out score them especially with double the amount of teams in the cl which scores you more coefficient points.
The end score gets divided by the number of teams competing so having more or less teams doesn't matter
You sure. Was under the impression they just added it all together and that's the score hence end up with a coefficient of over 100?
They divide it up each year to give each country their average but add the last five years together, hence it being over 100
Coefficient calculation The coefficient is calculated by working out an average score: dividing the number of points obtained, by the total number of clubs representing an association in that season’s two club competitions. The resulting figure is then tallied with the results of the previous four seasons to calculate the coefficient. Where two associations have the same coefficient, the association with the higher coefficient in the most recent season is placed first. http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/
would deffo make things interesting if they scrapped the 'fourth place trophy' tournament that happens every year, clubs might actually aim to win the league !! (us included )
Spot on Problem for the Prem is its competitiveness. Lower clubs are competing for better players meaning games tend to be tighter, there is also more chance of an upset (and this is not just confined to the Prem, English football has a history of giant killings and underdogs). The other 3 big European leagues are a one or two horse race.
To be fair, PL is no different IMO - City and Chelsea are the two strongest teams in the league and most likely to win it. The reason the lower clubs are becoming more competitive is partially down to attracting better players but the clubs at the top of the table are getting weaker.
