This term, Sven Goran Eriksson has already received his P45 at Leicester after an expensive overhaul of the squad in the summer which saw the club spend upwards of £20m in the last year or so and have seen little change back from that hefty outlay. With mixed results on the pitch, entirely understandable it has to be said considering the number of fresh faces, Leicester currently sit in 8th just two points outside the playoffs.
The Premier League can be neatly split up into three sections – we have the top two of Manchester United and Manchester City. Then you have those chasing the other European spots and league positions between 3rd and 8th which includes Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and at a push both Everton and Stoke and then from 8th downwards you have everyone else.
Last season, just 16 points separated 8th from bottom – the season before it was 42 points. The final league table was extremely congested which suggests a decrease in quality – a levelling of the playing field as it were; a situation that all promoted sides will be familiar with from the Championship. From Fulham in 8th to Wigan down in 16th, there was a separation of just seven points.
To put it quite simply, the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is shortening because the gap in quality within the top flight itself is widening. If you swapped West Ham, Southampton and Middlesbrough for the current bottom three, would anyone really notice the difference?
On one hand, the increasingly competitive nature of promoted sides is a positive thing, with Stoke providing the model by which others should look to follow in the future. But on the other hand, the lack of competition in the higher reaches of the Premier League is concerning.
Alongside Stoke’s unexpected European soirée, that is what makes Newcastle’s surprisingly excellent start to the season so exciting with the Magpies currently sat pretty in 3rd, making a mockery of those that considered them one of the favourites for the drop and consigned them to relegation before the season had even begun.
The strength of showing that the recent promoted outfits have provided only helps serve to highlight the relative lack of depth to the top flight. Thus far, the likes of Swansea, QPR and Norwich have been rewarded for failing to compromise their footballing principles. The days of having to adjust a team’s style of play to deal with the step up in class are over.
Promoted clubs are still often among the favourites for the drop before a season begins, and this doesn’t look like changing any time soon, but by taking a closer look at the evidence, more and more sides are acclimatising to the step up with ease. As a result, this season’s relegation candidates look likely to come from a small group of established Premier League sides as the gap continues to close.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
Written by James Mcmanus for FootballFanCast.com
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