Does anybody want to win the league?

 

If we’re talking the league title, then on the basis of last weekend nobody seems to want to win it. It saw Chelsea lose to a Birmingham side starting the game in the bottom three, Arsenal managed to throw away a 2-0 lead against their biggest rivals and lose, and United labour against 9-man Wigan. It shows how odd this year has been that these results were surprising yet predictable. Chelsea’s loss was their third in four games. Arsenal shot themselves in the foot. And United have now seemed to master playing terribly game after game but doing just enough to get the result. Basically unpredictability has become the norm.
The reason is that from top to bottom the gap has narrowed. This is mainly because of financial reasons, the Premier League’s big guns have declined while the second tier of teams have massively improved. Spurs have arguably the biggest squad around now, while City are powered more and more by their rich owners. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Spurs and City aren’t going to win the title, never mind Bolton. There is no outstanding team no obvious potential champions who have shown themselves to have the quality and desire to win this league.
But I for one am liking this. I think we, as fans should want this sort of league one that’s competitive where there is always potential for upset, and you cannot say for certain who will win the title. The Premier League is unpredictable, unlike La Liga, where only Barcelona and Real Madrid are the possible champions elect.
So let’s not begrudge the lack of an outstanding team to emerge this season. There’s plenty of time for that to change anyway, it’s not even Christmas yet. But even if doesn’t, as long as we continue to have good entertainment then I’m happy with an unpredictable league, even if it does mess with my football bets.