Premier League A One-Club Division?
Manchester City are now the champions of England for an impressive fifth time in six Premier League seasons. However, despite their last three titles coming consecutively, completing a three-peat is not something that is unheard of in the English top flight, with Manchester United having also won a hat-trick of league titles between 1999 and 2001, and 2007 and 2009. City's dominance has since led to growing suggestions that the Premier League has become a one-club division or a "farmers league", as some call it. Is there any truth to this? Has the EPL become more predictable and less competitive? Soccer Laduma's Lukhanyo Mtuta investigates.
Sensational City Do It Again
Manchester City were confirmed as the 2022/23 Premier League champions before taking to the field against Chelsea last Sunday, after title challengers Arsenal were handed a surprise 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest on Saturday, which ended their sensational fight to win the competition for the first time since 2004. By the time they locked horns with Chelsea on Sunday afternoon at the Etihad Stadium, Pep Guardiola's men were eagerly waiting to get their celebrations underway, with several of their players already spotted with blue hair dye, including defender Aymeric Laporte and goalkeeper Ederson. With the title sealed, the win over Frank Lampard's men was very much academic and it marked a 12th consecutive league victory for the champions and the fifth occasion they had done so under the Spanish boss. Finishing the season strongly has become synonymous with the Manchester outfit, as Arsenal were five points ahead of them with a game in hand in January before eventually capitulating. Although the Citizens' winning streak is impressive, it comes as little surprise to many after they pulled off a similar feat in the 2018/19 season as well. Liverpool collected a grand tally of 97 points that season – a record only bettered by three teams – but still finished second on the overall standings as City went on a sensational streak to leapfrog the Reds with 98 points. Perhaps Arsenal's title collapse was not something unimaginable despite sitting at the top of the table for a lengthy 248 days before relinquishing their spot at the summit earlier this month. What is also remarkable about the Gunners' downfall is that they now hold an unwanted record of spending the longest period at the top of the Premier League log without winning the competition in the end, according to statistics website Opta Sports. Although a combination of inexperience and failure to deal with pressure is attributed to Arsenal's devastating collapse, City's relentlessness bodes well in the minds of avid Premier League supporters as they are now being hailed as arguably the greatest team in the history of the competition by many.
The Guardiola Effect
Much of the club's success is credited to their boss, who has managed to win 12 trophies since arriving in 2016. Prior to his reign at the Etihad, the Spaniard had a reputation for not staying at one club for more than four seasons after doing so at FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He has now lasted seven seasons in England and his best campaign could be this latest one given that his side are still in contention for a treble, with an FA Cup and a UEFA Champions League final on the horizon against Manchester United and Inter Milan, respectively. In theory, the 52-year-old is only the second-greatest manager in the Premier League after Sir Alex Ferguson, who won a record 13 league titles compared to Guardiola's five. It seems too much of a contentious debate to compare the two bosses as they are vastly different despite similar success. While the retired Scotsman oversaw the road to United becoming the most accomplished team in England to date, the way in which the City coach has maintained his place at the top has made some comparisons valid, as his record extends to 11 league titles in 14 seasons as a manager at Barca, Bayern, and City. Man City have been playing an attractive brand of football since Guardiola took over the club and records have continued to tumble, with his side's 100-point tally in the 2017/18 campaign being the most in the competition's history. Ferguson, meanwhile, never achieved more than 92 points in a campaign, which came in the 1993/94 season. A Guardiola team also holds the record for the most goals scored in a season with 106 in 2017/18. It is clear the charismatic manager isn't just about winning but winning convincingly and in sometimes unprecedented ways.
Can They Be Challenged?
The one criticism City have so far failed to avoid is their lack of success in Europe. Their UCL final against Inter Milan on 10 June in Istanbul, Turkey, will decide whether this is arguably their greatest team of all time. The tactician admitted himself that it would take winning the Champions League to be remotely close to being hailed as the greatest side ever. "I have the feeling we've done something exceptional, but to be considered one of the greatest (teams), we have to win the Champions League, otherwise it's not complete. But also, it's unfair to say if you don't win it, the Premier League doesn't make sense. Of course it makes sense, of course it's important. It's every day, every week. This club won five of the last six but six of the last 10 and seven of the last 12. It's amazing." With the definition of failure and success seemingly different for his team, no one from the club has confidently stated they will be the best of all time if they win the Champions League, with defender Kyle Walker also reluctant to say so with any conviction. Speaking during the title celebrations on Sunday, the England right back said, "We always believed we could do this. This group of lads are professionals and winners. Rest assured, we are not finished. We have the FA Cup against our bitter rivals and then the Champions League. The treble would be fantastic, but there is a lot of football to be played. To say we are up there with one of the greatest Premier League teams of all time, we have to conquer some of that. To go and achieve that, we could then start talking about being one of the greatest teams in the Premier League."
Is The Premier League No Longer Competitive?
By their own admission, Manchester City are not the greatest team in Premier League history, but what appears to be true is that their dominance is unprecedented in the way of wins, points, and goals records. It would be difficult to argue that the Premier League has become a one-league team as City are yet to win a title with more than a 10-point gap. This has generally been the case for European divisions that are often labelled as "farmers leagues", like the German top flight, which seen Bayern Munich claim 10 consecutive Bundesliga trophies, a far cry from City's three in a row that has admittedly been done before by Manchester United between 1999 and 2001 as well as between 2007 and 2009.
