There was a strange feeling around some Premier League training grounds on Monday, especially for the modern game. It was one of refreshment. The sun was out for a lot of teams, and many players haven’t had a game for two and a half weeks. It represents the longest break the Premier League has had since the summer.
Such a gap would normally bring the same sense of refreshment to the actual games, but then this is also a strange time for the Premier League as a whole. Normally so used to being the biggest show around, “the world’s best league” last weekend witnessed the FA Cup bringing some actual storylines back to a relatively drab season.
That was something else that fed into the feeling at some training grounds this week. There is a sense of a season winding down, rather than building to a crescendo.
The title race is all but over, and Liverpool’s recent drop-off has raised a slightly unfair debate over their standard as “champions” and whether this has been a good season in terms of quality. Such races are just the way it falls sometimes, and Arne Slot has obviously done a fine job with a strong team. There are still issues for the competition related to what it is in 2025, and its very political economy.
As impressively defiant as Liverpool have been in ending Manchester City’s long run, it remains a problem that so few clubs can actually win the Premier League, and the wealthiest can just streak away in the campaigns when they get it right. The phoney conflict of the relegation battle has meanwhile brought more questions about the financial gap lower down the pyramid, all at the same time as there is ongoing ...
