The Premier League remains Europe’s most spectacular league. The most valuable. The strongest. It’s somewhat unpredictable – but within reason.
For a punter not sabotaged by his own passions, allegiances and fanaticism, the Premier League is the best league in Europe. There are a lot of goals, there are surprises to be speculated. The match is not lost before the referee blows his last whistle.
The most recent example is Sheffield-Chelsea, a match in which four goals were scored and in which Sheffield, virtually relegated, fought to the end. Chelsea doesn’t scare anyone anymore – even their supporters have got used to mediocrity. The Londoners have become a mid-table, mid-table team and should be treated as such. It’s a common mistake to bet on teams as if they’re still the same teams they were five, ten, fifteen or twenty years ago. But the punters are often nostalgic and make this mistake. The bookmakers know it and take advantage. Artificial intelligence is cold, it’s calculated, it just looks at the numbers.
The story of the numbers
And what story do the numbers tell? First of all, the title fight. It’s going to be a three-way battle: Arsenal, Liverpool, City. Between them it’s just one point. The details will make the difference. Detail: Arsenal won a not-so-easy game at Brighton to nil. They scored a lot and didn’t concede. Another detail: City have re-learned how to concede four goals in a game. But it also concedes goals surprisingly easily. Detail: Liverpool couldn’t win against Manchester United and looked the most fragile of the title contenders. One more detail: when playing at home to Anfield, Liverpool is transforming. it becomes a Hulk. It can’t be stopped. It crushes its opponents. If it loses the title, Liverpool will lose it away from Anfield.
In the race for the Champions League places, Tottenham are better placed than Aston Villa, who leave the impression they can’t take the fight to the end.
And relegation-bound Everton, Brentford, Nottingham and Lutton are clinging on to avoid the last Championship spot, while Burnley and Sheffield are virtually doomed, which is not to say they won’t keep fighting or that they can’t trouble absolutely anyone, including the title contenders.
But the beauty of a league is its middle class. And so is its strength/power. And in Premier League in the middle of the table we have teams like West Ham, Chelsea, Brighton or Newcastle, who could have won the title in nine out of ten European leagues.
