No Gray Areas - The best and worst so far
Betfair Football's Andy Gray tells us what he liked and didn't like about the first half of the season...
With half the season gone it's time to reflect on the good and the bad of what we've seen so far in the Premier League this season.
First up, we've got a title race that any one of five clubs can win. And yes, I'll include Tottenham in that along with Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and current table-toppers Manchester United. Spurs are easy to dismiss on the grounds that they've never really come close and that most of the players simply don't have the experience of handling the pressure of a close title race but we'll never know until we see them in that sort of situation. While they're within touching distance of the table toppers they're in with a chance. The exact same thing goes for Manchester City. Who do of course have the advantage of having a squad filled with players who have won trophies before.
Having a handful of teams in contention can only be good for the Premier League and exciting for those who watch it week in week out and for those like me who make a living out of talking about it. The contemporary view throughout most of Europe is that La Liga is currently the best league in the world but I'd disagree with that. If you like watching two fantastic teams playing wonderful football every week then by all means tune into Real Madrid and Barcelona matches when they're on but beyond those (and at a push Villarreal and Valencia), the same quality and entertainment as we see in the Premier League just isn't there. And they certainly don't have five teams competing for the top prize.
Then we have the likes of Sunderland, Bolton and Stoke. Ok, the Black Cats splashed out a hefty sum to bring Asamoah Gyan to the north east but with the exception of him we have three relatively inexpensively-assembled squads sitting in Europa League places and competing with the very best. If you'd said at the start of the season you fancied any of those three to be relegated not many would have disagreed and said they thought it was impossible yet here the three of them are. It goes to show how a decent squad, hard work, a good manager in charge and self-belief are all the necessary ingredients you need to do well in this league.
In terms of negatives, I sincerely hope that this year we don't see any repeat of the Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez sagas. Here we have the stars of two of the biggest teams in the country (or the world for that matter) earning small fortunes every week at hugely successful teams and complaining that they're not happy, want moves, think life is better elsewhere. I said what I had to say at the time of the Rooney affair which is that if you think you can find a better club than Manchester United at which to play your football then good luck in trying to find it. As it happens they both ended up staying but it's not good for their clubs, their fans or for the image of the game in general to have players acting in an ungrateful way when they're lucky enough to have the job that virtually every man on the street dreams of doing.
Published: 2 Jan 2011
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