THE Premier League Of The World

Have you seen the La Liga standings recently? Actually, at any point in the season after October will do. They are a joke. Here’s how it looks as of Sunday night, April 18th:

Teams All With 33 GP

Barcelona      84 Pts   +61 GD

Real Madrid    83 Pts   +58

Valencia is a distant third, with 59 Pts and a +15 GD

Ever wonder who Barca and Madrid score all their goals on? Maybe the 18 other awful teams that make up the world’s most unbalanced league. Not that all the rest of those teams are particularly poor, but Barca and Madrid are so far ahead of them.

It is so obvious. Even without seeing the numbers, one can tell by watching a few matches that they are completely outclassed on the pitch.

Mallorca (55) and Sevilla (54) can challenge Valencia for the final guaranteed Champions League spot and Villareal and Bilbao too, maybe, can fight for the last Europa Cup spot.

It is likely that Valencia will finish third with the rest staying as-is in terms of which European competition they will be playing in next season is concerned.

Except at the top. Madrid might overtake Barcelona finally for longer than a short stretch…however, that’s all they need as only five games remain.

In the England Premier League, similar outcomes often happen as well.

However, as a whole, the league is much tighter and more competitive all-around than Spain or Europe.

The Premier League standings look like this as is on the evening of Friday April 23rd, with most teams having three matches left:

Chelsea   77 Pts   +54 GD

Man Utd   76 PTS  +51

Arsenal   71 Pts   +39

Tottenham   64 Pts  +28

Man City   62 Pts   +27

Aston Villa   61 Pts   +15

Liverpool   59 Pts   +24

Everton   54 Pts   +9

Why have I included eight teams in my Premier League race? Well, this may be the strongest Premier League field of all-time.

Now, you’re thinking that may be unfair for me to use this one season (possibly the BPL’s best ever) and not years' past, but that’s my point: many people actually think that other leagues are better now .

My definition of better or “best” is that it’s competitive and it offers an entertaining, but good game. Spain is entertaining but pales in the other aspect.

There is no doubt there are different styles and each offer their positives and negatives.

England is faster and stronger. Spain is quick and filled with finesse.

Recently, more players have tried the BPL after being in La Liga since one of the world’s best players, Fernando Torres, has shined in England when people questioned if he’d be able to go against the bigger and stronger defenders.

Cristiano Ronaldo is another great example.

Ronaldo had proven himself in England, in the best league. Barcelona had just beaten him in his bid to repeat as a European Champion. Madrid changed their mindset and wanted to buy world class players. Being one of the best, he wanted to try a challenge.

Going from Spain to England is harder than the other way around. However, Ronaldo had succeeded and is not an argument for La Liga being superior. He is an ambitious boy who saw this solely as a new challenge.

Because of how he plays, he be quick, fast, strong and use finesse, which is why he has arguably been the best in both leagues already.

At the top of Spain, there are two great teams. In England, there are usually four. This year there’s three.

However, the space between spots three and nine is ridiculously close. The competition has been so tight all season, and it reached its pinnacle the last two weeks.

The best teams in last year’s La Liga finished as: Barca, Madrid, Sevilla, Atlético, Villareal, and Valencia.

Those are arguably the best six teams in Spain of the last four years. (I am basing it on four years because that’s how often the World Cup comes and I think the easiest way to judge the most recent of eras).

Since and including 2007-2008, in addition to the top four remaining, Everton and Aston Villa have finished either fifth or sixth in the Premier League. In 2006-2007, Tottenham were fifth for the second straight season and Everton were sixth.

One could argue that this is boring and shows the lack of competition, but you see the same thing at the very top of Spain every season.

Additionally, this shows how difficult it is to get into the top four and even the Europa Cup spots in the best league in the world.

I also want to say that the Champions League is sort of a made-up competition. It is a knockout competition. That does not measure the best team the best way.

The World Cup is every four years.

For a month, players are together and crazy things can happen in games. Almost anyone can spring an upset, and winning the entire thing is so hard.

That makes it entertaining, but does it in fact judge the best team? Maybe not, but because there is so much going on so few games with such little time to prepare and adjust, I think it is as important as advertised.

I do not however, think of the Champions League in that way. It is every year. You know what would be sick? A REAL Champions League.

It could even take a full year, not the regular nine months, by adding the good teams as well; not just the great. It would have the perennials: Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barca, Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, Internazionale, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Lyon, Ajax, Rangers, Porto etc.

Want it even better? Add the usual Europa Cup teams: Tottenham, Man City, Aston Villa, Everton, Sevilla, Villareal, Valencia, Roma, Bordeaux, Marseille, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Celtic, Shalke04, Werder Bremen, PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos, Besiktas, Fenerbahce, FC Copenhagen, and Anderlecht. Play each team twice, as in domestic leagues. Do you get my point?

A European Champion cannot be determined through a knockout tournament. Regardless of whether a Spanish team wins it or not, they are not the Champions. At least not to me.

I personally feel that the English Champion is as good, if not better, than the Champions League winner every year. For years in which they meet in the Final, there is no use for my theory.

For example, last year, I think Barca were the best. However, in 2007, just because A.C. Milan beat an English team in the UCL Final doesn’t mean they’re the best.

That year, Liverpool was a whopping 21 points behind winners Man Utd. In 2008, the Final was a BPL match. Clearly Manchester United was best that season, in England and Europe.

Just because a team wins UCL doesn’t mean its league is the best. This season I think Inter will take it, and I know no one would argue that the Serie A is better than the Spanish Primera or the Barclays Premier League.

And again, I am vouching for the league, not the team.

In England, there have been six good teams since 2006. Four great ones. One possibly the best team in the world since then (Manchester United) if Barca do not go on to repeat (which they won’t...I said this in August; until I see it I am not picking a team to repeat in Europe).

Spain have had two great teams. A couple good ones. Italy has been very inconsistent, meaning A.C. Milan.

But if you want to argue that the UCL is the best show of a team’s success, then you cannot include Madrid as great. I would then knock it down to A.C. Milan (purely based on the 2007 win), Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal (I’ll leave one out to be kind to the other lesser leagues while I am showing this domination by English clubs), and Barcelona.

That’s it. One club from two countries, and three from England. And with them, you get to take your pick of the surprising young Gunners of Arsenal or the 2007 runners-up and eventual opponents of other great every year it seems, Chelsea.

Each of the past two years, really every year since Germany 2006, it seems that near the end of the campaign, people are always talking about and asking if that season is the most exciting in the history a certain country—England.

That doesn’t happen anywhere else. Maybe in the MLS but because it’s so bad they have a different Champion every year, which keeps it somewhat exciting.

Out of 16 teams that can make UCL semi-finals in a four-year span since 2006, nine of 16 have been English. And considering that one year they had none in the semis, that is almost unbelievable.

Prior to this season, England had three of four teams in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals every year since the last World Cup.

To go even further, the top two teams (based on United winning and Chelsea being runner up often) were there all three times, and the third was Liverpool twice, and Arsenal once.

Complete and utter domination by two clubs, and then competition between the third and fourth English team during that span to beat the rest of Europe. One could suggest that had they not drew before the semis, the quality of England is unmatched.

Moreover, there’s more quantity as well. England is ahead in both ways. They have more clubs that are all better or equal (definitely not less) than the best of any other European nation.

This season, there is a French club, a German club, an Italian club, and a Spanish club in the semis. It’s good for the game. Everything is good for the game. The English, Spanish, and Italian domination of the last three years has made other nations make moves and work hard to break through that proverbial barrier.

England has already been superior to the other leagues, and the changes atop the standings on the final day will surely make it more intense. If Spain and Italy improve, England will too. And more rapidly.

There are eight good teams in the BPL this year. Those teams make for a better league overall. In Spain, Barcelona and Madrid essentially beat everyone but themselves.

In England, there are usually eight tough games, six very intense and difficult games, and the occasional surprise of course from say, a Burley or a Stoke City.

The likelihood to drop points in Spain is so pathetic it makes a mockery of the remaining 18 teams. I guess it’s cool to fight for the Europa Cup spots, but in England nothing is guaranteed. You almost get a fight every week.

You certainly get a fight at least half the time. You have seven teams fighting for something very important to them. And three to five more fighting for their own (albeit 'sad, about to be relegated') lives as well.

Ask Liverpool what means more: the League or Europe. Ask United. Ask Arsenal. Liverpool and United would take the League before European glory.

In Spain, the La Liga title is an afterthought. Why do you think?

Because the UCL is their chance to show their stuff against the best. To play against the English. Luckily, they have to go through each other.

This season has been very different. I still hold that the UCL winner will be the disputed European Champ. They must play Chelsea or United in my eyes to prove that they are indeed the best.

And even then, I am not testing them against a non-English club, because non-English clubs are virtually untested in comparison and in such a weak league, the top team is not equal to that of the BPL.

Back on to the end of this great season.

This weekend, Man Utd get Tottenham at home. Tottenham come in white-hot beating rivals Arsenal and Chelsea. They may have ended Arsenal’s title hopes by beating them for the first time in 11 years.

They then beat league leaders Chelsea.

Earlier in the day that they beat Chelsea, Man Utd beat Man City in a derby game.

That kept Tottenham within a point of City and the fourth UCL spot and put United to within one point of the Premier League summit.

So United beat their rivals to help Tottenham who just beat their own rivals to stay in good position for top European football next year, then beat the league leaders who the team that just helped them (United) are chasing closely behind, and this week have another tough match, and yeah you guessed it—against Man Utd.

You cannot script this if you tried. The drama is almost too much.

The teams that just helped each other out best, possibly the biggest favours they each received from anyone all year, now have to beat each other (draw won’t do) to be able to continue their quest to reaching their goal, which still with a win, will be difficult to meet in the final 2-3 games.

This is not happening anywhere else, or anything even close to it.

Without making major moves, constant top-six finishers Everton and Aston Villa have maintained their positioning and are fighting for Europa League spots again as well.

And finally, Liverpool is having to fight for their lives to even make any sort of European football next season.

It’s just been sensational. 

When you’re watching the UEFA Champions League Final in 29 days with an Italian club facing a German or French club, and you and your Spanish club are missing the Champions League Final far too much. As if it’s the end of the world all over again.

Understand that three of Chelsea, United, Arsenal, and Liverpool aren't nearly as hurt as you, because their hearts were broken in the home country fighting for the BPL Title.

That is most important to them. What the best football teams in the best league in the world play and care for so much. Know that.