Has the English Premier League Lost Competitiveness?

England boasts having one of the greatest top-flight domestic leagues in world football. The Premier League is said to be one of the most competitive and eagerly fought leagues in football. But has the Premier League lost its competitiveness and edge?

The Premier League campaign is two weeks old and already there have been new records set.

The opening 20 Premier League games have yielded an all-time record high for number of goals scored. After two games each per Premier League club, there have already been 64 goals scored.

Of the 64 goals scored, the ratio of goals is 54:10. That breaks down in simple terms as 54 goals have been scored by teams who have either won or drawn their match to 10 goals scored by teams who have gone on to lose or draw the game.

When you remove the score of draws, the statistics get even worse. The number of goals scored by winning teams changes to 48, while the goals scored by teams who would lose the game drops to a shocking four.

That is a differential of 44 goals after the opening two rounds of Premier League games.

As enjoyable as it is to for the avid football fans as well as the casual fans to see a vast array of goals being scored, it is worrying to see such a vast decline in competition.

Last year, Chelsea became the first team to eclipse 100 goals for in a single Premier League season. This season they have already scored 12 goals in just two games.

Chelsea have already scored just under one-eighth of the number of goals they scored all last season after just two games.

Arsenal put six past Blackpool in the second game of this season. Last year, Arsenal started their Premier League campaign off by scoring six goals against Everton.

Already during this campaign there are five teams who have conceded six or more goals. Aston Villa, Blackpool, West Brom, and Wigan have all conceded six goals in a single game.

Wigan are already in double figures for goals against, having conceded 10 goals in their opening two games. Four came against Blackpool in the season opener, and most recently six against Chelsea.

So far this season, there have been four 6-0 results, one 4-0 win, and three 3-0 victories.

Last season, there were also plenty of wide margin victories. Chelsea won five or their games 7-1, 5-0, 7-0, 7-1, and 8-0, and that is just looking at their home victories. They also won 4-0 and 5-0 away from home.

There were other teams who produced extravagant victories such as Tottenham, who beat Wigan 9-1 at White Hart Lane.

Arsenal beat Blackburn (6-2), Fulham (4-0), Portsmouth (4-1) and Wigan (4-0) heavily at The Emirates Stadium, while Manchester United beat Hull (4-0), Portsmouth (5-0), Stoke (4-0), and Wigan (4-0) comfortably at Old Trafford.

Competitiveness seems to have disappeared in the Premier League. The void between the top teams and lower teams seems to be growing immensely, while there is a pool of teams sinking to the bottom who do not seems good enough to be representing the Premier League.

West Brom have been either promoted to or relegated from the Premier League in seven of the last nine seasons. They are stuck in a rut as they are too good for the Championship but not good enough to compete in the Premier League.

Despite Wigan surviving five years in the Premier League, results from last year would suggest that they are not competitive enough to remain in the top flight of English football.

Wigan endured horrendous results, including losing 5-0 home and away to Manchester United, losing 8-0 to Chelsea, and 9-1 to Spurs.

Many argue that Spain’s La Liga is a better footballing league, while the Premier League still claims to be the best league for competition. But if this trend continues in the Premier League, that argument will no longer be valid.

Are the top teams becoming so strong going forward, or are the lower teams just becoming weaker at the back? Many predicted this season to be one of the tightest ever due to the lack of spending from the major teams—with the exception of Manchester City—but the complete opposite seems the case.