Bar 18/19 the Title hasn’t been close in a while

[432JuanMata]

20/21 City lead by 13
19/20 Liverpool by 18
17/18 City by 19
16/17 Chelsea by 7(but never in doubt)
15/16 Leicester by a whopping 10
14/15 Chelsea by 8

Yes unlike other leagues it’s different team winning it but most are easily won bar the 18/19 season when it was 98-97 and even then the gap to 3rd was huge

 

[Raw]

Last few seasons have seen the bar raised ridiculously high by City and Liverpool. For the other seasons the competition hasn't been nearly as good.

 

[Massive Spanner]

We pretty much walked the league in 12/13 too didn't we?

 

[MrMarcello]

15-16 was close in the last few weeks, if memory serves. Recall some thinking Leicester might throw it away with away matches to Chelsea & United and tricky home ties against Everton & Swans. But some felt Spurs would likely, well, do a Spurs thing and collapse with home matches against Brom & So'ton and away matches to Chelsea & Newcastle.

http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/eng2016.html
Leicester had 73 to Spurs 68 with 4 to play, after the former had drawn (90+5 goal, down a man) and the latter had won that weekend.

Then Leicester won, Spurs drew the next day, 76-69 with 3 to play and a nice buffer for Leicester.
Then Leicester drew, Spurs drew the next day, 77-70 which gave the title to Leicester.
Spurs dropped the last two matches while Arsenal leapfrogged them for second.

The Spurs draw at Chelsea gave the title to Leicester but it looked like the title would go to matchday 37 (Leicester would have sealed it after their actual win) or to the final day if results went Spurs way.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Yeah, the PL has really lost its spark. There's a no race to the summit, Just which team sort ourselves out soonest whether it be Conte's Chelsea' Klopp's Liverpool,or Peps City.

Would love for the league to go back to two really challengers every year. Us and Arsenal which was the pinnacle of the league. Us and Chelsea which was also excellent. And us for City was decent for a short bit.

As good a league as it is, the magic is clearly lost when the most exciting thing is the wank Top 4 race and relegation scrap.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

20/21 City lead by 13
19/20 Liverpool by 18
17/18 City by 19
16/17 Chelsea by 7(but never in doubt)
15/16 Leicester by a whopping 10
14/15 Chelsea by 8

Yes unlike other leagues it’s different team winning it but most are easily won bar the 18/19 season when it was 98-97 and even then the gap to 3rd was huge

Sad state of affairs. And you can even go back to 12/13 where SAF coasted through it in his final year. City were nowhere in sight.

 

[Lay]

Yeah the EPL doesn’t do title races anymore. The last day this season will be another bore

 

[adexkola]

20/21 City lead by 13
19/20 Liverpool by 18
17/18 City by 19
16/17 Chelsea by 7(but never in doubt)
15/16 Leicester by a whopping 10
14/15 Chelsea by 8

Yes unlike other leagues it’s different team winning it but most are easily won bar the 18/19 season when it was 98-97 and even then the gap to 3rd was huge

And people call the 18-19 title race boring

 

[HerbT]

20/21 City lead by 13
19/20 Liverpool by 18
17/18 City by 19
16/17 Chelsea by 7(but never in doubt)
15/16 Leicester by a whopping 10
14/15 Chelsea by 8

Yes unlike other leagues it’s different team winning it but most are easily won bar the 18/19 season when it was 98-97 and even then the gap to 3rd was huge

What happened to 18/19?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

What happened to 18/19?

It was close?

 

[HerbT]

It was close?

Cheers mate, can’t argue with that :-)

 

[giorno]

I mean, tight title races aren't really that common in general, isn't it? The 16/17 Chelsea/Spurs or 15/16 Leicester/Spurs are the most common type of title races in general...

Since 99/2000 in the PL there have been 7 title races decided within the last 2 games iirc? Most of the time there's a clear favourite who takes over at some point and from there it becomes clear they'll win it...

 

[Manchester Dan]

I think what you’re describing is just the norm. Here’s the list, if we take no context at all, in 29 seasons it’s only been ‘close’ around 11 times. (Less than 6 points / 2 games) gap. I would have added the winners but I wanted it to be quick!

Makes me realise how different it could have been at City too. Out of our 5 PL titles, 3 of them were won with a combined 3 point lead! The other 2 obviously less close.

92/93 - 10 points
93/94 - 8 points
94/95 - 1 point
95/96 - 4 points
96/97 - 7 points
97/98 - 1 point
98/99 - 1 point
99/00 - 18 points
00/01 - 10 points
01/02 - 7 points
02/03 - 5 points
03/04 - 11 points
04/05 - 12 points
05/06 - 8 points
06/07 - 6 points
07/08 - 2 points
08/09 - 4 points
09/10 - 1 point
10/11 - 9 points
11/12 - 0 points
12/13 - 11 points
13/14 - 2 points
14/15 - 8 points
15/16 - 10 points
16/17 - 7 points
17/18 - 19 points
18/19 - 1 point
19/20 - 18 points
20/21 - TBC (currently 13)

 

[WeePat]

I think what you’re describing is just the norm. Here’s the list, if we take no context at all, in 29 seasons it’s only been ‘close’ around 11 times. (Less than 6 points / 2 games) gap. I would have added the winners but I wanted it to be quick!

Makes me realise how different it could have been at City too. Out of our 5 PL titles, 3 of them were won with a combined 3 point lead! The other 2 obviously less close.

92/93 - 10 points
93/94 - 8 points
94/95 - 1 point
95/96 - 4 points
96/97 - 7 points
97/98 - 1 point
98/99 - 1 point
99/00 - 18 points
00/01 - 10 points
01/02 - 7 points
02/03 - 5 points
03/04 - 11 points
04/05 - 12 points
05/06 - 8 points
06/07 - 6 points
07/08 - 2 points
08/09 - 4 points
09/10 - 1 point
10/11 - 9 points
11/12 - 0 points
12/13 - 11 points
13/14 - 2 points
14/15 - 8 points
15/16 - 10 points
16/17 - 7 points
17/18 - 19 points
18/19 - 1 point
19/20 - 18 points
20/21 - TBC (currently 13)

So 17 seasons by 6 points or more and 12 seasons by 6 points or less. That's not bad, but the heavy load is being carried by the first two decades.

Seasons 1 to 10;

4 close/6 not close.

Seasons 10 to 20;

5 close/5 not close

Seasons 20 to 29;

2 close/7 not close.

 

[Judas]

The 18/19 title race wasn't enjoyable for neutrals though was it? It was two robotic teams going at it knowing whoever dropped point lost it. No ups or downs, twists or turns. Boring.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I mean, tight title races aren't really that common in general, isn't it? The 16/17 Chelsea/Spurs or 15/16 Leicester/Spurs are the most common type of title races in general...

Since 99/2000 in the PL there have been 7 title races decided within the last 2 games iirc? Most of the time there's a clear favourite who takes over at some point and from there it becomes clear they'll win it...

Spain seems to have a lot of games that go down to the last 5-7 points though?

When we had Chelsea and Arsenal as rivals. Or even City later on I remember it usually being close. Not like it's become now where after January there's nothing to look forward to.

 

[Giggsy13]

The league’s peak in terms of exciting races was 05/06 to 11/12. We were obviously setting the standard, but there always seemed to be 4 to 5 top level teams.

 

[SirReginald]

The league’s peak in terms of exciting races was 05/06 to 11/12. We were obviously setting the standard, but there always seemed to be 4 to 5 top level teams.

Not exactly. No one (except you guys) remembers 10-11. It was dreadful. Don’t think there was a truly great team that year. Even goals for and against were bad.

 

[giorno]

Spain seems to have a lot of games that go down to the last 5-7 points though?

Yeah, spain is an exception

 

[FootballHQ]

Yeah, spain is an exception

Always feels to me the relegation battle is of higher standard aswell in La Liga, still need 38 points or above to be sure of staying up many seasons. Even this season the bottom team Eibar has 30 points, Fulham 3 points off that currently.

 

[Ayoba]

It's always been like this bar a handful of seasons where it goes to the wire. It's why sky effectively created the "battle for top 4" as they knew that towards the end the league games are just dead rubbers

 

[Judas]

The PL's benefitted from the fact at least a variety of teams have won it over the last decade, even if they weren't often close battles. They should be worried if City really do start to dominate year after year, very hard to dress up something as uninteresting as that.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

It's always been like this bar a handful of seasons where it goes to the wire. It's why sky effectively created the "battle for top 4" as they knew that towards the end the league games are just dead rubbers

I really don't think so. I remember our races with Arsenal, City and Chelsea during the 99-2012 era being much tighter (,Chelsea wins and our win in 2012) being the exception? Even when we won three on bounce recall Chelsea being there or thereabouts, not 18/15/12 points behind.

 

[Steve Bruce]

Last few seasons have seen the bar raised ridiculously high by City and Liverpool. For the other seasons the competition hasn't been nearly as good.

I really don't believe that. I don't think they are better than several United sides, arsenal sides that won or the Chelsea side first time round with Jose.

I think both teams capitalised on the fact United, chelsea, arsenal etc where in transition or meltdown.

Leicester has won the league in that time. I think that tells us all about the standards of the league.

I actually think football across Europe has dropped & we're going through a low spell of top talent.

City & Liverpool would have been challenging any season but I don't think they'd have accumulated as many points in the 00s