Although Manchester City has already won the championship ahead of schedule, the competition between Arsenal and Manchester City this season makes people feel that the competition in the Premier League is still fierce.
If Arsenal win the championship, there will be three different championship teams in the Premier League in the past four seasons, which is a proof of the healthy development of the league. Manchester City won the championship again, and Blue Moon won five championships in six seasons. Suddenly, the Premier League looks more and more like Bundesliga or Ligue 1.
Finally, with the end of the season, Manchester City easily won five league titles in six seasons, and the idea that the Premier League is a competitive top league feels ridiculous. If klopp’s Liverpool hadn’t driven Manchester City from the Premier League title in 2020 with superhuman efforts, Guardiola’s team might have won the Premier League title for six consecutive times.
Then we saw the situation similar to that of France and Germany. Paris Saint-Germain will win the Ligue 1 championship for the ninth time in 11 seasons, while Bayern Munich is expected to win 11 consecutive championships, although they are only one point ahead of Dortmund at present. There is also Italy between 2012 and 2020, and Juventus won the Serie A championship for nine consecutive years.
However, there is an important difference between Manchester City’s dominance in the Premier League and other leagues, that is Guardiola.
Yes, Manchester City is dominant, but this is largely because Blue Moon has one of the greatest coaches of all time and built the whole club structure with Guardiola as the center. For other teams, there is at least one hope that once Guardiola leaves, Manchester City will struggle for at least a period of time before it can re-establish this level of advantage.
But this is not the case with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, who often change their head coaches. Even if these coaches are not suitable candidates or are considered to be failures, the team can always win in the domestic league. Similarly, Juventus, Sari won the Serie A championship in his only season in charge of Juventus, although people have been uncertain whether he is suitable for this role. A few weeks later, Surrey was dismissed as a matter of course. Similarly, kovac, Garti and Blanco have all won championships in Bayern or Paris in the past seven years.
These clubs have great advantages over other rivals, both economically and historically, or both. They can easily win the league championship without anything special. But Manchester City has not done this, partly because other Premier League clubs also have huge wealth, and Manchester City has no absolute advantage. Relatively speaking, the spending power of Paris Saint-Germain can dwarf that of any other French team. And Bayern, who have often signed the best players from their only real rival Dortmund for several years.
Let’s put it this way: If Manchester City’s coaches rotate among Ancelotti, kovac and Frick, just like Bayern from 2016 to 2021, it’s hard to imagine that they can absolutely rule the Premier League.
However, English football would like to know whether this season will become a turning point and affect the outside world’s view of Manchester City.
So far, Manchester City’s dominance has been encouraged and even welcomed by many fans. Manchester City is not hated like most strong teams. On the contrary, because they beat Liverpool, Manchester United and recently Arsenal, they were praised by fans of other clubs.
Many fans feel the same way about Manchester City as ordinary people, and always instinctively base themselves on certain people. No matter in our personal life or professional career, when these people achieve great achievements, they will always arouse certain emotions. Manchester City is like those talented, rich or successful people. They have achieved success, but they will not be rejected by others.
This may depend on the age of the fans. Fans in their thirties have hated Manchester United and Chelsea since childhood, mainly because of their success, while older fans will hate Liverpool for similar reasons. The crowd of fans will make it difficult for them to support these clubs and prefer Manchester City. Many fans are still numb to Manchester City. Besides, no matter how old a person is, Tottenham Hotspur fans prefer to see Manchester City win the league title rather than Arsenal because of the long-term local competition.
For young fans, many of them have learned about the dominance of Manchester City in different degrees in the past 10 years, and they tend to have more hostility.
We should admit that the fans of many clubs think very little. They don’t care whether Manchester City or other teams won the league title. Manchester City also played well under Guardiola, and many neutral fans felt that their success was more satisfactory, for example, more satisfactory than Mourinho’s Chelsea. Mourinho’s Chelsea has also become a champion after receiving huge financial support, but whether it is fair or not, the football style of Mourinho’s Blue Army is always considered not very good-looking.
Therefore, Manchester City participated in the fierce championship battle and prevented the spread of boring anger. This once again contrasts with the situation in Germany and France. Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain often win league titles easily, which makes local fans unhappy.
But there will always be a tipping point. Manchester City once again won the league title easily, this time against Arsenal, which is not a small club. This is the best season for the Gunners in the past 20 years.
There are other factors to consider. Manchester City is still defending itself. They are accused of violating more than 100 financial fair competition rules in the Premier League. Will this make fans of other teams feel less numb to Manchester City?
Then there is the related issue of state sponsorship ownership. In 2021, the Saudi Arabian government led the acquisition of Newcastle United, and Manchester United is also discussing the acquisition with Al Thani, a member of Qatar royal family, which may follow the same path as Manchester City, making this issue the focus of attention.
When Manchester City was acquired by Abu Dhabi Group in 2008, the world at that time was very different from now. The popularity of social media is much lower, and people’s awareness of sports scandals and other issues is much weaker. However, Newcastle and Manchester United have begun to worry some fans that it is impossible to succeed in the Premier League without the support of national wealth.
Manchester City’s continued success under Abu Dhabi will only deepen this idea. If Newcastle also starts to win the championship, fans may be more hostile to this ownership model.
Under the current circumstances, if we consider the competition in the Premier League standings, we will feel even more desperate. Liverpool scored 97 points and 92 points in 2018-19 and 2021-22 respectively, but they didn’t win the championship in either season, which is a bit strange. Their points are the fourth and seventh in the history of the Premier League, but they are not enough to beat Manchester City.
The total points needed to win the Premier League title have been completely changed by Manchester City, and almost all other teams feel that this point is impossible to achieve. Manchester City may score 94 points (2.5 points per game) this season. If they do, then in the past six seasons, Manchester City will occupy four seats in the top seven in the Premier League standings. During this period, only Liverpool has narrowed the gap within 10 points, and there may be Arsenal this season. In these six seasons, Manchester City also won four Carling Cups and one FA Cup (which may soon become two), greatly blocking the possibility of other clubs winning trophies.
If we return to Guardiola again, he will coach Manchester City during this time. Before his arrival, Manchester City occasionally won the Premier League title, in 2012 and 2014 respectively, until Guardiola led the team to win the first Premier League title in 2018. There is reason to believe that once Guardiola leaves, Manchester City may return to the previous level, not the current level. Look at Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson left. Despite the huge investment, since the last season of Ferguson’s coaching in 2013, Manchester United is still far from winning the Premier League title again.
Football is cyclical, as Manchester United and Liverpool can prove. After the end of the ruling era, the club will encounter a barren period. Manchester City’s wealth and wise management will prevent them from falling so deeply, but when Guardiola finally leaves, they may still encounter difficulties.
Prior to this, only some selected and wealthy clubs can reach the perfect competitive level in some way, and it is possible to beat this Manchester City.
How important is Manchester City’s dominance? Look at how people feel when they lift the Premier League trophy. Still don’t mind? This in itself is a sign that Manchester City has achieved incredible success. Or will the fans start to feel annoyed? Because apart from this club, the league title seems to be getting out of reach.