City stalwart Nigel De Jong claimed last weekend that the money spent by Manchester City has helped improve the level at the top of English football. With 36 goals in their first ten league games this season, Manchester City have been in imperious form as they look to end their 44 year wait for a league title.
The transformation of the club has been remarkable and over 500 million has been spent assembling a multinational squad in the last 5 years. Indeed, the resources City possess are without equal, and as such it must be asked whether or not their current spending and subsequent early season domination has actually helped improve standards in the Premier League.
De Jong stated, ‘You just have to look at Liverpool and Arsenal. They have lost what I call their subscriptions to a place in the top four. They now have severe competition from other clubs.’ Indeed, De Jong has a point, in 5 out of 6 seasons between 2004 and 2009 the top 4 was made up of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.
Yet in the last two seasons first Tottenham Hotspur and then Manchester City managed to break the monopoly on the Champions League qualification places and a look at the table today, albeit early in the season, suggests that the battle for the top 4 will be exceptionally closely fought.
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Manchester City and Manchester United look nailed on for a top 4 finish but below that recent results suggest unbeaten Newcastle and a resurgent Spurs will be challenging the usual suspects; Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool for the remaining two spots.
City’s elaborate development project provoked other clubs to sit up and take note, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool amongst the clubs to splash the cash this summer. Chelsea splashed out on Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku, United opened their chequebook to sign Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David De Gea while Liverpool spent big to land Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing.
Arsenal lost club captain Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to City, a transfer in particular that really highlighted the changing power in English football. They did not rest on their laurels however, with the signings of Andre Santos, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain amongst Arsene Wenger’s attempts to strengthen the gunners’ squad.
Meanwhile at Spurs, summer signing Scott Parker and loanee Emmanuel Adebayor look to have been a masterstroke by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp.
Looking at the clubs mentioned, the talent not just in the starting 11 but throughout the squads does lend credence to the argument that the league is at a higher level than ever before. Currently Manchester United are unable to find a place in the team for Dimitar Berbatov, Chelsea have 6 strikers on their books and Spurs cannot accommodate Jermaine Defoe or Roman Pavlyuchenko into the team. All in all, the strength in depth at the top clubs is like never before.
The question now is whether or not anyone else can join the 6 sides at the top who have shared the spoils between them in recent seasons. Newcastle currently look capable of challenging this season, unbeaten in 3rd place, yet questions remain about their squad depth as the season progresses.
Below 7th place Arsenal however, no side currently looks capable of keeping pace, perhaps suggesting a worrying development, with De Jong stating, ‘We are creating a bigger gap between the bigger and smaller clubs in the league.’
With the money available to the top clubs, that gap only looks set to grow.
Is the Premier League stronger than ever? And is the gap widening between those at the top and those at the bottom? Comment and follow me on Twitter @CamHumphries
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