Premier League 2016-2017

Which begs the question..is there more parity in the Prem? Perhaps. Or is Chelsea just not that good relative to the rest of the world's top teams? It's probably a little bit of both.

There's little doubt the Premier League has the better storylines and I think the games themselves are more entertaining. I was mainly bantering at Holy because he was acting like the Premier League actually has the best teams in the world which is not true and hasn't been true for a while.

Now, would Real Madrid go 40 games unbeaten in the PL? Probably not. But would I favor the top 4 of La Liga against the Top 4 of the Premier League? Yeah, I would. The history and rich rivalries teams have in the Prem enhances the external value of the games. There's little doubt about that.

But the Premier League teams have some work to do in Europe, as they've been getting pretty consistently embarrassed. And many times, not even by a Bundesliga or La Liga side. PSG and Juventus have often proven to be too much for PL sides as well.

I say this as someone who wants the Premier League teams to do well/better in Europe. But right now the top of Spain, Bayern Munich, etc are a level above them.

 

PSG and Juventus are good teams, it'd be wrong to say Bayern/Madrid/Barcelona wouldnt consider them tough matches either. Agreed that even though the PL don't have the top teams, they're still better games to watch in my opinion than other european games (which you agree above).

 

Oh absolutely, those are tough match-ups for anyone. And I'm sure they consider the top flight Premier League teams challenging as well, but it never really seems to manifest itself in the PL side actually winning those games very often. Only Chelsea has really held its weight in Europe recently (but I'm not sure how good this current iteration is or how they will fare in the UCL this year, it's hard to tell if they're actually elite or just elite among inconsistent 2017 PL sides). Even at the lower levels of competition, such as the Europa League, Sevilla has won 3 years in a row, going through the 2nd tier PL teams quite convincingly en route to those titles. Granted, Europa League does not always command the top lineups out of teams (sort of like the FA Cup is the same deal), but that's still impressive.

At the end of the day though when I look at teams not named Chelsea in the Prem, I don't take any of them seriously to actually dethrone a top flight European team in another league. Most of these other leagues play a finesse style over the gritty PL style, which helps the other teams. It also seems (I may be biased here because I like the PL the most like you) that the officiating always seems to side with the Barcelonas and Real Madrids in these fixtures.

It would be great to get another UCL Champion out of the Prem to quash my claims, but I don't see when that's going to happen. How about you?

 

Problem with the premier league, is most sides can attack, but not many can defend.

I support liverpool myself, and this year has just been constantly disappointing in the defence. I think in the next few years its quite possible if a side can sort its defence out. But that just my opinion.

 

Well you made some excellent points. Can't say I outright disagree with anything you said. Maybe the first time ever I can say that with a Liverpool fan . Trust me, a lot of it is just frustration that these other leagues are getting the drop on them consistently. The only team I don't find myself rooting for in the Champions League is Manchester City. Everyone else usually gets my vote. Though easy for me to say, as I really dislike Real Madrid lol. I'm softer towards Barca cuz I love Messi and I really respect Sevilla for what they're able to do. Can't say I'm really a fan of teams like Juve, PSG, etc. I thought the Chelsea team that lost to PSG a few years back was good enough to win UCL. But defense killed them, which you very accurately pointed out.

 

swansea going from strength to strength after we got rid of hopeless bob, paul clement is a smart man

 

Why did you say that? I just said there will be nothing special this year. Same teams are gonna compete in the finals, as two years ago.

 

Because you're saying in Feb 2017 that leicester won't win the title. That was established at the start of the season.

 

Hiring Bradley had to have been a dare or something lol

Maybe Swansea owner lost a Sythe dice bet??

 

American owners wanted an American manager x)

 

At the beginning of the season I still had a hope. But seems like they concetrated on showing a good game in the Champions League.

 

@Dieze Jesus Leicester and Burnley not making the Prem look good today lol. Embarrassing.

 

Let me down on my acca big time!

 

@Azie would be cool if Manchester United could snag Europa League hardware this year. If I'm not mistaken they've never won it? Since the league is all but out of reach would be nice to snag that and the EFL Cup. Don't fancy our chances too much in the FA Cup against a red-hot Chelsea. Not to mention their fixtures list is incredibly favorable whereas United's is quite beefy with all non Premier League games they have.

 

Swansea are going to win the premier league next year

 

Yeah United have never won the Europa League. I'd say our chances are pretty good so lets see how that pans out. As you mentioned the fixtures list is atrocious and this doesn't help even though its great being in so many different cups and league. We literally have like twice the amount of games to play in comparison to Liverpool (rival for top 4) which doesn't help in the slightest. Winning the EFL will be a huge morale boost and the timing arguable couldn't be better to win it.

Trust Chelsea to get lucky having it at home as usual. FA cup seems unlikely judging by out pathetic history on their ground. Its just a ground where we lose even if we batter them.

I would be satisfied this season with a top 4 finish, EFL cup and Europa. That would be a good season for us to take onto next season.

 

Spurs just crashed out of the Europa today, so just became even weaker.

 

Well at least our form is good. Haven't loss in like 16/17 games? My bad if i'm wrong

 

That sounds correct. I'm excited bout Europa now. Here's the final 16

Ajax (NED)
Anderlecht (BEL)
APOEL (CYP)
Beşiktaş (TUR)
Celta Vigo (ESP)
Genk (BEL)
Gent (BEL)
København (DEN)
Krasnodar (RUS)
Lyon (FRA)
Manchester United (ENG)
Mönchengladbach (GER)
Olympiacos (GRE)
Roma (ITA)
Rostov (RUS)
Schalke (GER)

I like their chances. Draw is tomorrow for RD16

 

@Azie United drew Rostov in RD16. Shouldn't have too much trouble there.