Is The Premier League Tougher Than It Used To Be?

[Nacho]

Mikel says that as it makes the job he is doing look better, respect his hustle.

 

[drippin]

The league is better, especially because EPL has constantly in the recent decade got richer, so the worse teams can attract very good players from abroad, and don't have to sell their best players as much for cheap to the better teams.

Plus all the time there are more people playing football, which means there are more players of great quality available in the world. Etc. etc. etc.

But no, I'm not going to argue about this with you guys. That's why I just planned to leave it there after I saw it.

 

[Rimaal]

apart from Man City and Liverpool, who are brilliant, PL teams are either decent, average or rubbish

This season, apart from the top 2, all Prem teams have been less than average to rubbish.

 

[farzad4daarse]

The premier league stinks except when you look at the league’s results against European competition then it is much tougher than it has been since the late 70s and 80s. Really by any objective measure; top coaches, players, money advantage, and objective results the league is better. If you measure based on nostalgia and rose colored glasses and the eyeball test the past looks great. Real and Barca are both no longer the number 1 and 2 big buyers in the market. The talent follows the money.

 

[2Smokeyy]

Sometimes I question how many members on here actually watched the PL when it was at its peak.

Scrolling through this thread, it’s quite obvious those who have and it doesn’t seem like many.

 

[Riou]

Sometimes I question how many members on here actually watched the PL when it was at its peak.

Scrolling through this thread, it’s quite obvious those who have and it doesn’t seem like many.

The Prem was at it's best when ITV had the rights to the highlights.

Bit of "Beautiful Day" on a Saturday night, watching The Invincibles

 

[Nacho]

Sometimes I question how many members on here actually watched the PL when it was at its peak.

Scrolling through this thread, it’s quite obvious those who have and it doesn’t seem like many.

Couple of outliers who genuinely believe this, but it's mostly Arteta fans who believe it's in their interest to pretend the league is the best it's ever been the correlation is fairly obvious. That's why Arteta says this and it's always him specifically.

Emery wasn't that long ago and these conversations hardly ever took place we just told him to gtfo.

 

[samspade]

Let’s be real now how many of you have seen a game from the 2000’s or 90’s recently? I have and the level is visibly lower in my opinion. My opinion has nothing to do with any Arteta affiliation, I thought this long before he showed up. I will acknowledge it may well be in inners interests to believe this though.

 

[lamby22]

There's City and Liverpool and then the drop off in quality is massive. The fact that we are in with a chance of top 4 despite losing just under 1/3 of our league games is laughable.

 

[farzad4daarse]

Sometimes I question how many members on here actually watched the PL when it was at its peak.

Scrolling through this thread, it’s quite obvious those who have and it doesn’t seem like many.

May ask when you deem its peak? And why was it better than as opposed to now? It really is a subjective debate but other than people accepting your eyeball test is there an objective fact in there somewhere?

 

[2Smokeyy]

Couple of outliers who genuinely believe this, but it's mostly Arteta fans who believe it's in their interest to pretend the league is the best it's ever been the correlation is fairly obvious. That's why Arteta says this and it's always him specifically.

Emery wasn't that long ago and these conversations hardly ever took place we just told him to gtfo.

It’s actually ridiculous the lengths people are willing to take to justify our misfortunes. This whole debate stems back to what many of us were saying during the season regarding assessing each manager fairly and having a balanced view. To this day it still surprises me how Arteta seems to have more leeway over Arsène Wenger and even Emery to some extent.

Ngl I don’t even really have an issue with Mikel Arteta at the moment as I’ve been at the acceptance stage for a while now and I have even praised him accordingly but I shake my head whenever I read some of the woeful posts on here.

 

[farzad4daarse]

The Prem was at it's best when ITV had the rights to the highlights.

Bit of "Beautiful Day" on a Saturday night, watching The Invincibles

So when your team is the best it just coincidentally is the best period of the league? Or rose tinted shades. As big as Arsenal and United are they don’t determine the quality of the whole league. Which another reason Pl is stronger than the continental leagues.

 

[2Smokeyy]

The Prem was at it's best when ITV had the rights to the highlights.

Bit of "Beautiful Day" on a Saturday night, watching The Invincibles

Those days were sensational. There were games when I didn’t even know the score but just watched the highlights show on ITV and knew they’d win.

Felt so good.

 

[drippin]

Those days were sensational. There were games when I didn’t even know the score but just watched the highlights show on ITV and knew they’d win.

Felt so good.

Such a tough league, but you knew Arsenal would win.

(I'm not saying that Arsenal team wasn't one of the best of all-time, just funny.)

 

[2Smokeyy]

Such a tough league, but you knew Arsenal would win.

(I'm not saying that Arsenal team wasn't one of the best of all-time, just funny.)

Judging by your response, I’m guessing you haven’t experienced that feeling before, right?

That’s the difference when you have an invincible team and an absolute machine in Thierry Henry.

 

[grange]

8 straight years Arsenal finished 2nd or better in the Prem and 9 straight years Arsenal finished at least 3rd or better. I only became an Arsenal fan around 2010 though so I missed our best years.

 

[Riou]

I only became an Arsenal fan around 2010 though so I missed our best years.

You got to see some beautiful Community Shield wins though, that's all that matters.

 

[drippin]

Judging by your response, I’m guessing you haven’t experienced that feeling before, right?

That’s the difference when you have an invincible team and an absolute machine in Thierry Henry.

It's just such a controversy, in a tougher league it wouldn't be a given to win every game.

Even current machines like City and Liverpool don't go to away games in this league with the assumption they will win. Most matches are hard fought.

 

[farzad4daarse]

Felt so good.

This is 100 percent of the argument of 100 percent of the people who say the league was just coincidentally better when Arsenal was at its best in early 2000s. The feeling, the emotion, and it is just a coincidence that when I remember my youth and when my team won everything that is when the league is best it has ever been.

I remember when the NBA was at its strongest most glamorous period of the 80s with great dynasties duking it out for Supremacy. Till this day I haven’t seen any team in any sport win and entertain like Showtime Lakers. Back then I remember old geezers saying that the league was better in the 60s, when the level was a freaking joke, point guards in 60s used one hand to shoot and dribble, and were lucky if they were 6 ft tall, there were no 7 footers but 1 guy Wilt. Magic was 6’9 and completely freaking ambidextrous the game and athletes were next generation better than cruddy black and white 60s, not if you talked to old congers though they just remember the feeling.

 

[drippin]

8 straight years Arsenal finished 2nd or better in the Prem and 9 straight years Arsenal finished at least 3rd or better. I only became an Arsenal fan around 2010 though so I missed our best years.

There was basically no way to watch EPL in Finland back in the day, but I always liked Arsenal players. Plus over the years I had two friends who were Arsenal fans and I played football games with them with Arsenal.

I think I decided totally on Arsenal around the same time as you. Losing Van Persie to United was annoying as hell.