When the shortlist for the Ballon d'or was announced earlier this year, many journalists hailed the end of the Premier League's status of 'Best League in the World'. This came just months after Real Madrid and Barcelona splashed over £270M on players all over Europe. The results of the competition only served to further this view; the top seven players all plied their trade outside of England and Wayne Rooney, the Premiership's highest scoring player, accumulated a mere 35 points. Lionel Messi gained 473.
The Premier League, however, has never been more competitive, and therefore stronger. Chelsea, widely touted to run away with the league this year, have already been beaten three times and after the calamitous defensive display on Saturday afternoon, look as frail as anyone at the back. Manchester United, after the loss of Ronaldo and subsequently Carlos Tevez, have been defeated four times, the long-considered number of defeats that a team is considered to be able to suffer and yet still win the title.
Likewise Arsenal have also lost four times, however after the comeback away at struggling Liverpool are still considered to be in the running for the Premiership crown. Despite this, Aston Villa, Spurs and Manchester City are all widely tipped to take one, if not two of the coveted Champions League from England's traditional 'big four'. Villa beating Champions Manchester United this weekend to go third in the table, a week after Chelsea's loss at Manchester City. Everyone is capable of beating everyone.
La Liga, league of the world stars and extortionately expensive players; tells a very predictable story. Barcelona and Real Madrid are running away with the league, with just two losses between them. Sevilla are trying to keep the pace, but its difficult to look beyond either of the traditional giants for the Championship come the end of the season. The two sides may have the best players in the world, but all this means is that the rest of the division finds it difficult to compete. The usual chasing cohort of Atletico, Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal are split up, and are not on the same level as their corresponding clubs in England, in terms of spending power or class of player. Indeed, Atletico's star player Sergio Aguero appears to be on the verge of joining Chelsea for £40M this January.
On the European front, with the exception of Liverpool, English teams have breezed through the group stages, which is more than can be said for the mess that Barcelona made of qualifying and the difficulty with which Real Madrid dealt with the aging giant of A.C Milan. Atletico Madrid's well documented problems left them scraping into the Europa League over Cypriots APOEL with just 3 points. Only the fore mentioned Sevilla qualified comfortably, however that was all that could be expected from a group containing Rangers, Stuttgart and Unirea Urziceni.
The semi-finalists of this seasons Champions League may indeed go a long way to determining which League is indeed superior; if the Spanish can keep all three teams in the competition to the last four then the power may have been swung the way of Spain. Until then, the predictability of La Liga will always render it second to the Premiership, and even, on a competitive scale, the Bundesliga. This view was compounded by the reaction from La Liga directors to Florentino Perez's latest declaration that there should be games held at a time to suit the Asian market. The notion has been rejected on the grounds that outside of Real-Barca, La Liga holds little allure amongst global fans in comparison to the Premier League.
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