If you became a Premier League fan during the 2015-16 season, you have the entirely wrong idea about the league. Leicester City won the title, West Ham and Southampton pushed for places in European competition, and Chelsea and Liverpool played out disastrous seasons that ended with finishes in mid-table. It was enough to make a newly minted fan think the Premier League was a topsy-turvy crapshoot. At the midpoint of this season, though, regular old boring order has been restored.
I have bad news for those new fans: This is how it always is in England.
Chelsea has a five-point lead at the top. The other five members of the usual six-team competitive cabal are bunched within five points of each other — Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. Seventh-place Everton is closer to the relegation zone than it is to Chelsea.
This is how things usually work. Six teams have a chance at the title, or the Champions League. The rest of the league hopes for a good showing in a cup competition, and the possibility of sneaking into the Europa League by finishing seventh.
Once again the financial differences, between the top teams from the big cities and the smaller and poorer teams, is just too great. Last year, I was among those who openly wondered if the record-breaking TV contracts in England, which effectively turned every Premier League team into a financial giant, would upend the old order. Suddenly, outlandish transfer fees were within the reach of every team, and it didn't seem entirely crazy to think that the league would drain every last bit of talent out the rest of the world. It made logical sense; if teams like Stoke City could afford to pay big bucks to the best players from Italy or France or Spain, why couldn't they narrow the gap with the teams at the top?
Of course, that's not what happened. Players still shunned smaller teams and flocked to the top sides, who readjusted their spending accordingly. Manchester United spent nearly $200 million on players in the offseason, and seems set to spend even more in the next transfer windows.
The defining move might have been N'Golo Kante's transfer from Leicester City, the champions, to Chelsea, which had recently finished 10th. Despite the promise of playing in the Champions League with Leicester, and likely earning about the same amount of money, Kante calculated that his chances of future success were better in London, and he left Leicester's dream season behind.
Last year in the Premier League was one of the strangest years we've seen in recent European soccer history. As for the rest of this season, though, expect nothing but a steady diet of the top sides. Chelsea and Liverpool, without European distractions, are the favorites. Both Manchester teams could spend big to make challenges, as well.
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