When Pep Guardiola was asked whether he thought the Premier League was turning into a two-horse race last week, before Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool, he shook his head and said no. There were still Chelsea and Arsenal to be considered, he explained, not to mention Tottenham and Manchester United.
This was received at the time as diplomatic headline avoidance, with Guardiola smartly sidestepping the trap of writing off rivals’ chances so early in the season, though the odd suppressed snigger could be heard at the mention of Manchester United. Looking at the Premier League table after the last round of matches though, with City and Liverpool dropping points and all the other teams picking up maximum, it is clear that the two north-west clubs cannot expect to have everything their own way.
Chelsea, most conspicuously, have made a brilliant start considering Maurizio Sarri is new to the club and the country, although Arsenal might be attracting exactly the same sort of rave reviews had they not begun life under Unai Emery with a couple of defeats. Arsenal have put together a six-match winning run in the league since, and after eight games this season no one has won any more. If you wanted an advertisement for the competitive openness of the English top flight in fact, a snapshot of the table during the present international break would be ideal.
The five teams at the top all have six victories, the top three are unbeaten, homely Bournemouth occupy sixth place ahead of more likely candidates and promoted Wolves are in seventh. With only four points separating the top six sides the picture appears to be both healthy and typical.
Not quite unique, however, for in Spain at the moment only two points separate the top six sides, and in seventh place are promoted Valladolid. La Liga is commonly regarded as the ultimate two-horse race but what leaps out immediately after eight games – apart from the fact that Sevilla are top despite losing twice – is that no one in Spain is unbeaten. Fancy that. The Premier League is often billed as the competition where any team can beat any other, though if this is a desirable characteristic it seems more true of La Liga right now. It is not a case of big clubs pinching points from each other either. Real Madrid lost to lowly Alavés, while Barcelona went down last month to Leganés, currently third from bottom of the league.
It is debatable whether no unbeaten sides is an indication of a stronger league than one with three unbeaten sides, and Barcelona certainly looked plenty strong enough when seen on these shores a week ago at Wembley, though there is a school of thought that the leading Spanish clubs are able to concentrate more fully on Champions League occasions because most of the time their domestic opposition is not too taxing.
All that can be safely said is that the usual La Liga suspects plus Sevilla and Espanyol are within striking distance of the league leadership, which is a picture mirrored in England with five clubs on six wins and roughly the same number of points.
Only seven games have been played in the Bundesliga, and it is evident that defending champions Bayern Munich have lost ground, mainly as a result of defeats by Hertha Berlin and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Borussia Dortmund are the only side unbeaten , though there is only a four-point gap between Lucien Favre’s leaders and Bayern in sixth, so as might be expected it is too soon to draw any firm conclusions.
It might be imagined that would be the case everywhere after just a handful of games, though the situations in Italy and France are vastly different. Eight games into the season Juventus have eight straight wins. They have a six-point lead over nearest challengers Napoli and there is a 10-point gap between first and Roma in sixth. It is probably not too early to say an eighth title in a row is heading for Turin, and nor would it be going out on a limb to suggest Paris Saint-Germain are on course for a sixth French title in seven seasons. The Qatari-backed club have nine wins out of nine, an eight-point lead over Lille, and the 13-point gap between first and sixth is evidence of an unhealthy imbalance within the league.
Although the Premier League may not be perfect, it is in no immediate danger of turning into a procession either. Granted, Manchester City won the league last year with a record points total, though there is evidence this season that rivals such as Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have upped their game to a significant degree. While Tottenham are still hanging in, they are missing a few injured players and some of the drive and audacity of a year ago appears to have disappeared with them. Manchester United? Who knows? With a visit to Chelsea in the offing when fixtures resume José Mourinho’s name can once more be expected to dominate discussions to a greater extent than his team’s football, though it is now a name that has been roared with hearty approval by the Stretford End.
In all probability far too much has been read into Manchester United’s splendidly retro comeback against Newcastle – the visitors were and remain winless in the bottom three, after all – though you never know. Everyone was convinced Mourinho had run out of road in Manchester, but the crucial thing about turning points is that they often turn up when least expected.