Another Manchester City Title is Bad for the Premier League
Courtesy of Goal.com
Matchweek 36 - 2022/23
Manchester City will win the 2022/23 Premier League title.
After Brighton took down Arsenal 3-0 on Sunday, there’s almost no doubt that City will stroll to their fifth title in six years. Pep Guardiola’s team have three games left to play, and even if they play so poorly that they lose once and draw twice, Arsenal will still only be able to match their points total. To make this hypothetical situation even more grim, if City do miraculously drop that many points and Arsenal draw level, the Gunners still have a 20 goal tiebreaker deficit to make up. The title is City’s to lose.
But Manchester City winning again is bigger than just this season’s champion. Another title for the Cityzens starts to suck the unpredictability and anticipation out of the league. The top flight is more entertaining and enjoyable for fans when success is spread around, and City’s dominance begins to remove some competitiveness from the title race.
In other top leagues, individual teams have had long periods of dominance which makes for less enjoyable viewing. Paris Saint-Germain are currently closing in on their eighth Ligue 1 title in 11 seasons, Bayern Munich are in a tight race for their 11th straight Bundesliga title, and Juventus won nine straight Serie A titles until they were finally overthrown in 2020/21. As each dynasty grows, the contest becomes everyone against someone rather than the unique and varied title races that fans want to see. While these periods of success across Europe have started to come apart, Manchester City have slowly begun to build their own era of supremacy.
When every season becomes a question of who will attempt to outlast City, the title race loses some of its appeal. Arsenal’s emergence as a world class team has been a much needed variety to the league, but seeing them earn a title for their efforts would be even better. City's five titles in six years is the closest anyone’s come to Manchester United’s staggering 13 titles in 26 years under Sir Alex Ferguson, and a chunk of the league’s appeal during that period was not whether United would win again, but who would be able to challenge them.
Arsenal’s failure to match City is not a total loss, even though the four points currently between them is much more than actually separates the two sides. The Gunners are young and inexperienced but their hunger has shown that teams can challenge the Sky Blues. Mikel Arteta, a former assistant coach at City himself, has led his side on a journey that is only getting started, but it shows both the threat that quality teams can pose to City’s reign, and the vital importance of having entertaining and competitive races.
The Mancunian dominance is not guaranteed to last, though. Teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, and Spurs would’ve been expected to challenge them this year, but their poor form took them out of any legitimate contention. However, after varying degrees of restructuring, they will certainly be back to fight City in future seasons. There is a bigger issue where these same few teams will generally do well each season, and keep the end-of-season prize money away from the rest of the table. This creates a cycle where smaller teams have less access to the funds needed to build quality squads and challenge the established clubs, but high levels of competition allow the money to be spread around as different teams taste success. Teams like Brighton and Newcastle will benefit from this as they’ve been valuable new faces at the top of the table. And Brentford and Aston Villa have shown that even teams with smaller budgets can take points off City, hinting that they are still human despite usually otherworldly performances.
Over the next few seasons, a number of key players will likely move on from City as well. Captain Ilkay Gundogan is reportedly considering leaving, and Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez are in their 30s and won’t last forever at the top level. Manager Pep Guardiola himself is also not guaranteed to stay for years, especially if he manages to finally accomplish his goal of guiding City to Champions League victory. Unfortunately for everyone else, Guardiola has set the Manchester club up for years of success with plenty of young phenoms to carry on the legacy. Phil Foden, Rodri, Julian Alvarez, Ruben Dias, and Erling Haaland make up a formidable group at any age, yet none are older than 26.
In addition, City have been the subject of multiple multi-year investigations for breaking financial guidelines by the Premier League and UEFA. They recently were charged with more than 100 breaches over nine years, raising huge questions about the legitimacy of their success. But regardless of City’s controversial finances and spending off the field, I must concede that the players deserve great respect for their ability on it. Their unmatched mentality and incredible technical ability has earned them the reputation as one of the best teams ever. They also have some of the fewest major injuries as a result of their impressive squad depth. With multiple high-quality options at every position, Guardiola can choose between nearly two full teams, allowing his players to get plenty of rest and perform at their highest level week after week.
Even so, we must hope that City’s dominance does not continue year in and year out. The beauty of the Premier League lies in its predictable unpredictability. Each season, fans can be sure they’ll see teams fight for the title, race for the top four, struggle against relegation, and compete against local rivals, but guessing who those teams are is where the magic lies. Taking the guesswork out of the title race removes one of the league’s biggest appeals.
The Premier League is regarded as the best league in the world, and much of that reputation comes from being the most competitive and hardest to succeed in. The league needs competition for the champion to remain as interesting as it deserves to be, and that is lost with serial repeat winners like City. And while this year’s title is all but City’s, everyone should be hoping for the same thing: that next season, the title race is not so predictable.
Ian Katan
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