Not a good look for the Premier League.

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Originally Posted by J R Hartley

Well that opening game was a good look.

6 goals and Bournemouth really taking the game to the Champions. Unlucky to find themselves 2-0’down and fought back to 2-2. Not one for the defensive purists but a good watch for the neutral.

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Caught the last half hour, enjoyed that. End to end, bit gutted for Bournemouth who looked so dangerous on the break, such pace. I’m sure the defensive frailties of both sides will have been well noted as well as the attacking part of their game.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Caught the last half hour, enjoyed that. End to end, bit gutted for Bournemouth who looked so dangerous on the break, such pace. I’m sure the defensive frailties of both sides will have been well noted as well as the attacking part of their game.

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Bournemouth were probably the better team first half as well. Liverpool’s defence all over the place but with the attacking players they’ve got they always got the chances to bail out the team.

That Semenyo looked a player for Bournemouth . So fast. Surprised he signed a new deal when he had many bigger clubs supposedly after him.

Their manager Areola surely got to be next can off the tank for a top job too. Done a great job there:

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Originally Posted by delmbox

I don't get what your getting at here Bob, if those predictions prove correct and it's a 4 way fight for the title that's a pretty exciting league isn't it?

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It’d be a rarity to have a Premier League season where four sides had a realistic chance of winning the title going into the last international break. The survey does not go into how many points each of the top four will end up with, it’s just that there is unanimity that no one out of the other 16 will finish higher than Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea. I was surprised to see that there was only 15 points covering the top 4 last season because it felt inevitable who was going to win well before Christmas, but I suppose Liverpool did rest on their laurels somewhat once the title was confirmed.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

The sheer number of players involved is all a bit too much for me at my age. I’ve definitely become more Citycentric as the years have gone by. There’s players getting international caps that I haven’t heard of. It does take the shine off it a bit when I watch a Premier League match and I don’t recognise the line ups. I think it’s an age thing, I imagine youngsters, who are definitely out and out City fans, still have their finger on the pulse of the top division and enjoy it as much as I did in 60s & 70s, even though Cardiff City were my team.

Perhaps TOBW has fallen out of love with the game in general as time has gone on if he’s anything like me. Years ago if a match was on, usually late night highlights in those days, there wouldn’t be a chance of me missing it. Nowadays my missus will say ‘There’s a game on, I’ll go in the other room if you like’ and I don’t bother and we carry on watching what’s on.

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There’s a fair bit of me that I recognise in your message. I can trace my change in attitude back to when the Pozzo brothers took over at Watford. Before that, I’d have some knowledge of every player in the top two divisions especially, but Watford would come here or in a televised match and, probably because there was such a rapid turnover of players at that club, I wouldn’t have a clue about their team and it’s kind of spread from there.

Saturation TV coverage has definitely changed my attitude. I’d always watch the midweek late night highlights programmes without fail, but, despite them being on at much more convenient times, a live midweek game that I watch as a neutral has to be very good for me to stick with it for the whole ninety minutes. I can’t explain my attitude towards the Champions League - I’d watch it religiously when it was on a Wednesday night highlights after 10 pm, but I just never watch it these days until it gets to about the Quarter Final stage. I’ve missed some brilliant football because of that, but it makes no difference in terms of me watching live games before March/Aptil.

It’s not that I’ve gone off football, I still always watch nearly all of the Premier League and EFL games on Sky over a weekend, but, as I get closer to 70, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of football in my life and I’ve reached a stage where I think football has nothing left to surprise me with, but the reason why it really is the best game in the world is that it can still prove me wrong on a pretty regular basis.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

There’s a fair bit of me that I recognise in your message. I can trace my change in attitude back to when the Pozzo brothers took over at Watford. Before that, I’d have some knowledge of every player in the top two divisions especially, but Watford would come here or in a televised match and, probably because there was such a rapid turnover of players at that club, I wouldn’t have a clue about their team and it’s kind of spread from there.

Saturation TV coverage has definitely changed my attitude. I’d always watch the midweek late night highlights programmes without fail, but, despite them being on at much more convenient times, a live midweek game that I watch as a neutral has to be very good for me to stick with it for the whole ninety minutes. I can’t explain my attitude towards the Champions League - I’d watch it religiously when it was on a Wednesday night highlights after 10 pm, but I just never watch it these days until it gets to about the Quarter Final stage. I’ve missed some brilliant football because of that, but it makes no difference in terms of me watching live games before March/Aptil.

It’s not that I’ve gone off football, I still always watch nearly all of the Premier League and EFL games on Sky over a weekend, but, as I get closer to 70, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of football in my life and I’ve reached a stage where I think football has nothing left to surprise me with, but the reason why it really is the best game in the world is that it can still prove me wrong on a pretty regular basis.

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I was, and still am I s’pose, obsessed with football history. I love it that I know daft, obscure anecdotes from eras like the early 1900s (and before), the 20s, 30s etc but I don’t love it that I get stumped on queries and questions from, say, the 90s on (coincidentally the Premier League era, or is it coincidence? Did my brain just switch off a little due to the much hyped product?) I can point out Steve Bloomer, Lord Kinnaird, Fatty Foulke, David Jack, Alex James etc etc but give me a current squad photo of any Premier League side and I’d be clutching at straws with the majority of players.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Surprised by how many are so defensive about the Premier League in this thread. I’ve not said the Premier League is crap, it’s clearly not that, but I think it had a bad season in 24/25 with Sky casting about trying to find a game with something worthwhile riding on it on the final day of the season.

No one seems to be willing (or able?) to answer my main point that any league where 33 pundits and 2 computers are predicting that there are only 4 sides they think will fill positions 1 to 4 has got a bit of a problem - that’s 140 individual questions being asked in this survey and, between them, it produces only 4 answers. I find that amazing and I defy anyone to come up with any National league in the world where you’d stand a good chance of getting the same answer.

I’m not saying that the Premier League is in crisis or anything like that, but, after two seasons when the three promoted sides were relegated and a bit of a non event at the top last year, it’s approaching a stage where it’s going to start being considered boring if those 35 pundits turn out to be right.

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I think the thing is, everyone agrees with you that yes, it would be good for those pundits to have a greater diversity of teams within their top 4 predictions for the season. I certainly agree, and I am surprised no one has Newcastle or Villa or even Man United or Spurs there. That's true, it's not s great look.

Where people probably differ is in terms of how much can be read into that. It's only a prediction, its only a sample, it's very specific (refers to the top four instead of the predicted top 3 or top 5 or the winner etc), and it doesn't represent the quality of the league or how different it is to other top flights in other countries.

I'm pretty ambivalent about the premier League really. I follow it. It's the top league in my favourite sport and there is much to criticise it for, but I do think it's more competitive than a lot of leagues in all honesty.

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Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

Ooh, goody gumdrops. Another multi…

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Kudos for saying goody goody gumdrops. It's been a while since I heard that.

Stick it up your bumchops

A couple of weeks ago, the same question was asked of the Racing Post’s top ten sports writers. Most went for Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea to fill the top four places, but two went for Villa, one fancied Spurs and one opted for Newcastle.

Many friends and family have expressed a growing disinterest in football, with most citing:
- too much of it on telly
- the “big teams” dominate everything
- players acting like spoilt, cheating, over-paid drama queens

I’m in agreement with them 100% on the first point. Sky et al are wringing every last drop out of their product, and its continuous over-hyping of every game has become tiresome.

On the second point - which is somewhat related to the point TOBW makes - I agree to some extent. Last season showed how there is always a possibility of upsets. Palace and Newcastle in the cups. Forest, Brighton, Fulham even, getting in and around the top 10.

Yes, the usual suspects ended up in the top positions, but that was not guaranteed for some time.

The last point I listed above is a big reason why I, personally, feel football has become less enjoyable. Other threads have discussed the cheating, diving, pulling, professional fouling, and general spoilt behaviour of players. I can’t stand it.

And yet….every season I experience those moments of sheer exuberance and excitement when I see a player or team do something magical with a football.

And I’m won over yet again…

Agree with all those. Id add the perennial issue of ticket prices, corporate nature of the league etc to it too. These are bigger issues for me than the predictability of it.

I despise the diving and play acting and how it's become normalised to dive.

I'll add another thing too. VAR. I have mixed views on it's use generally but it absolutely does change how goals are celebrated and some of the "in the moment" feelings that live sport are all about.

Thing is, despite all of the elements that many of us find irksome, isn’t the Premier League and football in general actually more popular than ever in terms of TV audiences and attendances at matches?

What is odd is these games are in the vast majority on subscription TV. It's really easy not to have all this football available and save a few quid.