GWT: English Premier League: 2/13-2/14

[IU Hawks fan]

A league is only great if it's best team(s) roll over everybody and put their focus on winning another competition. Who needs balance and the ability for every team to win in a given week, right?

 

[Deficient Mode]

I don't see how that is a knock against the league or what your point is?

I mainly watch sports for the quality of play itself, not to moan about diving, referee decisions, or players crowding the referee - the things that happen when play has stopped, and the things that seem to engage most fans the most. Likewise, narratives are the meaning given to the events on the field from outside: we're supposed to care about what's happening on the field because of its implications for things that aren't immediately on the field: a title race, playing in a lower league, a manager's job at stake, etc.

I don't mean to burden all of you by continuously criticizing the league you love; I'm just astonished that more people don't care more about the quality of play instead of all the drama, and that posters can honestly call the EPL "the best league in the world" just because there is chaos in the title race. I don't need a narrative to get me interested in a bottom table match in Spain; the play is enough. Can't say the same about the EPL at all. If I wanted a nice suspenseful underdog story I'd read a ****ing book.

 

[Deficient Mode]

A league is only great if it's best team(s) roll over everybody and put their focus on winning another competition. Who needs balance and the ability for every team to win in a given week, right?

Keep knocking down those straw men!

 

[Evilo]

in conclusion narratives and effective marketing..lulzwuuuut? in the actual fuuuuu...ohh you mean the headlines of every Spanish news paper every week about Pique's twitter or other Barca player's tax frauds, or how Benzema is in trouble with the law again..ohh yeah meanwhile it's the usual suspect league again

While I don't disagree with it all, remember you're talking about this the weekend where a starting striker and international player recognized to having ****ed a teenager.

Not quite the good timing.

 

[Corto]

Arsenal's finishing was down right atrocious and were lucky to come out of it with 3 points. If Simpson hadn't been sent off, Leicester would have won.

What if Arsenal were given a penalty due to that Leicester hand ball in the first half? (which they should've been)
Or a foul before the whole play that led to the Leicester penalty developed? (which they should've been)
Or if Vardy was given a yellow for diving instead of being awarded a penalty? (which would've been the right call)

Arsenal won this, and even though I don't necessarily like them, it was fair that they won because the reffing was atrocious and nearly created an 8 point gap at the top.

...

To be quite honest, the reffing has been uncharacteristically poor in the PL.
Just in the last week, I can remember 3-4 glaring blown calls that influenced the games highly.
Leicester handball in the box, Vardy penalty
Sturridge penalty (I mean... really?)
Valenica tug on the shirt and a penalty + red card not given in the FA Cup game between West Ham and Liverpool

 

[Panteras]

All these things are narratives.

so what's your standard? Yugoslav league was the best because when Red Star won the CL? because your standard is certainly not title battles and excitment ....

 

[Panteras]

While I don't disagree with it all, remember you're talking about this the weekend where a starting striker and international player recognized to having ****ed a teenager.

Not quite the good timing.

it's not a week in week out type of thing and this particular one you're talking about is something that should actually make the news and be talked about because it's serious. Menahwile most of As and Marca articlea are just about the new "gambeta" Ronaldo did at training today or Messi's new tatoo lolssss

 

[Johnnywhite]

the Sterling call was weak, for sure, but the one that he got when he two arm shoved Walker and Walker got the call on him was just as incredulous...

Spurs ran most of the play, was a deserved result...

If Clattenburg had given the penalty we got against us I would not have been happy at all, very dodgy decision( to say the least). A draw would've been a fair result, but we got a break...excrement occurs. Great result for us.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

The average opponent for Spurs and Arsenal are 11th the rest of the way and it's 12th for Leicester and ManCity.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

What's wild about Arsenal this year if that they normally suck in the big games, but they've beaten up on the top 5 this year.

Meanwhile, they got swept by the team in 12th with 8 wins all year

 

[S E P H]

The average opponent for Spurs and Arsenal are 11th the rest of the way and it's 12th for Leicester and ManCity.

I think this tells that whoever is the most consistent team from here on out, will win the EPL and I think that is down to Leicester as being the favourites IMO.

Yeah as IU Hawks said above, if there is one team who can potentially get out of the race, it's got to be Arsenal.

 

[Ceremony]

Maybe it's because I come from a diddy country and don't have any vested interest in an individual club, but I would certainly sympathise with picking an individual club or league at the expense of others to focus on. The relative diddyness of the football I'm mostly interested in certainly has a much greater sense of relation to me in that the clubs and the national team represent where I'm from and I would naturally have more of an interest in those with them having been present throughout all of my life. Football as a sport itself plays a similarly prominent role in national cultural self-perception and identification for my peers and in general, so if it's natural for me to have a keener interest in that collection of football - making no consideration for the actual merit of the content - then I would imagine the same holds true for anyone who has lived in a country where football is prominent or who moved to/lived in such a country where they became interested and focused on the game and went through a similar process.

With regard to people taking interest in leagues/teams from different countries, this being a predominately North American board I can see a reason for a certain myopic viewing of what constitutes a worthwhile viewing experience. North American sports are largely self-contained and the absolute peak of their professional levels - mainly because, hockey excepted, it's the only continent where these sports are played. Even the comparatively (compared to club football often pre-dating the 20th century) new nature of the transient franchise system in these North American sports creates a view counter to that of the traditional multi-generational football supporter, contributing instead to a desire to watch the "best" league or the "best" players and to subsequently defend it as the "best" at the expense of all others. I've no idea what anyone here or elsewhere in the world lives with in terms of exposure to various footballing leagues but for the average North American viewer I imagine there's a much gentler easing into the English game. Partly because it's an English speaking league, partly because Britain holds a much greater cultural affinity with most of the target audience compared to the rest of Europe, partly because it has the kindest time difference of all of Europe, partly because the pace and physicality of the game in England is mistaken for entertainment by the people who generally defend the American variety of football to be in some way worthwhile, partly because the sheer amount of money which has exploded into English football over the past two decades helps create this illusion of scale being synonymous with quality. I realise there's a lot of parts to that and some may be more influential/accurate than others, but for whichever ones hold true they're all interconnected and reliant upon one another. The subsequent defensiveness which rises out of this need to latch on to one league and see it as superior becomes a lot more understandable - if not tolerable or excusable - when you consider this.

From a personal diddy-centric view I would hold that the influence of money on warping peoples' perceptions of both English and European football as a whole is particularly concerning this week as the big clubs try to be bigger again. Aside from this being completely contrary to the whole point of sport it speaks to why English football can be elevated so highly in the minds and hearts of those with no previous vested interest - the illusion of grandeur through wealth and self-exclusion. I think part of the reason for increased interest in the Premier League this season comes from this trend being bucked. While the initial Big Four led to something of a predictability with the league standings (even if the Liverpool to Man City change was largely seamless in terms of their actual relevance to the top end of the table) the fact that more than two teams were actually likely to win the trophy allowed extremely effective marketing to take hold, a process which has grown exponentially since and shows little sign of slowing down. This year, Leicester and Spurs have shown actual credibility in the face of previous dependables becoming completely clueless. The subsequent sense of the underdog being able to achieve something mostly thought of as being impossible because of the money has reignited a lot of dormant interest and created new interest itself. Right now, there's four teams who could realistically win the league. Would it still be perceived as equally interesting if Leicester and Spurs were replaced by Chelsea and Man United? I doubt it. That Leicester have done so with a comparatively meagre budget and with exciting, efficient play and Spurs have done so with some sort of English-centric cohesion for the first time in about forty years adds something else. Even if Leicester are playing in the Champions League next year I doubt their time in these sorts of league positions will last beyond that, Spurs are a more realistic shot to maintain their strength. Still, who do you think values their title challenging more right now? A 50 year old Leicester fan who's seen everything from relegations to multiple cup final losses, never really expecting any success or the 50 year old Man City fan who's seen all that and more but never has to concern themselves with any hint of threat to their relevance anymore given the wealth and infrastructure now in the club? I know which I would prefer, and it's not the option that unbridled, unrelatable wealth would bring.

With all this said, the phrase "The Best League in the World" exists purely as a testament to the strength of the sort of marketing that makes the jaded nonsense above from a diddy who is a neighbour to all of that horror and is directly negatively impacted by it read all the more cynically. Anyone using it without a trace of irony deserves all the ridicule they get and may as well walk around with BARCLAYS TOOK MY TAX MONEY drawn on their forehead.

 

[Ceremony]

Also, John Carver was on the telly at the weekend decrying Coloccini's suitability as a captain. I found that quite amusing.

 

[Halladay]

Paragraphs, paragraphs.

 

[maclean]

I think those are relatively valid points, but they do make one glaring omission, and that's the Premier League's relevance in pretty much every country in the world. You go anywhere in Africa and they're watching the Premier League. I would wager the same is true in Asia. South America may be an exception. But in the rest of Europe the PL dominates as well. If people are talking non-national football, that's what they'll be talking about. If you can get non-national football on television, that's what it'll be. Money may be part of that, but why did these rich owners come buy teams in England? Because they knew (or were of the opinion anyhow) that it's the top of the game. It's the history and it's the level of play. If you don't like the style of football played there and prefer it in Spain, or Italy, or Germany, or wherever, that's your prerogative, but you'll be in the minority.