Hype vs Logic

The hype machine predicted a FIVE HORSE RACE.
A look at the table tells you that it's closer to a one team PROCESSION.

The hype machine tells you it's THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD.
It probably is.... BY DEFAULT!!
Italian football has finally eaten itself. La Liga is, as we keep hearing, a two-team league.

But again, unless Man United collapse, the Premiership this season might not EVEN be a two-horse race. And who's going to catch them?

Is it Arsenal, who have lost at home to West Brom and Newcastle this season?

Or maybe Man City? The summit of their manager's ambition, despite the lavish expenditure, seems to be Champions League qualification.

Chelsea are out of the running after a disastrous run of form, and Spurs were, in truth, never in the running in the first place.

Some five-horse race!

Still, a season where the outstanding team is a flair-deficient United team who have barely rumbled out of second gear is not without its peculiar charm.

Most teams seem more evenly matched. Liverpool are in a state of perpetual gloom. Chelsea's double of last season now looks the last defiant victory of a dying empire.

What the hype merchants are probably missing most is a bona fide superstar to drool over.

This frustration is evidenced by the hyping of Gareth Bale, who is often as anonymous as he can be exciting.

A couple of weeks ago, Andy Gray questioned the hypothetical ability of Leo Messi to perform against the likes of Stoke (snigger).

He is a Premiership salesman more than a pundit or an authority on the game. He is forever banging on about the uniqueness of This League. He is also devastated by This League's lack of Great Players at the moment and so resorts to pointless, unintentionally hilarious jibes at the world's best footballer.

He misses Cristiano Ronaldo, no doubt. And he is disturbed by the decline of Gerrard (never that good anyway), Rooney, Torres.

He should give the hype a break.

It may be the most entertaining league in the world, but if a United team inhabited by the likes of Fletcher, Carrick and even, at times, Darron Fucking Gibson can stumble on undefeated, it casts doubts over the league's true "greatness", and thus over the state of football in general.