No disagree, the Championship is and has been getting better for a long while, hence the teams coming up are better when they get there.
I went to the Wolves last night and after the first 15 mins in which Arsenal were very good, Wolves went on to have a right pop at them. It was 2 good teams playing really good football.
Look at West Brom, playing fantastic football and getting results against the supposed Premier elite. Blackpool spring to mind, what’s the matter with what they are doing? They have complimented the Premier superbly.

Agree with Paddy,you only have to look at the lower leagues such as the Blue Square Premier,look what clubs are there & how difficult it is to get out of,when they eventually do they all seem to do well.

In my opinion, yes it has been difficult to get promoted from the Championship for a long while. my club chucked money at it for 22 years and managed once 7 years ago, only to go straight back down and got back up 2 seasons ago.
If it was easy, we could all say for instance that this or that team is going to get promoted, go to the bookies and cash in. It dont happen does it?
I will try to find the statistic, but contrary to popular belief, more teams have stopped up in there first Premier season than have gone down – which i thought was quite interesting.
Is’nt that what football is all about though at grass roots? The percieved smaller less fancied team trying to beat the bigger better clubs?
I miss playing football immensely, and when i did we always, always wanted to beat the better, bigger, higher up the league clubs.
Same can be said about any standard of football really.

I don’t think it getting easier but i read this on another forum and thought it summed it up.

“It’s actually a very poor Prem quality wise, last year we failed to have a champs league finalist and I think the same this year. Wembley and no english team”

I actually think thats bang on the money but i agree that the football in lower leagues is getting better.

I think the fact is that the rest have closed the gap on the old ‘Big 4’. This is probably as much to do with the fact that the world’s best players are now playing in Spain rather than England as anything else. That in turn has been driven by the UK’s uncompetitive 50% income tax rate, brought in to ‘bash the bankers’.

Totally agree the standard is getting worse, just look at how many clubs are bunched up in mid table. I think a lot of the better players who were involved in the World Cup for various countries (not England, we never got off the plane) are knackered.

players are fitter and run for the whole 90 mins. managers tactics are much sharper these days and teams now play not to lose. 4 at the back, with a bank of 4 just in front, 1 inbetween and a lone striker.it can be no coincidence that bale can play open football against milan and yet not get a kick elsewhere.we are slowly apeing what happened in serie a 10 years ago. teams difficult to beat and loads of draws. more that 2 goals very rare. teams promoted always play with freedom before christmas and then like as not get relegated, fact of life.

I haven’t got the stats to hand on this, but wasn’t last season one of the highest scoring in the the Premier League’s history?

I think the only new trend is the pre-eminence of the holding midfielder (Man City pick three!)

the tactics of these inferior teams are getting better thats all, closing top sides down and not letting them play on the ball, and theres also this rule ( the man can get past me and the ball can get past me but NOT both) that they live by

@herbie wrote:

players are fitter and run for the whole 90 mins. managers tactics are much sharper these days and teams now play not to lose. 4 at the back, with a bank of 4 just in front, 1 inbetween and a lone striker.it can be no coincidence that bale can play open football against milan and yet not get a kick elsewhere.we are slowly apeing what happened in serie a 10 years ago. teams difficult to beat and loads of draws. more that 2 goals very rare. teams promoted always play with freedom before christmas and then like as not get relegated, fact of life.

Bang on herbs ~clap

What is a breath of fresh air this season is WBA and Blackpool playing good attacking football and also Wolves to an extent …. to get over the 40 point safety barrier though you have to be defensively solid ! Both Blackpool and WBA have a good points tally so far for their efforts but as herbie has pointed out these types of teams tend to fall away alarmingly after the christmas period.

My biggest gripe about the premiership this season is the farcical FA disciplinary commitee whoever they are ??? Sunderlands Lee Cattermole clearly should have been sent off TWICE this week , Tom Huddlestone (Spurs) gets off scott free for a blatant stamp ~think yet Mario Balotelli gets a 3 match ban for a tangle of legs at WBA last weekend ? Plenty of other incidents have occured , the inconsistancy is appalling or is it favouritism to certain clubs ? ~think

I’ve been questioning the premier league standard for a while now but the main issue for me has always been ambition.. Lack of!!

Only this season have clubs shown a real desire to push on rather just try stay in the league for financial reasons. I could not stand west brom for this reason but fair play to them they’ve finally grasped the nettle. Newcastle, Blackpool and west brom have been a breath of fresh air this year.

The Premiership is stronger than its ever been in my opinion. There is great strength in depth within the league with no weak teams at full strength. However, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have dropped in there standards and the gap has reduced between the Sky4 and the rest in the league. Thats why dominating Europe is unlikely at the moment. Across the rest of Europe. There are 2 or 3 strong teams in each league. However, the rest of those other leagues are very weak in comparison with the Premiership. Any of the teams in the premiership including those that have just come up in to the Premiership would easily finish in the top half of any of the other top European leagues.

Also the Premiership is still the strongest league in europe by far ~clap ~clap ~clap

Ask yourselves this ….. how good is the spanish league without Barca and Real Madrid ?

No contest ~hand

i’ll tell you what it was,
the worst game of football i’ve seen for a good long while.
five attempts on goal in the whole game,
neither team really arsed about winning.
adebayor sent on with 1 minute to go?
there truly was nothing good about it at all.

@NW Cut Angler wrote:

So the highest standard has been lowered but the lower standard has been raised to a more consistent level?

What did you think of the Manchester Derby yesterday Dodge?

Too much giddy media hype ruined the occasion for me and loads of others …..

There was too much to lose for both clubs hence the scoreline , nuff said !

people asume that there is a lack of flair in our league but never take into account that yes we may not have the worlds best forwards/ attacking midfielders but we do have the worlds best defenders. pick a world eleven and you will find most of the defensive players play in this country. take the euro cup that people seem to use as a measure, inter milan won last year. do you think they are the best team in europe over say 10 matches. dont think so. the prem consistantly dominate the group stages and usualy fall in the semi,s/quarter finals where one tiny error and your out exists. so instead of seeing a bore draw at wastelands look at it from the point of the defender, he,s saying job done.

@MarkT wrote:

I don’t think it getting easier but i read this on another forum and thought it summed it up.

“It’s actually a very poor Prem quality wise, last year we failed to have a champs league finalist and I think the same this year. Wembley and no english team”

I actually think thats bang on the money but i agree that the football in lower leagues is getting better.

Some silly old Chelski fan said that!

I’d also agree with the other post’s that say the top clubs (sky4) have not continued their year on year progression but the clubs below from Prem through to top level of non-league have. So maybe all those people who said there would a split and we would end up like the european leagues have got it wrong.

nb: when Wolves came to Chelski the other week i was expecting the team to kick and spoil but they actually played some neat stuff.

Would Wes Brown have been sent off if he didn’t play for the Sky4 (5 minutes of Fergie time).

If it was a penalty, he should have been sent off.

Gosh, it’s so predictable.