We’ve got our title race back

When the final weekend of the season rolls around in Premier League May (or whenever it may be this season), it will always feel disappointing if there is not some kind of dramatic showdown for the title.

Extending from that, it will always feel disappointing when there is some kind of showdown between multiple teams in the weeks leading up to that final match day.

It’s something we’ve been deprived of for a few years now.

In 2016, Leicester won the title by a 10 point margin - although given how of a fairytale that was, not many people (apart from Tottenham fans maybe) could really begrudge a lack of showdown.

In 2017, Antonio Conte’s Chelsea won the title with two games to spare and ended the campaign with six straight victories.

This was made to look like small fry, though, as Pep Guardiola got his Manchester City side flowing as they soared to the 100 point mark, very much blowing away the rest of the Premier League.

2019 brought challengers in Liverpool in what - ‘on paper’ - looked like a good title race. But both sides were so imperious (neither dropped any points in the final nine match days of the season) it ended up being a little dull.

Then in 2020, Liverpool were basically able to do the title winning equivalent of stopping the ball on the goal line, kneeling down and tapping it in with their head.

But now, in this bizarre COVID-effected season, it seems like we might just have a real, proper title race.

Hampered by injuries in defence, Liverpool are suddenly not so imperious, but still remain a top side with makeshift players doing the job in defence and scintillating attacking talent.

Man City seem to be going through something of a transformative period which certainly affected them in the first half of the season, but now seem to be hitting their groove.

And Manchester United are suddenly back on the scene! They are far from perfect, but Bruno Fernandes has helped elevate them beyond their previous levels.

While these three teams look like making the strongest case, they are hardly streets ahead of the rest.

Both Leicester and Everton are level on points with third place Man City. Tottenham beat Man United 6-1 and were title contenders until Jose Mourinho managed to extrapolate playing well, taking a lead, sitting on your backside and blowing the lead into Spurs’s whole season so far.

Chelsea were contenders after an excellent start to the season, but a flop later and suddenly they’re not - they now sit in ninth.

It’s easy to point out association between the current pandemic situation and the sudden openness at the top of the Premier League (League One and League Two are also both seeing particularly promotion races).

And there is a case for this, in that there has been less time pre-season for managers to truly settle their teams and drill them into performing at the high standards we’ve seen recently. This is arguably what led to such a goal filled opening to the Premier League season.

But there are also unassociated factors all happening at the same time to bring the title race closer.

The two unequivocally best teams of the past few seasons - Liverpool and Man City - have both hit wobble. Liverpool have injury troubles (not necessarily related to the congestion of games) and City are still attempting to rejuvenate themselves after a dip following their epic title wins.

At the same time, Man United are starting to hit their groove and make a bit more sense overall as a team. Leicester have continued their gradual improvement, Everton have improved over summer, we’re not quite sure about Spurs, and even Southampton and Aston Villa are hauling themselves up the table with exciting sides.

And while having more sides in the mix is entertaining, the true value of a good title race is jeopardy.

The previously infallible Man City and Liverpool are, suddenly, fallible. Other teams are stretching to match them but are still suspect to ‘ballsing up’.

In the past few years, we have seen brilliant teams. Teams who, at times, felt like they were utterly invincible.

But that isn’t the case now, and it is that sensation which is what has truly handed us our title race back.