Does the Premier League justify the hype?

Despite poor punditry it is one of the globe’s elite competitions

THERE, neatly packaged in unhealthily tight trousers, was exactly the problem with the Premier League. After news had come through on the final day of the Spanish season that Real Madrid had beaten Almeria 8-1, Jamie Redknapp scoffed that that just wouldn’t happen in “our league”.

But Redknapp, of course, only had to flick back through three years of the record books to see that’s exactly what happened when Man City visited Middlesbrough on the final day of the 2007-2008 season.