Never mind the quality, feel the money: central flaw of football’s ‘greatest show on earth’

Title race and relegation over by February? The Premier League is rich, but there’s no jeopardy and no real sense of excellence, at least not on the pitch

TITLE RACE: The Premier League is rich, but there’s no jeopardy and no real sense of excellence, at least not on the pitch. Pic: AP Photo/Jon Super

Ladies and gentlemen we have now reached our cruising altitude. The pilot will be putting his feet up and drinking tiny cans of Sprite from here to the middle of May. Sit back, zone out. Stick on a bad film with Seth Rogen in it. You can even watch the football if you like. Just don’t expect much to happen for the next three months.

So much for that excitingly bumpy, turbulence-fuelled Premier League season, all perky upstarts, crumbling certainties and unexpected shifts of altitude, which really did seem to be shaping up just a few short weeks go. As of game weekend 26 and Arsenal’s defeat by West Ham, followed by Liverpool strolling through Manchester City, the league has reached a stage of premature entropy.