Premier League 2024-25 Season

Man City sit way back from an all-conquering Liverpool as we enter December. Of course, things might change in the blink of an eye. But I'm wondering if we're seeing the end of an era.

Dominations of the top tier in England don't last for ever. Manchester United, for example had exceptional players in the 1950s and 1960s and few could have forecast they would go 26 years from 1967 without winning the title.

Liverpool's reign at the top in the 70s and 80s was even more commanding. If you'd been told in 1990 that it would be 30 years before the Merseyside club would sit astride English football again you'd think the forecaster had gone crazy.

The Liverpool era gave way to the Fergie hegemony which lasted from 1993 to 2013. Admittedly, following Fergie was going to be a tough job, but no manager/coach since has taken United anywhere near the title.

Man City's hold over the EPL has been shorter yet something of an historic stranglehold, given no side before them had won four successive titles. But all good things come to an end. In City's case off-the-field actions could spark the downfall, in the shape of disciplinary action over those numerous charges.

Also, the manager and the players could simply be running out of steam. If you've won everything to win in the game just how motivated are you going to be?

The defeats also throw up a curiosity in that you have very experienced players/manager who are totally inexperienced at....continually losing. Young players like Foden and Haaland have never known such adversity. Their boss is uncharted waters as well.

City have been far from popular winners over the last 10 years. Few will be untroubled at the prospect of kicking them when they are down.

I'd be reluctant to read too much into a single season (or more accurately, about 6 weeks that Man City haven't performed), but it certainly seems like Liverpool are the team to beat this season both in the EPL and potentially in the Champions League.

One of the greatest things about the era of Man U dominance was how Ferguson achieved it with essentially 3 different teams, with very little down time in the interim. Yes, getting the great long term players through the youth system helped, but there were clearly spells where rebuilding was both needed and successfully executed.

It was noted early in the season that City have quite a lot of aging players (hell, even John Stones is over 30 now), and possibly haven't been as active to bring in replacements as they could have been. Maybe that, and a loss of form and confidence, is the key to this season's under-performance. We'll see where things go over the next couple of transfer windows (and also with the FFP case) - I fully expect them to challenge for the title again in the next couple of seasons unless the FA grows a pair and severely punishes them for any proven financial wrongdoing.

You wonder if the League title is beyond them this season whether City can go all out to win the Champions League again.

A side as good as City really should have won more than one CL.

The owners of Man City came in before the current Fair Play rules were put into place and managed to pump in sovereign wealth funds to improve the facilities and expand the business (plus some creative accounting including the 115 questionable rule breaches) that effectively acted  to freeze in the pecking order.  So for example we have Newcastle currently owned by trillionaires that cannot input the amount of cash into the club they would like to.  Clubs getting promoted one year are the favorites to go straight down the next year or the year following that.