Are we creeping unwittingly towards a Super League?

There’s something very odd about the PL this season - the worst I can remember since the league was formed back in 1992.

One or two of you didn’t like it when I said a couple of weeks ago we could give the trophy to Liverpool. How about now? Agree yet?

There simply isn’t a challenge. There hasn’t been a genuine challenger to Arne Slot’s team all season. That’s why I’ve said - time and again - I don’t know how good this Liverpool side is.

Look. They’re top and deserve to be so. They’ve won it because they’ve been better than the rest. But there hasn’t really been a ‘rest’. There hasn’t been a test.

This week will give us a better idea of their quality. If they get past Paris and win at Wembley that will be a real statement. Mind you - they won’t do either if they play as badly as they did in Paris and during the first half v Saints.

Has a little bit of fatigue set in I wonder? Certainly a little bit of doubt must’ve done. Finally - Slot has got his first real test this week. What if Paris turn them over? And they could. They’re good enough. What mood would Liverpool go to Wembley in then?

I hope they do beat Paris. I always want success for our teams in Europe.
But, having said that, I’d like to see Newcastle win the Carabao Cup. They are long overdue - way overdue - and it would be reward for the work Eddie Howe has done at St James’.

Back to my point though - it’s the lack of a challenge to Liverpool in the league I can’t fathom. Why is that? They’ve all gone backwards - including Arsenal. I happen to think if Arteta’s side had simply been as good as they were last season they’d have won the title. But they haven’t been.

It isn’t the lack of a centre-forward that’s cost them either. Liverpool have won it without one. City have the best in the business, but it hasn’t helped them this season. There’s a lot more to it than that.

Arteta knows that as well, which is one reason he walked away from Sky’s reporter post-match. What a daft time that reporter chose to ask about Arsenal not having signed a ‘proper’ 9. He got what he deserved - short shrift.

I don’t usually like to see reporters dismissed like that. I don’t like how Guardiola looks down his nose at an inquisitor, but the job after a game requires a touch and feel.

Sky’s man showed neither, but I guess his bosses will be congratulating themselves on the clicks they got. It’s sad that matters more than anything else nowadays.

To digress a little further - I know the wall was further away from the ball than Anthony Taylor’s house is from Old Trafford, but that’s not why Fernandes scored. The keeper got it all wrong. He was too far to his right. A right footer can’t score into that corner from the angle Fernandes was - unless he’s David Beckham.

Raya should’ve been in the middle of his goal. There was only one place Fernandes was going to put the ball. If a left-footer had been standing with him that would’ve caused some doubt - his target would’ve been to Raya’s right - but as we know, only Fernandes was over the ball.

Anyway - Arsenal have come up short. So have Villa. If they’d had a go they might have got close - or even won it, but I’ve had the feeling all season Emery has identified the CL as his primary target. He loves Europe. Villa surprised us all back in 1982 so why not again? That’s maybe how Emery is thinking. Europe is certainly his signature dish.

Tottenham’s (😂) team v Bournemouth made clear Postecoglou’s intentions. It’s Europe or bust for him. And Amorim. And Arteta now. And Maresca Wait a minute. Are we seeing the seeds of a Super League being sown? An era where success in Europe is considered more important than domestic success?

It’s a subject for another time - but mark my words, it will happen. Maybe not in my time doing this job - but it will happen.

Did you notice the crowds in the C’ship this weekend? Wow. There were 20,000+ at nine different games (ok Burnley were a few hundred short of that mark) - in excess of 30,000 at Coventry and Sunderland. More than 26,000 watched Birmingham in League One. The EFL are clearly doing something right.

In my view - no VAR would be one reason. It’s football how it used to be. Genuine. Authentic. And it’s all the more enjoyable to watch as a result.

Justice was eventually done at Coventry when Bobby Thomas smashed in our winner. We should’ve had a pen and Stoke’s 2nd was clearly off-side. Fans of tech have said to me ‘VAR would've picked those errors up’. No. Officials doing their jobs properly should’ve picked both incidents up - they were both clear enough - but I’d still rather live with that jeopardy than technology.

It’s a massive week in Europe - all of it on beINSPORTS. We’re going to lose some big clubs in the CL. I wonder if the owners of those clubs are thinking like me?

The ‘big league’ was a clear success. Agree? 27 of the 36 teams had something to play for on the final day of that format. So - why not revert to a league system for the second phase - keeping all the big clubs involved longer? You watch - coming to a tv near you soon……