Dimitar Berbatov weighs in on Invincibles v Liverpool debate
Dimitar Berbatov has claimed that the Premier League is stronger now than when Arsenal went through an entire season unbeaten.
The Gunners went 49 games without tasting defeat on their way to winning the Premier League title in the 2003/2004 season.
This season, Liverpool threatened that record when they won their first 27 games of the season without defeat and Jurgen Klopp’s side also went more than 40 games without a defeat counting from the previous season.
There has been an ongoing argument on social media about which league season was tougher.
It is perceived in some places that this season isn’t as tough as the season that Arsenal was crowned the invincibles.
However, Berbatov begs to differ and the former Tottenham and Manchester United star claims that the league is tougher now than it was when Arsene Wenger’s team went “invincible”.
He reckons that the English top division can surprise you and that is why a team like Watford can beat an unbeaten Liverpool.
“The majority of people didn’t want to see Liverpool going unbeaten all season, I don’t know why,” he wrote as cited by the Express.
“Coming from my point of view and a United point of view, it was a bit of a relief, but you cannot deny that up to that point they deserved to be unbeaten.
“They were playing great football and fighting until the last minute.
“But, football is different to when Arsenal went unbeaten, teams are getting better and even the teams lower down the league can surprise you, like Watford did.”
Is the EPL tougher now than previously? Why should anyone imagine it is tougher than the Invincibles time when teams like Man City and Liverpool can get over 95 points and the rest are languishing in 60s and 70s? What has happened over the last three season is the fact that EPL has become a two team race, Man City and Liverpool, with the rest struggling for the remaining two Champions league places! This obviously means that the league is not as tough now as it was then when you had Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Aston Villa and Tottenham as strong contenders. There was no obvious dominant team then.
The question is “Does the league become tougher when there are two contenders for the title or when there are more teams?” Similarly does a big gap between the winner and the others indicate a tough league? I would agree that the 2015-16 season when Leicester won the trophy was tough because it was highly unpredictable up to the end. Even the subsequent season was tough but since then it has become a two horse race which makes it less competitive than before.
We did it – they didn’t. End of debate
Football was still football then with real tackles, imagine Neymar playing then he would have rolled around the world, Ashley Young would be world diving champion. These days you don’t have to tackle anyone and you still consider a foul.
I agree that it is less physical these day, but that was a transition that had to be made to protect players. Imagine paying millions for a player to have him nursing an injury for an entire season. Arsenal post invincibles suffered alot injuries to key players because of this tough tackling football “culture” that you seem to be endorsing.
I think it is really hard to quantify the difficulty of a league. What variables would you consider? Arsene Wenger said that the EPL has evolved in that the best players are concentrated in a few clubs, while as in the past it was a more even playing field. With that being said it would be easier for the “elite” teams to win the league or get a points tally north of 90. It will be more difficult for an outsider to win the league, hence why I believe Leicester City’s title win a very remarkable achievement.
The fact is our club did something unheard of for over a century, Queen Victoria was the monarch at the time. End of story until someone else repeats it. As for Berbatov’s comments, he would, wouldn’t he? The question I would ask him is, has the current Liverpool side have better players than Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pores, Dennis Bergkamp and last but not least Thierry Henry.?
Robert Pires!