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Points gap grows in the top flight

The Premier League is looking more and more like an oligopoly of top clubs, but there is little agreement on solutions - or at least ones that would win support from clubs.

Promoted clubs struggling in the Premier League is nothing new but the nature of the struggle is. Over a quarter of a century, the points total required to survive in the top flight has continued to steadily fall. Yet the paradox is that it has never been harder to carve out the single-figure number of wins and draws required to remain in the division.

Finances are at the heart of the issue. Some senior figures find themselves shaking their heads in disbelief at the numbers involved now — unused substitutes earning £7 million per season at mid-table Premier League clubs 

If we rewind to the first 38-game Premier League season, 1995-96, and trawl through the years between then and now, two trends emerge. The first is that the top six have been steadily accumulating more points (an average of 75 per club over the last 10 seasons, compared to 70 per club over the competition’s first 10 seasons). The second is that the bottom three are picking up fewer points (an average of 30 per club over the last 10 seasons, compared to 33 over the first 10 seasons).

Focus only on the last five seasons and the pattern is even more marked in both cases.

Roman Abramovich’s takeover at Chelsea in 2003, followed by the emergence of Manchester City as a major force under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour five years later, contributed heavily to that financial chasm opening up within the league and, in simple terms, altering the distribution of points from top to bottom.


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