The Premier League has evolved into playground football – and that's great

There are two types of interesting soccer matches.

In some matches, the world's best players compete for team movement and individual quality, creating captivating moments of sports drama. There are also cases where some of the world's best players forget years of physical and mental training for reasons best known to themselves, and chaos ensues.

The 2023-24 Premier League season perfectly incorporates both. The world's richest league is home to some of the most technically and physically gifted players on the planet, and not only matches where viewers can discover challenging teams at the forefront of the sport. He has also produced matches where we forget the need for central midfield. And they leave their talented attackers completely free on set pieces.

Centrists lament Manchester City's “tactically interesting'' chess match against Arsenal, which drew 0-0 on March 31st, only for Erik ten Hag's side to win 3-2 four days later. He must have been overjoyed to see the ridiculous scenes that unfolded during Chelsea's match against Manchester United. Although they were up by a point in the 100th minute, they still looked like they were going to lose.

But what was really impressive about what happened at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night was that it wasn't even surprising. Not this season anyway. This was the sixth game of the season with 4 wins and 3 losses, which is already tied for the highest total in the Premier League era, along with the 1994-95 season (when the Premier League consisted of 22 clubs) and the 2001-02 season. .

This season has also seen a sharp increase in the number of goals per game, a knock-on effect of the significant amount of stoppage time provided at the end of each half. The team is rapidly improving on both sides of the ball, but in a league rife with tactical variation, troubling injury spikes, and refereeing controversies, gutsy rest defense and consistent out-of-possession form are the only ones. There are only so many things that can be fully explained.

When it was founded in 1992, Sky Sports promoted the Premier League as a competition in which any team could beat any other team. That marketing concept has been adopted and tweaked for the 2023-24 season of competition. Any match can end on virtually any scoreline, and the match goes from a complex tactical battle to an incomprehensible brawl with the swing of someone's boot.

To paraphrase Mike Tyson's famous quote: “Every team in the Premier League has a plan until someone hits a cross at the back post.”

To heighten the sense of drama, there are more late-game goals than at any point in the Premier League era (another consequence of the increased stoppage time). After 303 games played (accurate as of April 5th), no other Premier League season has seen more goals scored after 85 minutes.

Andrea Agnelli and Gerard Pique have both attempted to argue (somewhat misleadingly) that young people with short attention spans have little interest in watching the entire match. It seems they want to try that out in the 2023-24 season by packing in some drama in the final stages.

Jurgen Klopp, Mikel Arteta and Josep Guardiola may be competing for the league title with a hand-picked squad, but they want to play a defensive style of football this season but are finding it difficult to defend well. There are some teams (Crystal Palace, Brentford, etc.).

There is another group of clubs who are the most dangerous on the counter-attack, but who have little idea how to defend (Manchester United and West Ham).

And some teams want to press high up the field, but are (understandably) too tired/injured/prematurely aged from playing too much football since 2019 and can't keep up with the physical demands. We have players who can't do it (Tottenham and Newcastle United).

As a result, it was a season in which the number of comeback points per game increased more than ever before.

And that number continues to grow.

• There have been only 10 goalless draws so far, and with 77 games remaining, the percentage of “boring draws” is set to be the lowest in the tournament's history.
• Almost half of Luton's results this season have been decided by goals scored after the 80th minute.
• Brighton have not recorded back-to-back wins in the Premier League since September and have never finished in the bottom half of the table this season.
• Fulham defeated Manchester United, Brighton and Tottenham 8-1 on aggregate, but conceded six goals against the bottom four sides, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest.

Is this shift to a high-scoring frenzy a happy byproduct of playing extraordinarily talented players in long games? Or is it the unfortunate conclusion of back-to-back seasons with compressed football schedules and revised offside and handball laws? Your mileage may vary.

At the end of the day, the question is: Is this brand of expensive pandemonium good or bad?

Two of the most expensive teams in world soccer wrestled each other Thursday night with the style and panache of two drunken amateurs throwing haymakers. Was this enlightening for the league?

Perhaps not, but the Premier League prides itself on grudge matches rich in stories, as well as technically excellent matches. Chelsea 4-3 Manchester United satisfied the former, but Thursday's other match, Liverpool 3-1 Sheffield United, answered other needs.

Football is at its best when all players on the field perform at their best and compete against each other's mastery.it is at that point interesting When very talented people start making very stupid mistakes and control methods revert to chaos.

There's a certain joy in seeing what is considered the pinnacle of club football resemble a schoolyard kickabout.

The Premier League's financial weight gives it a strong claim to being the world's 'best' league. This season's high-scoring take on ridiculousness may confirm that it's the funniest thing on the planet.

(Top photo: Getty Images, Design: Eamonn Dalton)