For Manchester City fans, a fourth Premier League title in a row is something to celebrate.
For rival supporters, it can seem to be a time to find flaws, with terms like “boring” and “farmers’ league” used after City’s sixth title in seven years under Pep Guardiola.
But they hardly romped to the crown.
In fact, for a fifth time in their eight league title wins, the race went to the final day. And four last-day shootouts for the English top-flight championship in the past 10 years is the same number as in Spain’s La Liga.
Across the season as a whole, it was arguably the tightest battle the Premier League had seen since its inception in 1992 – data I have seen shows the average points gap between the top two was 1.5.
Liverpool , who in the end fell short, actually spent more days top of the table – 87 – than the 76 of both City and Arsenal.
In the past decade, there have been four winners of the Premier League.
That is the same as in Italy. In Germany, Bayer Leverkusen have just ended Bayern Munich’s 11-year hold on the Bundesliga, while only Lille and Monaco have broken Paris St-Germain’s grip in France over the past 10 years.
And in terms of spending, both Chelsea and Tottenham spent more than City last summer. The Gunners only a few million less.
“Farmers’ league”?
