Best season ever?

Cor! 8-2! Blimey! 6-1! Wowzers! 5-3! Swizzle! 4-3!

Just some of the sounds you will have no doubt heard during this year’s Premier League season. And there’s no question such unrepressed emotion about the football so far is justified. Defences seem to have gone to sleep whilst attackers are running riot. The top teams are collapsing against one another leaving the title race gaping, whilst the bottom teams battle on in promise of a gutsy relegation fight.

This year was perfectly poised to be an absolute classic. Manchester United’s rather uninspiring summer signings looked like it would put them in difficult stead for the year. In contrast, their rivals Man City could boast a gamut of new recruits that gave them the potential to really tough it out with the big boys. Meanwhile, Chelsea would have to deal with another new manager, Arsenal seemed to be crumbling, Liverpool were resurgent. It was going to be amazing.

And by God, has it delivered, but perhaps not in the way we expected. United remained relatively firm up until their hammering at the hands of Man City. Their transfer deals looked to be working a treat with Jones holding firm in defence and Young adding a classy creative spark up front. Furthermore, youngsters such as Cleverley and Welbeck began to look the finished article, integrating themselves into the first eleven seamlessly.

However, the aforementioned thrashing by Manchester City has certainly rubber stamped a more-than-worthy challenge from United’s pesky rivals. City’s potential was really up in the air until that first whistle was blown – nobody knew if the team was truly going to hack it at the top following their FA Cup victory. Also, with so many fresh faces thrown into the side, it was not impossible for the team to become unbalanced.

Despite this, they have absolutely flourished in the league this year. The team looks strong in every department and certain players, such as David Silva and Edin Dzeko, ooze quality. Few would doubt the title credentials of City, who are having a season that speaks parallels with Chelsea first EPL title win in 2005. That said, if they are the best side in the league it’s not by a huge margin, and with this in mind it’s all setting up for an epic Battle of Manchester this year.

But what of Chelsea? The team who often threaten to dominate during the early stages of the year? With Andre Villas-Boas in charge it could be said, with due fairness, that this is a transitional season for Chelsea. A manager so young will need time to develop his own team and style, but this is not to say Chelsea are definitely out of the title race this year. So far they have played some impressive football, with Mata looking all the £24m that was paid for him. However, the defence looks jaded, as evidenced by the 5-3 thriller that saw Chelsea defeated. Furthermore, Torres still isn’t back to form and it looks like Drogba and Anelka are starting to wane.

The other contenders would normally be Arsenal; however they have been through a real crisis at the start of this season. An uninspiring start was followed by the stupendously tragic 8-2 defeat to Man United. Since then they have been inconsistent and haven’t looked at all like title challengers. Only Robin van Persie’s extraordinary form has kept heads above water in North London, and his influence has been enough to see the team win a few games and rise to 7^th. It’s perhaps not a complete disaster, but it’s certainly not encouraging for The Gunners.

And how about Liverpool, the team who spent big money to establish themselves as a successful team once more? It’s been on and off for them. Their form has been solidly Europa-League standard, but they are lacking the spark that will make them potential championship winners once more. Suarez has had a funny year, looking classy but not so effective. Gerrard has returned from his long injury, which is a big boost, but again it seems as if Liverpool’s season will be one of consolidation.

All this, combined with the excellent form of Tottenham and Newcastle, and the trials and tribulations of the promoted teams, balances the season in a spectacular way. I can’t remember a time where I’ve felt more excited about the possibilities of the year. We’re going to have an incredible title race, the chase for Europe will be superb, and the relegation fight will include unbearable tension. More to the point though, the games themselves have been excellent examples of interesting, attacking and incident-filled football.

No season have I ever, so often, come away from watching a game and remained on that high for days after. Long may that last.