Chelsea ran way this year, but don’t count on Arsenal, Man United or City to lag for long

Jonathan Wilson writes Chelsea may have faced little serious competition this year, but the Premier League isn't nearly as top-heavy as its European counterparts.

Chelsea celebrate with the Premier League trophy on Sunday after their final match of the season. Andy Rain / EPA / May 24, 2015

That Chelsea were champions was confirmed with the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on the first weekend of May.

In the first half of the season, Jose Mourinho’s side were the best attacking team in the division and in the second half of the season, they were the best defensive side.

Chelsea were utterly dominant: from the moment they beat Burnley on the first Monday of the season, they looked like champions, and even the slight wobble in December when Manchester City pulled level on points was over quickly. The temptation then is to lump the Premier League with the top flights of Italy, Germany and France and see Chelsea's success as evidence of the declining importance of domestic competition in an era of super-clubs.

England remains a unique case among the major European leagues.

On the simplistic level, it is the only major league to have seen three clubs win the championship over the past three seasons. In Italy, Germany and France, the same team – Juventus, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain – has won the league in each of the past three years.

In Spain there is a clear duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Atletico, for all their heroics in 2013/14, a little way behind.

Perhaps Financial Fair Play, had it been allowed to continue in its present guise, would have further entrenched the small group of teams at the top of the English game. But even then the spread would probably have been wider than elsewhere.

Manchester United and Arsenal, because of the size of their stadiums and commercial operations, have a clear advantage, while Chelsea and Manchester City could probably have directed enough of their owners' wealth into the club to carry on competing.

As it is, the relaxation of FFP restrictions means they can be less circumspect and then there is still the possibility of Liverpool or (less plausibly) Tottenham Hotspur doing what Borussia Dortmund or Atletico did and developing a squad that challenges in the short term (as Liverpool did in 2013/14 before their best player, as inevitably happens, was taken from them by one of the super-clubs).

So, although Chelsea won the league with an ease familiar to fans in Italy, France and Germany, the reasons are different.

Mourinho always wins the league in his second season at a club and he did so again. Chelsea were tough, efficient and well-drilled and, although the exhaustion they demonstrated at the end of the season suggested he may in future need to rely on a larger core, they would have been extremely strong contenders in any circumstances.

As it was, though, their passage to the title was made easier by the fact that all their rivals were for some reason short of their best.

City, the champions, seem capable of hitting the heights only in alternate years, as though having won the title they cannot then pick themselves up again to attack the following season with the same verve and desire.

Attempts to refresh the squad, which may have alleviated that sense of jadedness, have, by and large, failed. Of all the players brought in over the past four years – at a cost of about £340 million (Dh1.92 billion) – only Fernandinho and Martin Demichelis have really established themselves.

It looks increasingly as though Manuel Pellegrini will stay on as coach, but there are likely to be significant changes to personnel this summer, which may again mean it takes them time to get going next season.

United are baffling. They went from poor performances and poor results to poor performances and good results, then good performances and good results, and now poor performances and indifferent results.

With sizeable spending expected in the summer and Louis van Gaal beginning to impose his ideas, it is reasonable to assume that the glimmers of something special may become something more concrete next season.

For Arsenal this past season was a case of being familiar but slightly better. Had it not been for a slow start – two wins in their first eight games – they may have mounted a realistic challenge.

The present squad is probably still short in a couple of areas but they are closer than at any point for perhaps a decade to having a side that could potentially win the title.

Liverpool are struggling with the issue any side of their stature faces in the modern game: their best players are plucked away at the end of each season.

Tottenham may progress in a second season under Mauricio Pochettino but at the moment they seem stuck in a rut.

Chelsea, with a settled squad and perhaps a couple of targeted reinforcements, will probably begin next season as favourites but as rivals emerge from seasons of transition, they are unlikely to run away with the title as they did this year.

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