Effect of Fiorentino Perez and Sheikh Mansour on the EPL

Well lets start this article with a small question. Who is the best football player of this world? Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka or Iniesta. Well the answer is not the important part. The important part is that all of these players play in the La Liga. Now as 4 of the best players play in the La Liga, it should definately be by far the best league in the world. Going by plain logic, i would definately say so. But anyone who is interested in football will know that this is not the case. Well atleast La Liga should enjoy the highest viewership. Afterall, all the best players are there, so more people should watch it.

Here are the Nielsen Ratings thus far for La Liga games shown between August 31 and September 22, 2009:

1. Barcelona v Sporting Gijon, ESPN, Monday, Aug. 31, 4pm ET, 326,596 viewers2. Real Madrid v Xerez, ESPN2, Sunday, Sept. 20, 1pm, 228,1433. Racing de Santander v Barcelona, ESPN2, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 4pm, 121,4074. Valencia v Sporting Gijon, ESPN2, Sunday, Sept. 20, 3pm, 108,204

Nielsen Ratings have released the latest TV ratings for Premier League matches on ESPN2. With the TV ratings now available for August and September, 2009, here are the top 8 most viewed matches on ESPN2:

1. Liverpool v Aston Villa, Mon., Aug. 24, 3 pm, 398,391 viewers2. Wigan v Man United, Sat., Aug. 22, 10 am, 374,7993. Manchester City v West Ham United, Mon., Sept. 28, 3pm, 293,6004. Portsmouth v Everton, Sat., Sept. 26, 7:45am, 270,9275. Chelsea v Burnley, Sat., Aug. 29, 7:45 am, 253,9346. Liverpool v Burnley, Sat., Sept. 12, 10 am, 253,7797. Burnley v Sunderland, Sat., Sept. 19, 7:45 am, 199,3808. Chelsea v Hull City, Sat., Aug. 15, 7:45 am, 164,485

As we can see clearly from the data, La Liga is not the League watched by most number of people. EPL is the league watched by most number of people. This is because EPL has teams and competition, while La Liga has players. Just look at the number of clubs vying for the EPL trophy – Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool and Man City. While in La Liga it’s a two horse race. Whatever ground Sevilla had made, was made irrelevant by Mr. Fiorentino Perez. Also Valencia no longer remain the threat that they were under Benitez. Such is the gulf that till now Barcelona are unbeaten with 6 wins and 1 draw and no loses, and Real have lost just one match with 6 wins out of 7 played. While in EPL, we have Man United dropping 4 points in 9 games and Chelsea dropping 6 points in 9 games. In the last transfer window, on the one hand in La Liga we had Fiorentino Perez increasing the gap between the top 2 and rest of the league, while in EPL we had Mr. Perez again and Sheikh Mansour decreasing the gap between the top EPL Teams. Infact in EPL all the top 4 have been equally weakened which has resulted in a more homogenous and very competitive top 5.

Man United (the defending champions) were arguably the strongest team last year. So they were weakened the most with the loss of Ronaldo and Tevez. Liverpool were weakened by loss of Alonso and this has been seen very clearly this time around. Also they face problems in defense along with lack of transfer funds required to improve their depth. Chelsea have been weakened by the transfer ban. The loss of Guss Hiddink (although he was not to stay for longer) will also be a big loss as he had settled well with the team and the league. Ancelloti will take some time to get used to the league and the team. As for Arsenal, they were weakest of the top 4 last year. This time they have been strengthened bringing it at par with the rest. One more year means that Asenal’s youngsters are one year older. They also have got Rosicky back from injury and they have Arshavin. Fabregas and Va Persie are looking good as ever. Last entry into the top 5 are Man city courtesy of Sheikh Mansour. They have a very good team and a very capable manager. The early performances have prooved their top 5 billing. Add to these 5, teams like Sunderland, Totenham, Aston Villa, Everton and you end up with a very competitive League.

While some may argue that the exodus of players like Ronaldo have left a gap in EPL, truth is that although we will miss him, but we will surely enjoy the drama and edge of seat excitement that EPL will generate. People who like to watch skilfull football will surely prefer La Liga, but if you want drama, unpredictabity, competition, rivalary EPL is the thing to watch.