LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 28: Eddie Nketiah celebrates scoring the 2nd Arsenal goal during the ... [+]
In the end, it was an easy day at the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal.
The players could bask in the glory of a 5-0 rout of Sheffield United and even be generous with who got to take a penalty.
There was little doubt who was the star of the show. Eddie Nketiah went home with the match ball after a scintillating hat-trick and, in his post-game comments, manager Mikel Arteta sang the young man’s praises.
“I’m really happy for him, an academy player, to experience in the Premier League a hat-trick,” said Arteta. “He needs to enjoy the moment. He fully deserves it and hopefully, there are many more to come. He’s got an eye for goal. You look at his stats from the last 10 years. What he’s done is remarkable. He needs minutes, opportunities and service. If he gets that, Eddie is going to score goals, that’s for sure.
“He’s a great player for Arsenal. He can be better, yes. And the best thing is the talent that he’s got, but especially his mentality is incredible. When he has that mentality with that talent, he’s going to get much better.”
The significance of Nketiah’s performance went beyond the three points it earned, this was a coming-of-age display.
Midweek there were fears for Arsenal’s frontline when the brittle fitness of Gabriel Jesus was demonstrated once again with his limping off the field having scored in the Champions League versus Sevilla.
But Nketiah considered the Brazilian’s understudy, banished any sense the Gunners were downgrading.
Having deputized aptly in Jesus’s absence last year and with an England international call-up under his belt, you would now suggest the youngster represents a noticeable downgrade.
But then again that was true of many Arsenal players against Sheffield United.
Leagues Apart
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 28: Oliver Norwood of Sheffield United during the Premier League match ... [+]
Nketiah’s inclusion in the starting lineup was one of five changes Arteta made as he rotated the squad ahead of an intense run of fixtures.
These changes were made without any real lessening of the value of the team.
Although Arsenal’s bench was worth close to $200 million, the sum was more than matched by the lineup’s $360 million cost.
The scale of the expenditure was emphasized by the fact Arsenal lined up with three youth team graduates, as well as Gabriel Martinelli who was acquired from Brazil whilst still a teenager.
That outlay contrasts sharply with Sheffield United who, despite some serious expenditure in the past five seasons, has still forked out substantially less in the club’s entire history than Arsenal has splashed on its current squad.
To put it in a more recent if well-worn comparative context, one player for Arsenal, Declan Rice, cost more than the entire team he was facing.
Considering this disparity the result should be no surprise. But following the easy win Arteta, in a not dissimilar to his former colleague Pep Guardiola, lavished praise upon the opponent.
“My personal opinion is the Premier League is the best but more difficult league in the world to compete,” he told the media.
“Big credit to Sheffield United. We have watched them against the big teams and how many problems they have caused those.”
The man in the opposition dugout Paul Heckingbottom took a slightly different view.
“Our league table probably goes up another 5 or 6 places [from the bottom of the table]. That’s our league table but at the minute we’re still bottom of that.
“We’re competing for different things to a Manchester United or an Arsenal, we know we are, but we’re still competing. That’s part of having that perspective and being realistic to where we are and what’s important to us.”
The Sheffield United manager’s brutally realistic description of the league demonstrated a depressing truth it rarely acknowledges: A Super League already exists.
It is practically impossible for Sheffield United to be able to compete with Arsenal or any of the other so-called ‘Big Six.’ This summer, the two weakest of that group, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, strengthened their squads so they are now well ahead of their rivals let alone a newly promoted team
However, complaints about economic disparity rarely use these types of comparisons.
Polarisation
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 28: Eddie Nketiah of Arsenal lays the ball off under pressure from Aston ... [+]
Perhaps it is because much of the debate on finances is driven by the biggest teams the financial gap to champions Manchester City is where the debate rages.
The hand-wringing by journalists always focuses on whether the top of the leagues is becoming too predictable. Far less attention is paid to the polarisation-cutting teams at a moderately lower level adrift.
Sheffield United let us not forget, were the team who only four years ago took the Premier League by storm achieving a 9th-placed finish.
The subsequent decline was evidence that even buoyed by an against-the-odds sporting achievement, a club’s financial bottom line determines long-term success.
As accountancy giants Deloitte has been warning for many years now, the polarisation within soccer is becoming more extreme every year.
The most guilty party is the Premier League which is moving ahead not only of Europe at an alarming rate but also the division below it.
“There is no doubt that the Premier League is over the hill to a large extent,” Tim Bridge, lead partner for Deloitte’s Sports Business Group told City A.M. after its most recent review of soccer finance.
“It would take something seismic for any of the other leagues to compete in revenue terms but also in popularity terms. The way that the Premier League is consumed around the world compared with other leagues, it is very clearly the market leader.
“The challenge now is what the Premier League does next because there is a real feeling across the industry that if you can go more direct to the fan, both internationally and domestically, you can have more success. Because in the next 10 years, we expect the fan data that clubs and leagues hold will be pivotal in driving the significant growth of the future.
“While never say never, it’s safe to say all those other leagues have got a real challenge on their hands to get anywhere near the Premier League.”
Looking at the current standings you see the extent of that disparity. Glued to the bottom with just 1 point in 10 games is Sheffield United closely followed by the other two promoted clubs Burnley and Luton Town.
But we shouldn’t be surprised by that. If Arsenal can field a second-string XI and still rout a side in the lower reaches then the so-called ‘competitiveness’ the Premier League always proclaimed to possess has disappeared.
