Manchester City still top of the Premier League but the race is very much on.

 Manchester City still top of the Premier League but the race is very much on.

In the old days both Liverpool and Manchester United were the heavyweight giants of the game, the teams who pulled no punches but left substantial collateral damage wherever they went. Liverpool had an overpowering air about them, Anfield was the proverbial fortress and the team were ultimately unbeatable for season upon season. During the 1970s and 1980s they enjoyed the kind of nationwide domination that could never be vanquished. They were the bosses and governors, the leading knights of the realm, football monarchs who became so widely revered and feared that such a remarkable monopoly would never be broken until Manchester City came along.

In the teams fashioned, engineered, carved and sculpted by both the legendary Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan there was an invincibility about the Anfield side that most of us could only wonder at awe stricken. Football has always been measured by the outright winners, the successful and outstanding teams who just maintain their consistency for year upon year. Liverpool, with the likes of Terry Mcdermott, Ray Kennedy, Ian Callaghan, Steve Heighway, Kevin Keegan and John Toshack left tantalising tapestries on the pitch, knitting together the kind of attacking movements which very few were prepared to emulate nor surpass.

Then Liverpool continued to exert an even more profound influence on the game when Graham Souness, Ronnie Whelan, Alan Kennedy and Sammy Lee left an enduring hallmark on the game with swift passing and purposeful football that had both simplicity and a measured authority that had no imitators. There was a palpable grace and nobility about Liverpool that was deservedly rewarded with old First Division League Championships seemingly by the dozen and those wonderful European Cups that sat so masterfully in their trophy cabinet.

Then there was firstly Ron Atkinson followed by the inimitable Sir Alex Ferguson who transformed, revolutionised and then converted Manchester United from the prosaic to the perfect. Manchester United, under Ferguson's supervision, steadily and then rose from the ashes of old First Division obscurity to the crowning glory of serial Premier League winners. When David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes gelled together beautifully and skilfully the football world sat up and took immediate notice. Trophies arrived by the lorry load, culminating in that dramatic Champions League Final victory over Bayern Munich in 1999 thus rubber stamping an unforgettable Treble of FA Cup, Premier League and European Cup.

But now we have Manchester City and Arsenal, very much in the same mould as Liverpool and Manchester United. City are now Treble winners as well in the aforesaid competitions. Football has never been so spoilt but then who would have believed that Nottingham Forest, under the iconic and inspirational leadership of the gloriously opinionated Brian Clough would also win both the old First Division in consecutive seasons and two European Cup trophies against both Malmo and Hamburg?

Over the weekend Manchester City won their fifth successive match with a deeply impressive and ultimately overwhelming 3-1 victory at West Ham's London Stadium. Arsenal, breathing down City's necks, also claimed a narrow 1-0 win at Goodison Park where Everton look like an old mahogany desk that hasn't been varnished for years. For both Everton and of course Manchester United these are troubling times, two teams completely lacking in any confidence and wondering if anybody can find the right medicine for them. United were beaten by a delightfully uninhibited and carefree Brighton who, at the moment at least, fear no-one at all and suddenly the picture looks extremely bleak for United's manager Erik Ten Hag.

So this is where football bears relevant comparison to the world of music. Way back in the mists of time most of thought the Beatles would never cease their prolific output of honeyed lyrics, sweet phraseology and unforgettable songs that had a literary quality that resonated throughout the 1960s. We remembered the jazz duopoly of Miles Davis and John Coltrane before casting our eyes across to BB King while always trying to assess the merits of all four without rushing to any hasty judgments. Of course there will always be an aesthetic quality about jazz that can never be categorised by any of the purists but football is another case in point and everything has to be seen in perspective.

Then there was the golden age of photography when David Bailey and Lord Snowdon battled it out for the right to be considered the greatest snapper. Both Bailey and Snowdon were irresistibly attracted to the great and good of the celebrity world and once again greatness is surely subjective. The rarefied worlds of sport, fashion, music and art are always evolving at a frightening speed and football often finds itself in a head on battle with itself when the fans maintain that their team are the best and pre-eminent of all time.

So as another Premier League weekend of football wends its way to another conclusion, both City, Arsenal and Tottenham very much the pace setters. The rest of the field is evenly strung out, puffing and panting somewhat desperately and grasping at valuable three point wins. We would of course predict without any shadow of doubt that all three of the above will keep kicking their legs for a sprint finish towards the end of the season. But football is not athletics although stamina and endurance can often be regarded as vital aids to success come the last weekend of April and the beginning of May.

At the moment all three promoted sides to the Premier League maybe regretting the day when somebody gave them permission to mix with the wealthy and elite. Luton have yet to register a morale boosting victory in any of their first four games of the season and Sheffield United are just lacking in their traditional steel while Burnley have yet to set the world alight with their football. Under Vincent Kompany we felt sure that something startling and momentous would kick start Burnley's season. But the lights are still dim in Lowry country and the old cotton mills look as forlorn and derelict as they always were. Burnley are finding their feet but it looks remarkably like treacle rather than dainty and decisive. 

Wherever you are now with your football heroes, it has to be admitted that at some point Premier League leaders Manchester City will have to be stopped in their tracks. To win the Premier League for the fourth successive time bears echoes with Celtic in the Scottish Premier League where the green and white hoops only had to wake up in the morning to win the title over and over again. Now of course Rangers are back in direct contention with Celtic but to suggest that City could ever be a Celtic or Rangers equivalent in England would be completely inappropriate. Anyway folks enjoy your week and don't forget. The football season is a marathon rather than a gentle stroll down a country lane so let's see where we are in roughly late November and the beginning of the festive season. There's a long way to go yet.