European football is seen by many to be the peak of the footballing world, due to its huge amount of top clubs past and present and competitiveness year in and year out. However, in the past decade in France and Germany especially the domestic leagues have been dominated by one team.
In France, this was Paris Saint Germain who has won eight out of the last 10 Ligue 1 titles, with AS Monaco and LOSC Lille prevailing for rare successful seasons. In Germany, Bayern Munich have been Bundesliga champions for 10 successive seasons and with the addition of Sadio Mane, it will be incredibly difficult to stop them from extending their streak this season.
SADIO MANE IS THE MEN’S AFRICAN PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2022 🇸🇳 pic.twitter.com/ePDye2Nqe4
— GOAL (@goal) July 21, 2022
Manchester City are also starting to dominate England and Pep Guardiola has added to his arsenal this summer and they show no signs of slowing down.
All of these teams are still most bookmakers’ favourites to be title winners when it comes to the end of the season. As a customer in New Zealand you’ll have lots of platforms inviting you to “use our bonus code” – for example, you could get a special offer when opening an account with a given company. But regardless of which offer you take up and how you choose to use it – betting in-play or on an outright market – it would be brave to bet against them.
However, the beginning of the season has seen some surprise teams compete at the top of the table. Olympique Marseille has had an impressive start to the season and despite PSG’s new signings, the Parisians may be pushed all the way this season. With PSG also expected to reach the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League, the focus on other competitions and increased fixtures could present Marseille with a serious opportunity to dethrone Lionel Messi’s team this season. New signing Alexis Sanchez has started the season in form scoring four goals in seven matches for the league leaders during the first international break.
In Germany, Bayern has struggled drawing three and losing one in their opening fixtures and high-flying Union Berlin remains invincible. At this early stage, it would be bold to not still favour the Bavarians with the stunning squad they possess and their experience of winning season after season relentlessly. But there are certainly problems with the current Munich outfit that do not look like the unstoppable force of the past and they need to be solved quickly.
The Premier League perhaps presents the most interesting and competitive race at the top so far. Arsenal began the season well and framed themselves as title contenders which is a considerable improvement after they failed to secure UCL qualification last season. Mikel Arteta’s side’s biggest improvements have come from the signings from title holders City of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus has begun the season in stunning form and looks set to compete for the golden boot which is a typical feature of a striker in a title-winning side.
Europe’s top five leagues appear so competitive this season that even the most dominant teams could potentially be dethroned, there will certainly not be any titles won in early 2023 this season with the challengers set to push the holders all of the ways.
