Premier League vs La Liga - Which is the best?

For years, the English premier league as been the undisputed king of football. Producing the best teams, the best drama, and the best competition. However over recent years the quality of football coming from our shores pales in comparison compared to that of the likes of Spain's La Liga.

In the 2007 - 2008 season the English premier league had all four representatives in the UEFA Champions League quarter finals, and three of the four teams in the semi finals where also from the premier league, the exact same scenario took place in the following season. However in the 2014 - 2015 season not a single English team made it past the first knockout round. However in the 2013 - 2014 season, the final of the champions league included two Spanish teams, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid. and in the 2014 - 2015 season Real Madrid and Barcelona both progressed to the semi final of the competition, with the Catalan giants eventually winning the competition.


The English top flight boasts to have the best competition out of Europe's elite, poking fun at leagues such as the Bundesliga & La Liga for constantly having one or two front runners year after year. However in recent years this theory can perhaps be proven otherwise. The premier league may claim to provide the best competition, but the title race in England has only really seen the addition of Manchester City in this century, with the 'big four'(Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool) dominating England, even with Liverpool dropping down the table in the last few seasons. Well if it was a battle of those said teams season after season England may still have a case for the best competition, as a five way title race is very rare in football. However it isn't as straight forward as that. Since the introduction of the premier league we have seen five different teams walk out champions, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers. Now, if you remove the pre mentioned sides, only two other teams have featured in the top two of the Premier League (Newcastle United and Aston Villa), but like Blackburn Rovers these two sides have since dropped off massively, and are no where near the title picture.

Season after season the Premier league, which claims to be the most competitive of Europe's top leagues, is dominated by the same big names, however if you look deeper, the competition again takes a hit. Two of the 'giants' of English football have failed to win a league title in a long period of time, Arsenal have not been champions on England since 2004, and Liverpool have failed to win a title in the premier league era! This reduces the competition levels even more, meaning since 2005 only Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea have been crowned champions of England. However, although Manchester United have won the most league titles since that year, in the last couple of seasons we have seen a decrease in success for the red devils, which has lead to Chelsea and Manchester City dominating the division. These two teams have won one Champions league title between them (Chelsea 2012), how can the Premier league claim to be the best league in the world if out of their two front runners, they have only one champions league title between them? When the Champions League is seen as the elite competition of European football. So not only do the English top flight sides pale in comparison in Europe's elite competition compared to other European league competitors in recent years, but it also fails to produce the 'competition' that had made it famous.

The main reason other European Leagues have, particularly La Liga, have struggled the stake a claim for the best league in the world is the lack of competition, between 2003 and 2013 Only Barcelona & Real Madrid won the league title in Spain, and this is perhaps the main reason for an argument against the Spanish top tier being the best in world football. Since 2009, La Liga has also had, without a doubt, the two best players in the world, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two men who have won the last seven Ballon D'ors between them. However many people have said that due to the poor quality of sides these two players where playing on a weekly basis, because of this, although those two players where playing of Spain's shores, it does not contribute to La Liga's argument to be the best.

However, just like the performances in the champions league can argue against the Premier League for being the best, it helps argue La Liga's case. In the last seven years, four of the seven champions league winners have been Spanish clubs, including the winners of the competition for the last two years (2013-14 Real Madrid & 2014-15 Barcelona). Being the top competition in European football, the success in the champions league by Spanish clubs really helps argue the leagues case for being the best.

Despite Continental success, until 2014 the argument still stood against La Liga that the competition level was far to low to be considered the best, that is until Athletico Madrid won the league title, at the home of the Catalan giants Barcelona, in the same season Athletico also reached the champions league final (losing after extra time to Real Madrid). In their attempts to retain their title in the 2014-15 season Athletico pushed city rivals Real Madrid all the way in the battle for second place, showing that Diego Simeone's side have the capabilities to compete with the best in Spain, showing that the competition levels in the domestic league in Spain is increasing. Also players such as Neymar, Luis Suarez, Garath Bale, Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez and many other big signings have helped increase the quality of players playing week in, week out in Spain. The increasing competition, dominance on the Continental stage, and outstanding class of players really makes it hard to argue against La Liga being one of, if not the best the best league in Europe.

Other leagues such as Germany's Bundesliga & Italy's Seria 'A' both also could have claim to the spot as Europe's number one league, but both perhaps are missing either the competition in the League, for example, Bayern Munich's dominance on the Bundesliga. Or the competition on the bigger stage, such as Seria 'A' , the Italian top tier only have had one finalist in the competition since 2010 (Juventus 2015).

In my opinion, the La Liga has recently became the out right best league in the world, personally i believe the dominance on the Continental stage by Spanish sides is to big to ignore, and the lack of success for English teams in recent years is the reason for them being knocked off of the podium. Will the Premier League ever get back to the top of world football? only time will tell and with Lionel Messi's Barcelona currently dominating world football, and Cristiano Ronaldo's goals leading to success for Real Madrid, La Liga looks like it could be on top for a long time.