The Independent Premier League
There are plenty of barometers of the Premier League’s strength. One of the more ridiculous is to say the sixth-best team in Europe are only the 14th finest in England. It can be a quirk of autumnal tables: with trips to Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain to come, Newcastle may not finish sixth in the initial phase of the Champions League, even if an Aston Villa-style surge to the quarter-finals does not seem utterly implausible. Nor, in all probability, will a side who finished…
