Premiership's critics are over-reacting

For a team roughly five games from their first double, Chelsea have taken a sustained kicking from media, pundits and fans. Some of it has clearly been deserved, but much has been mob overreaction to something akin to innovation. The rubbish spouted about the soul of the game has been tellingly absent from conversations about Alex Ferguson's record as a manager and a human being over the past 30 years. Likewise, the moral equivalence that surrounds most win-at-all-costs sportsmen – where almost anything is condoned and championed as necessary – is for some reason absent in the case of Kaiser Jose. So long as we're in the same boat as the little guy, it doesn't matter what he does. And anyway Jose has so much money anyone could do what he's doing.

Yeah whatever. This nostalgia for the time that Man United won seven titles in nine years is just a tad underwhelming, very disingenuous and quite predictable. The cult of nostalgia for the very recent past – like all walks of pop-culture – has festered in football. Most clubs have as a rule been poorly run but from next season it's reasonable to expect that there will be four teams capable of putting in a sustained title challenge from the beginning of the season. This is an improvement. The characters involved are also an improvement. From the bland narcissisms of Gerard Houllier and the witterings of David O'Leary we now have Rafa Benitez ready to scrap with any chairman who wants it and Jose Mourinho. We should be careful what we wish for.

The best squads all now have the same ambitions, same coaching abilities and structures and same analytical weapons to call on. They all have enough players to sustain challenges over two and preferably three competitions and the basics of the game are all played to a very high technical level. This is good for football, that there's been a blip at the end of this season for Chelsea and that Manchester United have broken free of Roy Keane's stranglehold without much trouble means from the first week next season it's game on. Liverpool and Arsenal aren't quite as convincing yet but between them they could be holding two successive Champions League trophies come next August. It's true football in Spain can be better to watch, but four realistic title contenders isn't something Spain or Italy or France can lay claim to.

Last week while all around were losing their heads, Jose's talent re-emerged. When he's funny and charming the entire world remembers him winning Champions League and Uefa Cup in successive seasons with Porto. When he's pouting, screeching and canceling press conferences, they think of his weasel words and diving players. By refusing to talk blandly about anything, he's made it difficult to do press conferences without causing trouble. He decided to joust with Ferguson through the medium of fable and talked of bird flu and his contract troubles. There've been mutterings about him fighting with Chelsea staff, from the owner down to the chief scout. If he wins the double it's still possible he could leave or be forced out – though less likely.

For a season that looked finished in November, it's been pretty entertaining. Whatever happens, we can look forward to competition at the top level next season at least.