English Football Losing Element of Surprise

For the last few years the English Premiership is dominated by 4 club, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool. These teams always sit on the top 4 of the table and play in the Champions League from time to time. The other 16 teams can only compete for 5th place without ever dreaming to step up to the top 4.
This domination is not something extraordinary since these 4 have the ability and resources to become the rulers of English football. They also proved to be the most stable teams in the league and able to maximize whatever they have.
However, I'm worried about this domination. I'm afraid that English football will lose the element of surprise because no other teams in England can break their domination. Whenever these 4 play, they will surely win because of their unmatched quality. It's difficult to imagine that a team like Watford can win agains Chelsea, for instance. Then, football will lose the element of surprise and potentially lose its attractiveness also. Football could become boring because we know who will win the game.
Something must be done to keep English football stay competitive and entertaining. One thing that makes these 4 teamn dominate is their star quality players with expensive salaries. Small teams can't afford big players with high salaries, so it is understandable if Watford can't compete Chelsea or Liverpool. If smaller teams can afford to pay expensive players, then there's a good chance that they can fight with those top 4 teams. Maybe salary cap rules can narrow this gap, like what they did in the NBA.

TOP 50 GOAL Ever

FC Barcelona

Club Details

Full name: Futbol Club Barcelona
Nickname(s): Barça, Barcelonistes, Blaugrana, Culés
Founded: 1899

Ground: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Capacity: 98,787

Technical Staff: Txiki Beguiristain
Head Coach: Frank Rijkaard
Assistant Coach: Johan Neeskens
2nd assistant Coach: Eusebio Sacristán
Goalkeeping coach: Juan Carlos Unzué
Academy director: José Ramón Alexanko

La Liga Champions: 1929, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1959, 1960, 1974, 1985, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006

Copa Del Rey Winners: 1910, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1942, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1997, 1998

European Cup Winners: 1992, 2006

European Cup Winners: 1979, 1982, 1989, 1997

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Winners: 1958, 1960, 1966

Other Honours: European Super Cup, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Trophy Play-Off, Copa Latina, Supercopa de España, La Liga del Mediterráneo, Copa Macaya/Catalan Champions, Copa Catalunya, Copa de la Liga

About FC Barcelona: FC Barcelona is one of the world’s most well known football clubs and was founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper. To this day the club is owned and presidents elected by the socis (club members) who numbered over 150, 000 in 2006 with 1782 penyes (officially-registered supporters clubs) also established.

As well as the football team which the club is based around they also fund other sports including basketball (Winterthur FCB), handball (FC Barcelona-Cifec) and ice hockey (FC Barcelona Sorli Discau) but it’s the football team FC Barcelona that is most instantly recognised around the world.

Founder members of La Liga in 1928, Barcelona have never been relegated from the Primera División and are also the inaugural winners of the La Liga title. In 2005/2006 they completed the double of La Liga champions and European Cup champions making them champions of both Spain and Europe.

Barcelona have long held onto their tradition of not allowing sponsors’ logos on their famous shirts but in the summer of 2006 they announced a five year deal with the charity Unicef to wear their logo prominently displayed on the team jerseys, as well as FC Barcelona donating a reputed $2m a year to the Unicef cause.

Barcelona have a reputation for playing attractive football stretching back throughout their history but they have often failed to live up to expectations in European competition as their relatively meagre haul of only two European Cups, both won in the past fifteen years, shows. Regardless of this, they have always attracted some of the best footballers in the world to the formidable Nou Camp and the current squad is no exception, boasting Brazilian World Player of the Year Ronaldinho, Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o, Argentina’s “new Maradona” Lionel Messi and Portuguese midfielder Deco.

2005-2006 Squad

Goalkeeper

1. VALDÉS
25. JORQUERA
28. RUBEN

Defence

2. BELLETTI
4. MÁRQUEZ
5. PUYOL
12. GIO
15. EDMÍLSON
23. OLEGUER

Midfielders

3. MOTTA
6. XAVI
10. RONALDINHO
18. GABRI
20. DECO
17. VAN BOMMEL
24. INIESTA

Forwards

7. LARSSON
8. GIULY
9. ETO'O
11. MAXI
14. EZQUERRO
30. MESSI

FC Barcelona Top 5 Goal

Wenger wanted Henry stay

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed he did not want star striker Thierry Henry to leave for Barcelona this summer.

The France international joined the Spanish giants last month following a successful eight-year spell with The Gunners.

Arsenal fans were disappointed to see their idol depart and Wenger has confirmed is was ultimately the French ace who decided to end his tenure in England.

Wenger believes Henry may have reached a point where he needs to win trophies and may not have been prepared to wait for Arsenal's youngsters to mature.

"Of course you don't want to lose a world-class player without having thought about it," he told the News of the World. "At the end of the day, it was his decision.

"He wanted to leave. You don't make a decision like that in a minute. You check to see if the player is really completely sure of what he wants to do.

"But Thierry Henry's decision is down to him. It's not my decision. He wanted to make the move.

"He's nearly 30. Maybe he didn't have the patience anymore to let the young team develop. You can understand that. It was a tough decision."

Meanwhile, Wenger believes Freddie Ljungberg will be an Arsenal player next season after failing to secure a summer move away from the Emirates.

The experienced Gunners boss is confident that following a failed Fiorentina switch Ljungberg will be with the North Londoners come August.

"At the moment Freddie stays," he continued. "I expect him to be here because he has not left yet and I'm 90 per cent sure he will be."