A popular debate has risen in recent years, questioning which soccer league in the world is the best, between the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, Ligue 1 in France, Serie A in Italy, and the Bundesliga in Germany. The “Big 5” leagues include the previously mentioned European leagues, with Premier Liga in Portugal also on the fringes of the European scene. However, there is no doubt that the Premier League is the greatest league in the world.

In European competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League have the best competition in all of Europe, with Real Madrid beating Liverpool Football Club (FC) in last year’s Champions League final, and Atletico Madrid beating Marseille in the Europa League final. This year, all four finalists in the two tournaments are English, with Liverpool playing Tottenham FC in the Champions League final, and Arsenal playing Chelsea in the Europa League final.

In the domestic Premier League, Manchester City were crowned champions on Sunday May 12, as they beat Brighton 4-1 to beat Liverpool in the league by one point, despite Liverpool’s undefeated home record, and their club record of 97 points. It was the highest point total in Premier League history to not win the league, with numerous records for Liverpool players, too. Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold combined for 23 assists, and Alexander-Arnold’s 12 assists a premier league record for most assists by a defender. Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, along with Arsenal superstar Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all scored 22 goals this season. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp coached fantastically this season, leading his team to within one point off of season winners Manchester City and to a Champions League final.

The Premier League dominated European football this season, having all four finalists in the two major European tournaments. In the Champions League, Liverpool and Tottenham beat teams of an incredible caliber, making their road extremely difficult, yet displayed their talent both domestically and internationally. Liverpool played Porto, Bayern Munich and Barcelona in the knockout stages and won, including a three goal comeback against Barcelona, shutting out the likes of Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski and Moussa Marega. Tottenham played Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Premier League title-winners, Manchester City.

English teams also dominated in lower level European tournaments. In the Europa League, Chelsea and Arsenal had slightly easier routes to the finals, but nonetheless displayed their talent and ability by beating some of the top sides in Europe, including Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter Milan and Benfica. Chelsea and Arsenal finished third and fifth respectively in the Premier League this season, dominating some of the top teams in other divisions on their route to the championship. According to a BBC article, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud scored a personal best of 13 goal contributions in 12 games, and Arsenal’s Pierre Emerick Aubameyang has ten goal contributions in ten games, the top two amounts of goal contributions in the Europa League this year.

Another display of English football’s power is their involvement in the transfer market. According to The Guardian, the Premier League was involved in 330.8 million pounds of transfers, roughly 43 percent of the money in the January transfer window. The next highest percentage was 27 percent, in the Bundesliga in Germany. This amount of money flows through the Premier League because of the level of competition is higher than the other leagues, with various winners and almost random outcomes for games.

Huddersfield, the twentieth place team who was relegated with more than five games left in the season, beat Wolverhampton twice this season out of their three wins. Wolves were the only team in Europe to beat all four finalists in the European competitions, and finished seventh in the league, yet they could not beat the twentieth place team in the Premier League. Manchester City finished on 98 points, beat and drew Liverpool in the league and scoring an astonishing 95 goals this year. Despite all their success, they lost to Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester City all within a month’s time, putting them at one point eight points behind Liverpool. Although Liverpool only conceded 22 goals this year, it was not enough to stop the dominant incumbent champions, Manchester City.

English football also has the highest attendance by average per capacity, at an astounding 99.43 percent of their average capacity getting filled at every game, whereas the next highest league, the Bundesliga, fills roughly 91.5 percent of their capacity. The other three major leagues fall far below 90 percent, and it goes to show just how much more involved English fans are than other European fans.

English football is undoubtedly the greatest league in the world. Their contributions in the transfer market, their attendance records, and their involvement in European football this year are all key displays of English football’s power and reach throughout the world.

ENGLISH DOMINATION: The Premier League super power teams are dominating World Football, winning the Champions League and Europa League with all four teams in the finals.