After being unceremoniously dumped from the World Cup, English fans can at least take solace in knowing that the Premier League has so far been the most dominant league in Brazil.

In addition to being the most represented league (113 players), the Premier League has accounted for 20 goals after each nation has played their first two games.

That’s two more than the Bundesliga and eight more than the La Liga. The Italian Serie A, which has the second largest contingent of players at the World Cup (82), has been the source of only five goals.

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Taking the proportion of players into account, the numbers are a little less flattering for the English top flight, with an average of one goal being scored for every 5.6 players. The German Bundesliga has claimed one goal per 4.4 players, while France’s Ligue 1 and the American MLS also boasts a 4.4 player-to-goal ratio.

But the numbers still tell a golden story for the league that has given us Sir Alex Ferguson, the somehow accepted term WAG’s, and that finish to the 2011/12 season.

While 18 goals have come from the Bundesliga – among them, the only World Cup hat-trick and John-Anthony Brook’s winning header for the USA – only 14 individual players have found the back of the net.

In contrast, the Premier League’s 20 goals have been shared between 18 individual players, including, ironically, Luis Suarez’s two goals that brought England to its knees and Bryan Ruiz’s header that knocked the Three Lions out of the World Cup.

Not even Shakespeare could have penned such poetry.

And that’s why the English Premier League is the best league in the world.



Jose Mourinho described is perfectly.

“You go to Spain and there are two big clubs [Barcelona and Real Madrid], you go to Germany and there is one club [Bayern Munich] and a little bit more,” he said.

“But England is a gladiator’s arena for hard-fought football, and where spoils are shared across the league.”

It is the magic of the EPL that Manchester City can lose to a now-relegated Cardiff City, or that first place could change hands 25 times throughout the 2013/14 season.

It is this allure that attracts a larger TV audience per match than Europe’s other top leagues combined. And it is this enigma that is dominating the World Cup as we speak, and has us fans waiting for August 17.

Is the EPL the best league in the world? The defence rests, your honour.