The impact of the CL is probably the biggest reason. The cash boost it brings is just ridiculous, that's served to create a little group at the top who have the resources to improve year in year out.
Definitely. And the lower teams are more prepared to get in the top team's faces - not just the Arsenal - and make a go of matches that a few years ago they would have written off while they focussed their entire effort on beating their peers in the hope of staving off relegation. They now pay more attention to getting a point here and there from the top teams as that odd point can make the difference at the end of the season.
What I have noticed is the gradual introduction of the ball playing new boys, when teams used to get to the prem first thing they would do is revert to hoofball tactics to stay up and then build from there (Some stick with it like Stoke) But more recently teams like Norwich and Swansea and Blackpool and Portsmouth before them have tried to avoid this and play the game the way its meant to be. This i think has made the league a lot less predictable and difficult to accommodate for the top teams.
I expect Southampton to try and play next season and West Ham to punt and chase, lets see who fares better
today is the day when we see whether my block of fixtures diagram is proven to be false or not
Not really. We can't win every single game, We're going to drop points at some point, it could be today. You can't only test the 'block of fixtures' theory at the end, or near the end, of one.
But if we win today it will prove it to be false, becuase so far we have had 7 bad fixtures, 8 good ones, 7 bad ones, 8 good ones....and a victory today would destroy the diagram's theory and a draw or lose opens up the possibility of it being right....as you say at the end of the season.