“Thousands and thousands of hours of football, each more climactic than the last — constant, dizzying, 24-hour, year-long, endless football.”
Certain comedy sketches stand the test of time. This season, it feels pertinent to return to a well-known clip from the television series That Mitchell and Webb Look in 2008, which previews the weekend’s games with exaggerated enthusiasm.
Football has never felt more ubiquitous. New broadcast deals have resulted in more live Premier League games being shown than ever before. With a constant stream of input — and an ever-growing list of platforms on which to discuss it — an explosion of narratives emerge from each weekend of football. Sadly, not all of them are grounded in rationality.
We have never had more opportunity to be entertained in our football consumption, but are we getting a little greedy? More football does not always mean more entertainment, so do we need to calm our expectations of the modern game?
From a data perspective, we do now have a healthy number of games for trends to emerge this season. The “small sample size” klaxon can be put to one side for the time being, but the early months of the season have seen plenty of interesting perspectives based on very little information.
Liverpool’s initial slump in form has developed into a chronic issue, but suggestions that Virgil van Dijk is “not the same player” and that Mohamed Salah’s “legs have gone” still feel premature after the pair were comfortably the two star players in Liverpool’s Premier League title victory only a few months ago.
A few weeks into the season, Aston Villa were the only team in England’s top seven divisions to have not scored a goal and were floundering near the bottom of the table after failing to win any of their first five league matches. At the time, some questioned whether Unai Emery’s methods were still working after a difficult summer transfer window with little squad turnover.
After Villa’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal last weekend took them three points from the top of the table last weekend, questions are now being asked whether that same team are title contenders after five league wins on the bounce.
Aston Villa players celebrate the winner against Arsenal (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Both narratives are probably off the mark, but it shows how binary things can be in such a short space of time.
In Scotland, Hearts made a blistering start to the season after pulling eight points clear of Celtic in the Scottish Premiership — with many suggesting this could be the season that the duopoly of Celtic and Rangers is broken after 40 years.
Hearts did beat Celtic last weekend, but have still surrendered that buffer before we have even reached Christmas. If Celtic win their game in hand, they will be level on points with Hearts at the top of the table.
The lesson to learn? Wait a little longer than a few weeks and see how things play out.
The same is true when it comes to individual players. A 22-year-old Florian Wirtz is being written off by some before we have reached the new year, while questions were already being asked of Viktor Gyokeres’ ability to make the step up to the Premier League after his Arsenal debut — a single competitive game — against Manchester United.
Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was jeered by his own fans after making a mistake that led to a goal in a home clash with Fulham last month. Within reason, paying supporters do have the right to act how they want, but booing your own team at full time has become more commonplace within stadiums — with an emerging trend of jeers being increasingly heard at half-time in recent months.
The amount of football available to watch might be increasing, but tolerance — and an appreciation of the wider context — appears to be waning.
Pep Guardiola is long enough in the tooth to know how quickly narratives can swing off a single result. For example, the game was seemingly over when Manchester City were leading 5-1 against Fulham after 55 minutes earlier this month, but a fightback from the Londoners meant the match finished 5-4, partly due to City’s concentration levels dropping.
“At 5-1, everyone starts to write articles for tomorrow — ‘Manchester City is back’, these kinds of things.” Guardiola joked after the game. “And after (Fulham brought it back to 5-4), into the trash — and start again.”
“None of you are City fans but at 5-1 you all thought it was over!” 😅
Pep Guardiola joked that reporters were already writing “City are back” at 5-1 before Fulham made it 5-4 and their headlines went straight in the bin 💬 pic.twitter.com/J2I7457Zkt
— BeanymanSports (@BeanymanSports) December 3, 2025
Guardiola has a point. Yes, column inches might need to be filled, but there is a hyperbolic undertone that is creeping into football parlance. If you are not the best, you are the worst. If you make one mistake, you should be dropped. If you have one bad result, your season is in jeopardy.
As always, the truth often lies somewhere in between. There is still space for nuance in football.
Hot takes and suggestive theories are still important in their own way, but sensationalist views based on such little evidence provide little in the way of insight — and it often feels that their primary purpose is to antagonise.
Undoubtedly, no media platform is exempt from this trend, but short-term views that hold little substance can be unproductive. It is OK not to have an opinion on a player or team until you have a more complete picture.
As it has been historically, perhaps football views are reflective of society.
In our daily lives, we are bombarded with information from our phones, laptops and tablets — and there is no excuse to feel bored when you are engaging with a platform that is tailored to your own tastes based on an ever-improving algorithm.
We are living in a subscription-based, “cancel anytime” culture that allows us to supersize our interests. Don’t like the content or service? Get rid of it. Unsubscribe, and another account will fill your entertainment quota.
The revamped Club World Cup, won by Chelsea in July, is yet another addition to the calendar (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Elite sport does not work in the same way.
Instant gratification might not always be the order of the day for your club, but stick with things over a longer period and you might just see the fruits of their labour. Just ask Aston Villa fans.
That is not to say that clubs themselves do not also jump the gun in their decision-making. In a multi-billion-pound industry, short-term failure can have long-term consequences — but the growing number of sporting directors in the game suggests that clubs are looking to build success in a more considered manner over a prolonged period.
Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks recently spoke about the psychological importance of being bored, and the cognitive effects that can arise when the brain is not constantly engaged.
Boredom is essential for creativity, engagement and well-being — and there is research to support its importance as a protective factor against poor mental health. In a football sense, it might not be the worst thing in the world if a Premier League game does not keep us gripped for a full 90-plus minutes.
We have never had so much opportunity to fill our time with the content that we love. More football is a good thing, but the expectation that every team, player, or manager has to be box-office and provide all-action entertainment every week is, sadly, misguided.
If you think otherwise, you are only setting yourself up for disappointment.