The Premier League is entering a period of upheaval

It’s Christmas period, and Leicester City are top of the table. Meanwhile Chelsea are still enduring a chastening season, with their beloved Jose Mourinho sacked in what seems a strange move – unless, of course, they’ve got someone like Diego Simeone lined up as “The Special One’s” successor.

Perhaps to their delight, Chelsea aren’t the only Premier League giants consumed by chaos and problems. Manchester United are nearing such a phase as well. Louis Van Gaal’s men are still generating dissatisfaction with the brand of soccer they play, with a fair share of luck needed to maintain their place near the top four.

You could always sense that, once their fortunes called time, Manchester United would find themselves in real trouble. That’s exactly what has happened. They were knocked out of the Champions League and then handed a painful defeats by Bournemouth and Norwich City. They may be willing to spend more money in the January window, but that won’t solve the problem.

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Forget about Chelsea getting Lionel Messi or United signing Neymar – these aren’t the dream destinations for a star player anymore. Those clubs will have to take the more sinuous paths to glory, i.e., nurturing their academy players. But then again, there isn’t any real talent coming through from their academies either, and if there is, their respective managers have been reluctant to give them enough playing time.

Manchester City aren’t doing too well in this respect either. They may have invested huge sums of money in players such as Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph, Patrick Roberts and a top quality midfielder in Kevin De Bruyne, but aside from Kelechi Iheanacho, they don’t have a single player coming through their own academy. With David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany each on the wrong sides of the primes, where from do City get equally good replacements? It’s an interesting question, given the transfer market doesn’t look like the answer.

For over a decade, English Premier League titles ahve been all about the Manchester teams and Chelsea, but that looks like it won’t be the case anymore. Arsenal, having paid off all their debts, are getting bigger and better every single day. Their league position reflects the same. They have some exceptional young talent coming through their academy in Chuba Akpom, Gedion Zelalem, Serge Gnabry while Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere could still develop into frontline stars.

Arsenal’s North London rivals also seem to be going the right way. Tottenham Hotspur have assembled a fine young squad, almost all of which is a product of their own – may it be Harry Kane, Ryan Mason or Tom Carroll, to name a few. Similarly, Liverpool have a feel-good factor about them, and there’s no doubt they are in the right hands under Jurgen Klopp, who will focus more on preparing for the future with his exceptional abilities to make a player world-class.

Elsewhere, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Swansea City (ignore their current position), West Ham United and Southampton continue to improve, and to play against them is no longer an easy job. In the next two years, they’ll be even stronger and ready to compete for the top four. These aren’t one season wonders, and to think so would be foolish.

As it stands, the Premier League is on the verge of a major power shift and that would mean not one, not two, but a few teams being in contention for the title and European spots. The days of “who spends the most wins” appear to be departing, as the current state of the transfer market leaves few superstars available. The margins have come down to how much you produce yourselves, at the club itself, which is news for English soccer. It’s a good time to be alive for Premier League fans.