Europe's Closest Title Race

The Premier League is often regarded as the most competitive in Europe's top 6 leagues (France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, England), but with Chelsea running away with the title being 9 points clear, the largest gap across the leagues, we are evaluating what may be the most exciting title races out of those top 6. Which league has the smallest points gap? Who has the most teams competing for the title? We will analyse just which leagues to look out for.

PSG have won the last four Ligue 1 titles

Premier League (England)

Chelsea are undoubtedly in pole position to win the league this season being nine points clear. The question really is who could catch them. Spurs look in the best position to catch them, with Man City a point behind the North London club. The most exciting part is who will finish in the top four with only five points separating the teams in second to sixth, as the race for the title seems to be over. It will be interesting to see if Chelsea drop points and end up giving the title to someone else, but they have only lost once since September so it is very unlikely that they would give up the title now.

La Liga (Spain)

At a first glance it looks tight at the top of the league with multiple teams competing for the top spot, however Real Madrid do still hold two games in hand where they could create a seven point gap at the top of the league. However, Barcelona have been in good form recently and have managed to get themselves back in the frame along with Sevilla, although they have dropped a couple of points recently to give Real the chance to pull away. With Real having a huge unbeaten run, it sounds like they should be able to push clear, but after Sevilla beat them in the league, things opened up slightly. The league could go two different ways, it could go the same as the Premier League and have one team far in front and have many teams fighting for the other spots, or Real could falter and leave a gap open for some other teams to win the league.

Serie A (Italy)

Juventus were expected to run away with the title this season after the signings they made in the summer, bringing in Higuian and Pjanic as the star deals, along with Dani Alves and Cuadrado coming to the club. The season did not start exactly to plan as they were left competing tightly with a couple of teams, however they now sit seven points clear after breaking their record of consecutive home wins in the league, stretching to 28 now after their 1-0 win over Inter Milan last week. The closest team to them is Roma, with Napoli just behind them, although Napoli have been on good form recently and are free scoring after Dries Mertens three hat-tricks this season have put him as top scorer in the league. It does seem as if the 'Old Lady' will run away with it as always, so maybe another boring one in the Serie A this season.

Bundesliga (Germany)

At the start of the season, Bayern Munich were expected to win the title, with Dortmund following most closely, however Tuchel's men have been inconsistent have have handed the reigns of challenging for the title to RB Leipzig. It may be their first season in the top flight and they are the most hated club in the country, but after a fantastic start to the season they are still up there with Ancelotti's team and trying to stop them from winning their fifth consecutive title. The new club have started to drop recently though after defeats to Bayern and Dortmund and they are now four points adrift, but their challenge is way more that what was expected of them, however they need to compete in games against the big teams if they are to win the title. In my opinion, it will be Bayern Munich that will have too much for them and therefore claim another Bundesliga title.

Liga Nos (Portugal)

Benfica have dominated Portugal for the last few years, with Porto and Sporting not quite doing enough to challenge to them. However, Porto have got back to their way this season, sitting just a point behind Benfica. Benfica have been focused on producing young talent in the last few years, but with Goncalo Guedes going to PSG, it may hamper their title challenge. Porto are finally doing well again though and for once we may not see another dull campaign where Benfica run away with it. Sporting are out of the running after defeat to Porto last week, so it will be a two horse race, but Porto have just permanently signed Oliver Torres from Atletico Madrid so that may help them push to win the league this season. This may actually be an interesting.

Ligue 1

Probably the most competitive and tight league this season, for once it seems there is more than one team going for the title. In recent times only PSG look to claim the league, but with Nice surprising everyone, and free-scoring Monaco out in front, it looks a lot harder for the Parisians. Cavani is in fine form this season, being the first player to score 20 league goals in Europe's top leagues, but there are no other players contributing enough to the team in terms of goals. Whereas Monaco are flying in front of goal, with seven players scoring five or more goals this season, and the re-emerged Falcao with 14 goals this campaign. There is only three points separating the three clubs,and it looks so hard to call just who will win the league this season. It would be good to see someone other than PSG win the league and if Nice do it, it would be incredible. They have a squad that is suited to mid-table, but they are a club that helps rebuild careers. They did it with Ben Arfa last season and now they are doing it again with Balotelli. This could be an exciting season in Ligue 1 for once.