Gabriele Marcotti: Premier League has closed the gap but it's still miles away from La Liga

So if this really is some sort of Premier League renaissance, what’s behind it?

First, a healthy dose of cynicism. Four of the five English clubs also happen to be, often by some distance, the wealthiest sides in their respective groups. More money equals more spending on wages and transfer fees which, in turn, equals better players. And that adds up wins, it’s an equation as old as time. The only side that weren’t the wealthiest, best resourced in their group are Tottenham, who, of course, beat Real Madrid. So by that metric, you could argue English clubs are shooting just over par.

Compounding this is the fact that most of the rest of Europe’s traditional elite have been less than stellar. Real Madrid, of course, are struggling domestically and have looked stuck in second gear. Monaco, last season’s darlings, have imploded – losing so many of their key assets hasn’t helped – and will likely finish last. Juventus are also having a tough time at home – as of right now, they’d finish out of the Champions League places – and look badly off the pace. Atletico Madrid, hampered by a summer transfer ban, failed to beat Qarabag home or away. Bayern Munich have already changed managers this season and while they’ve lost just once (to Paris St-Germain) have looked nervous and ill-assorted.

That leaves Barcelona and PSG. Both are top of the table both domestically and in the Champions League. Yet neither feels quite right or quite ready to embrace the tag of heavy favourites. The Catalans, of course, had the summer from hell: impeachment proceedings against their president, Ousmane Dembele’s injury, a chaotic, lacklustre transfer campaign and, cherry on top, the traumatic departure of Neymar. They have raced to the best start in the history of La Liga, but look several notches below where they were just a year ago. And, weirdly, they’ve scored just once in three matches away from home in Europe.

As for PSG, they’ve been devastating, scoring 24 times in five games, while dominating domestically as well. And yet this doesn’t feel like a dynasty in the making. Not yet, anyway. The manager, Unai Emery, seems like an after-thought, a guy who could easily be replaced from one week to the next. The Kylian Mbappe/Neymar mega-transfers have – whether fairly or not – set them up as villains and the Qatar backing has not helped (neither has the fact that the Swiss Attorney General has accused chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi of criminally bribing former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke).

Relative to the above, the English sides, by and large, have looked nicely settled and, at the very least, have a clear identity reflecting their manager. Manchester City, of course, appear in another stratosphere, but the others, despite the occasional hiccups, look and feel like well-drilled units. And perhaps the reason behind this lies not so much with the playing squads – though they are among the best, as you would expect – but rather with the managers.

The quintet of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino is, perhaps, the finest fivesome to have ever competed in the same league at any one time. Between them, they have won five Champions League crowns and 17 league titles. Nobody comes close. And the one guy who has not won anything, Pochettino, is continually hailed as the next big thing.

More important, perhaps, is the fact that the first three are in their second season, Klopp is in his third and Pochettino in his fourth. That means each of these men has had time to turn his team into what he wants. They haven’t just had time either. They’ve also had the backing of their clubs: not one of them has lost a major contributor (except by choice: see Diego Costa). Give men of this quality that sort of support and, yes, they will deliver.

Unsurprisingly, England lead the UEFA ranking table for the season and have reduced the gap with Spain (though it remains enormous: a full 26 points, meaning the distance between La Liga and the Premier League is greater than that separating the Premier League from Russia).

Whether they can parlay this into the first European Cup since Chelsea in 2011-12 remains to be seen, but the signs point in that direction thus far. And the fact that the Premier League could have a runaway winner come the spring – meaning clubs are more likely to focus on Europe – suggests this could be their year.

Everton travel to Southampton today and David Unsworth will, most likely still be on the bench, a whole month after the departure of Ronald Koeman. Whatever else you think of this, it speaks of failure because, presumably, it’s not as if they chose to sack Koeman from one day to the next.

Unsworth has lost four of six games and it’s hard to spot much of an improvement though, equally, it’s not fair to judge him in those conditions. He has a horrendously constructed squad and he’s had little time to work. Plus, the interim tag hasn’t helped either. If he sticks around all season, Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright have every reason to worry.

But if their alternative consisted solely of trying to get Marco Silva to break his Watford contract, you can’t really feel too much sympathy. Going after the manager of a rival club in mid-season is rarely a good idea. You either end up paying tons in compensation (rarely a good look) or you end up looking silly and ineffectual (also not good). To paraphrase Sun Tzu’s Art of War, if you’re going to do it, you need to be certain you will succeed.

No doubt Everton have a Plan B (and probably a Plan C, D, E and F). But if they go about it in as ham-fisted a manner as their pursuit of Silva, things can go from bad to worse real fast.