How the Premier League has become progressively more unequal and why it matters

The top division of English football has become more unequal over time. Four of the five most unequal seasons in history occurred within the last nine seasons. The other was only 15 seasons ago.

Less equality means less mobility – less movement of teams between positions from one season to the next. That has implications for what might happen this season at the top, middle and bottom of the Premier League. But before I discuss those, let me explain what I mean by inequality.

The greater the differences in results between teams the greater the inequality. That can be measured in various ways. The one I am using here is the Gini coefficient, which was developed to measure inequalities in income.