The Premier League is back with all its problems – and captivating football

It is the best walk in football. Out of Putney Bridge station, up Ranelagh Gardens, through the underpass, through Bishops Park with the Thames to your left and the sun overhead, past rows of pristine Victorian and Edwardian terraced housing and towards Craven Cottage, which even in the midst of major redevelopment remains a beautifully quaint sporting venue. There really is nothing like going to Fulham on a summer’s day.

And so it was on Saturday as the club hosted Premier League football for the first time since sweeping to the Championship title last season. It was a glorious afternoon in southwest London, perfect in many ways, and the excitement was tangible. Liverpool were in town, this was what it meant to be back in the big time, and it was impossible not to get swept up in it all among the shiny happy supporters of both clubs as they walked the walk to the ground.

But yet, even there and then, it was impossible to escape the dark clouds. Because once you stand back a bit, throw away the preview supplements, delete the sponsored podcasts and ignore the weather just for a moment, there is little denying that the Premier League appears to be in pretty bad place right now.

There remains a huge, seemingly unbridgeable gap between the haves and have nots, exacerbated by the influence of state-funded ownership models. Speaking of which, this is also Newcastle’s first full season under Saudi rule, a takeover which, let’s not forget, was described by Amnesty International as “an extremely bitter blow for human rights defenders” when it was waved through last October. There are then the rising concerns over fan behaviour, the continued ubiquity of gambling companies, issues around racist abuse on social media and, of