These are historic times. Just look at the top of the Premier League table, where the two Manchester teams are divided only by the most dizzying of goal differences. It is not unprecedented for a team to have a goal difference of plus 20 or more after seven games but it is extraordinarily rare. It happened four times in the 19th century and three times in 117 years since, Manchester City this season becoming the latest side to achieve the feat.
People think of the early days of the Football League as wild times, with disorganised defences coping miserably with the fact that nobody had invented Tony Pulis yet and allowing forwards called Ted or Horace or Dixie to plunder goals with affable ease before polishing their boots, combing their moustache and posing for a daguerreotype with their favourite pipe. In fact, the era we are living through is threatening to make those days look positively orderly.
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