Which is the Best Football League in Europe?

With the qualification of all four English clubs into the last 16 of the Champions League (and all as group winners) this week, can the Premiership now be classed as the best league in Europe? Of course it is difficult to gage which league is the best and many factors need to be considered such as the quality of players and managers, the atmosphere generated in the stadiums, the amount of goals averaged in games and the level of unpredictability.
The argument would naturally revolve around the traditional ‘big three’ leagues, Serie A, La Liga and the Premiership, indeed only one of the last 15 finals of Europe’s Premier Club competition has not included a side from those nations.
Despite Italy’s World Cup success in the summer, Serie A has certainly had a serious problem with its image recently following the match fixing scandal and relegation of champions Juventus, so in terms of quality the league now lacks what the Premiership and La Liga have in abundance. It looks increasingly likely that this season will see a two horse race between Roma and Inter as other big clubs have been docked points or relegated.
This, however makes the league much more open, with clubs such as Palermo, Livorno, Catania and Empoli all harbouring realistic ambitions of Champions League qualification. Goals have also flown in Serie A over the past couple of seasons -previously labelled with the ‘catenaccio’ tag, Italy now has more average goals than either La Liga or the Premiership.
In previous seasons when the Premiership outscored its competitors, English loyalists would say that although British clubs were found wanting in Europe, the spectacle at home was better to watch. How the tables have turned. Now success in Europe is a realistic aim for English sides - in the past two seasons Liverpool have finished fifth in the league and won the Champions League, and Arsenal finished fourth in the league and yet managed to reach the Champions League final. Struggling Premiership side Middlesbrough also made it to the final of the UEFA Cup.
This success on the big stage has come at a huge price for the standard of football in the Premiership itself. The Premeirship this season has averaged less goals than Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and even the French League (which last season considered increasing an extra point if teams scored three goals to encourage more attacking play).
Although the defending in England’s top flight is now better than Italy and Spain, the rise of negatitive tactics are a blight on the domestic game. Of the 20 Premiership clubs, only a handful of teams actually play open attacking football and the use of a defensive 4-5-1 formation is now widespread. The first goal in Premiership games is crucial and many managers set out not to be beaten in many games as survival in the league offers such huge financial rewards.
In my opinion the best league in Europe is La Liga which can combine good attacking football with success on the European stage. Last season Barcelona won the Champions League and Sevilla won the UEFA Cup by playing good football. The big two of Real Madrid and Barcelona are always in the hunt fot the title, but the league is far more open than the Premiership - with teams like Osasuna, Valencia, Villarreal, Deportivo and Sevilla challenging in recent seasons.
Of the other European leagues, the Bundesliga can be considered the most unpredictable - at the time of writing, just 6 points seperates the top 5 sides. The league also attracts the biggest average attendances due to better quality stadia (thanks to the World Cup) and cheap tickets. The top Bundesliga sides cannot compete financially for the top foreign talent but this means that more home grown players have begun to thrive.
Only Bayern Munich made it into the latter stages of the Champions League this season and are unlikely to win the tournament. The winners of the Chmapions League will probably come from the 10 sides from England, Italy and Spain although French club Lyon have so little competition domestically that they may surprise the main leagues and take the Chmpions League trophy to France for just the second time.
All this considered, I feel that La Liga has the edge over its competitors.
Which league do you consider the best?