The search for perfection: Why football needs reminding the sport existed before the Premier League

Crystal Palace's four-game goalless losing streak was a record breaking start to a Premier League season. And when Frank de Boer was inevitably/surprisingly (delete as applicable) sacked as manager his stint was the shortest in the division's history, in terms of games played. De Boer's 77 days including pre-season was among the most ignominious in recent history.

Meanwhile, Harry Kane has reached a century of goals for Tottenham; likely the fastest run to the landmark without netting in the month of August. And Sadio Mané's red card for kicking Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson Moraes in the face featured possibly the highest boot to ever cause an injury requiring stitches in Premier League history.

Premier League records are conquered and celebrated on a weekly basis. Palace's axing of De Boer and hiring of the eminently-sackable Roy Hodgson surely puts them in a position to challenge for the record of most managers in a single Premier League season (a feat currently joint-held by Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Portsmouth).

The cheerleaders-in-chief for Premier League record setting are the 'expert' analysts of Match of the Day. Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright were unanimous in their sympathy for Mane after he was sent off for assaulting Moraes. This is not that surprising given that they are all former strikers. Perhaps a goalkeeping expert would have suggested that sticking a boot into another man's face was at the very least reckless.

Shearer is a player who has particularly benefited from modern football's obsession with the Premier League and its record-breaking abilities. Shearer is the league's greatest ever scorer with 260 goals. It is little more than a footnote that he has 283 goals in the top flight of English football, for this is to include 23 that he scored before the Premier League came into being.

Young fans could be forgiven for not knowing that football existed before the Premier League. If they did they would realise that Shearer is in fact only the fifth highest scorer in the history of the top flight of English football, well behind the 357 scored by Jimmy Greaves, a legend at Tottenham Hotspur long before Kane was even a twinkle in his Dad's eye. Also above Shearer and all the Premier League's greatest is Dixie Dean, who scored 310 top division goals, including 60 in the 1927/28 season, an incredible record that barely gets a mention.

Now, you may be thinking that football 90 years ago was a very different beast and such records are hardly comparable. You may also be wondering whether this even matters? It matters because knowledge of history helps us keep a perspective on the way things are. Pretending that football only really began 25 years ago normalises the distinctly abnormal behaviour of today's football industry. Sacking someone after four games is not a reasonable or sensible way to behave. Kicking another player in the head is not acceptable. Paying a person to kick a ball into a net is not worthy of 1,000 times the wages of someone who saves lives in a hospital.

Arsenal's most successful manager ever, Arsène Wenger, signed a new contract at the end of last season. And yet, as the Gunners rode the rollercoaster of their first game of this season, a 4-3 victory over Leicester City, the calls of "Wenger Out" were frequently heard (even if they were almost immediately silenced again by an Arsenal goal). The instant gratification of blaming and undermining have become the norm in the world of the Premier League. Whatever happened to the virtues of loyalty, reliability and steadfastness?

The constantly-trumpeted achievements of Premier League football are creating a mythology that this is how the game is and always has been. While Wenger is Arsenal's longest-serving manager he is very much an outlier in today's world of modern day management. But his long tenure is very much a part of Arsenal's traditions: the club has had only 18 full-time managers in 120 years. It is modern football and its demand for instant results that ensures managers stand on the precipice every time a result goes against them.

The craziness of life in the Premier League is updated and enshrined by new records being forged every week. Few will know of the Huddersfield Town team that became the first in England to win three championships in a row, probably because it can't be shown in high definition by Sky Sports. Now more than ever people need reminding that football existed long before the money-making machine of the Premier League came along.