Come back soon Premier League, the endlessly moreish mega-product | Barney Ronay

Get ready for a sudden drop in excitement. This one is a real slump, like autumn arriving fast. In the 17 days up to and including Sunday, there were 30 Premier League games and 79 goals. If you leave out Tottenham — which is fair, because Tottenham now seem to exist beyond goals, more as a strange kind of entertainment than as part of football itself — that is still a lot of goals.

Do you feel excited? Are you eager for more? Well, get ready for a break. There will be 19 days with no games until the Premier League returns in October. Maybe it really is time to find another way to cope.

Related: The last two seasons were bad for Spurs. This is the worst it has ever been, writes Jonathan Wilson.

The international break will provide its own intrigue. There will be discussions about whether Thomas Tuchel is or isn’t responsible for the inherited cultural weaknesses of English football. There will be rage at Tuchel’s inability to coach the players to keep the ball as never before via his few short hours on the training pitch. And yet more rage at the real issues, basically the fact he continues to be German and looks like a scurvy-ridden Napoleonic naval commander powered solely by ship’s biscuits and morphine.

This is unlikely to fill the hole. There will be an unavoidable “contrast effect”, the rush of adrenaline that only serves to deepen the low when it is gone. But there are also some familiar autumn rituals to help us through. One of these is the state‑of‑the‑nation Premier League address, pegged out around key questions such as “where are we?”, “what are we?” and “where is it all going?”. This time around these are relatively easy to answer.

Five rounds into the Premier League season, the situation looks almost the same as before. The big news is that there is no big news. Many events keep happening. But the teams, styles, star players, energy levels and likely outcomes have barely changed. Look back one year and the situation was similar. A strong team led by a bald, short-tempered manager had won all five games, but looked weak in defense. The team that would go on to win the league was in second place. That team was also Arsenal.

The middle classes were the most interesting story. These were the functional, well-run teams whose names started with B. You might call this group Brightonmouth. Erling Haaland was scoring goals. Bruno Fernandes was causing great frustration for opponents. This came from risky attacking passes mixed with provocative, needling play.

As ever there are still some key questions doing the rounds, but luckily these can all be answered easily. Is Michael Carrick the man to take Manchester United to the next level? No. Is Michael Carrick the reason United are not at that level, but in a state where they must now employ Michael Carrick? Also no.

The truth for United is that this is the only level they can reach now. The club has become a strong, anxious but accurate symbol for modern Britain. It keeps selling its own history. People without real long-term commitment run it. It works like a moving wax museum that survives on tourists and old memories.

Are Tottenham in serious danger of relegation? Probably not. They have enough players who still care to hold on to 17th place. But even this story has become boring through repetition, which is frustrating for people who follow the Premier League closely. If Spurs got relegated now, people would just keep scrolling past the news.

Is Liverpool close to a comeback? Probably not. The Jürgen Klopp golden era now feels far away, and it is surrounded by something similar to the current situation. Yes, Florian Wirtz is a very good footballer. But he struggles to handle physical contact well, and that is something a Premier League player must be able to do. He will be very good at Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, or Inter.

Otherwise, it is a case of stasis and a reliable, entertaining, homogenised product. Tactically, we can still get excited about small changes. If you analyse it deeply you may find a little more counterattack, Anthony Elanga running fast, an inverted winger discovering almost by accident he can also cross with his strong foot.

It is a mark of how standardised the game has become that these are deemed things worth getting excited about. There is still only one elite level style, the Omniball template of the Cruyff-Michels-Guardiola-Gegenpressing school.

In England, football leans more toward physical strength than careful control. At times, it can feel like driving a brand-new electric car: enjoyable and high quality, but always the same. It seems possible that soon a team built to provoke will face a team built to resist provocation. When that happens, football might stop feeling like a sport, and instead look like two lines of players simply staring at each other across an empty stretch of grass.

The Premier League could really use two things for the rest of its season, which is 87% remaining. The move toward more physical play is exciting and different. Many games have been decided by physical duels, collisions, and a sense that one team wanted it more. This may not be surprising, since players are often at a similar skill level. The real difference often comes from physical power and the will to compete.

This is one reason why Brighton's win over Arsenal on Saturday seemed so interesting. It is rare to see the current champions not just beaten, but outplayed and out-fought. For 90 minutes, only one of these teams looked like a real contender for every trophy on offer.

This is the second thing the league really needs. Can one of the well-run mid-table clubs keep up this level for a whole season and give us another Leicester, or something close to it? Can Brighton simply play like that every week?

Related: Long-range hits and goals galore: inside the Premier League’s return to chaos | Andrew Beasley

There are obvious answers why not. One very good game against an ambushed Arsenal is not a 38-game slog. Brighton have a good squad, but also regular midweek football. Other teams will react and nullify your strengths. Also, and this is not a throwaway detail, Fabian Hürzeler is going to be on TalkSport for an hour on Tuesday just chatting football, which will now include how did you beat the champs and why are you third in the league.

There is nothing wrong with this. But it shows where things stand now. Hürzeler is 33 years old. His whole job is really about reinventing himself. This is because all the very good players at these mid-level clubs are trying to impress bigger clubs. They are not hoping to help their current club move up. Instead, they want the life-changing money that a Champions League-level club would offer them. They are driven by a simple and understandable wish to look after their own careers.

This may explain why fans of bigger clubs often think their players don't try hard enough this season. They believe that if their team is outrun or outworked, it shows a lack of spirit or poor management. But this same quality also makes the league very strong, modern, and always exciting, even with its repeated storylines. Come back soon, Premier League mega-product. The letdown after it ends is already being felt.