I think they're going to ramp up Al's evilness because they know that nobody actually cares about Chas and Marlon losing the pub. They have to try to make us interested by making Al as awful as possible so we feel sorry for them.
Well it's not going to work on me. I am fond of Marlon but he's not generally popular and everyone is sick of Chas especially after she was so horrible to Liv and then had the cheek to move into her house. She was rotten to Charity and made her sell up so it's good enough for her.
Also the pub has been dead for a long time so you don't really miss it at this stage.