With just six points separating the top five teams, Liverpool is in the lead in the Premier League title race that is expected to be thrilling until 2024.
Champions Despite a decline in performance from the treble winners of the previous season, Manchester City, Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Tottenham are all dangerously set to attack in the new year.
But for some of the other big spenders in the preseason, it’s been a dismal start. With a combined total of 26 losses, Manchester United, Newcastle, and Chelsea are stuck in the middle of the table.
The promoted teams of Burnley, Luton, and Sheffield United make up the bottom three, but Everton’s 10-point deduction has ended their 70-year run in the top division.
Here are five talking points from the opening half of the season.
1. New-look Liverpool back in the hunt
For the Reds, the previous season was the end of an era as they finished fifth in just a year and a half after coming dangerously close to winning an unprecedented quadruple.
After a midfield makeover in the summer, there have been some teething issues, and Darwin Nunez’s inconsistent goal-scoring performance is still not enough to justify the £85 million ($108 million) that was spent on the Uruguayan in 2022.
However, Liverpool has reverted to their usual role as City’s greatest threat, as they have done under Jurgen Klopp.
Monday’s rout of Newcastle should have been more straightforward than the 4-2 scoreline indicates, and it put Klopp’s team three points clear of the leaders and five ahead of City and Arsenal.
The team’s veteran core, which includes top scorer Mohamed Salah, captain Virgil van Dijk, and goalkeeper Alisson Becker, has all returned to form.
However, Salah is leaving to represent Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations, so Liverpool may have to survive without him for up to a month.
2. City still the team to beat
City had only won one of their previous six league games, giving the rivals for their crown hope, before taking off to win the Club World Cup last month.
But Pep Guardiola’s team had the best Christmas season ever as they saw all of their title rivals lose ground while adding a fifth trophy to their collection in Saudi Arabia.
With a game remaining, City can close their five-point gap to Liverpool, and they appear ready to bounce back like they did the previous year to catch up to Arsenal at the top of the standings.
After missing the season’s first game due to a hamstring injury, Kevin De Bruyne is very close to returning, and Erling Haaland should be well by the time City plays Newcastle in the Premier League in mid-January.
The schedule is also favorable for City to gain momentum.
The team led by Pep Guardiola won’t play another team in the top six until they visit Liverpool on March 9.
3. Fortress Villa Park
Villa’s incredible ascent under Unai Emery is based on their incredible home record.
This season, 10 games at Villa Park have resulted in a point for just Sheffield United, who are now at the bottom of the table. These games have included important victories over Arsenal and City.
Villa is at least very much in the running to make their first Champions League appearance, even though many doubt their capacity to stay in the race for the championship.
4. Miserable Man Utd
Following a successful inaugural year under Erik ten Hag, United aimed to advance and contend for the league crown for the first time in more than 10 years.
Rather, they suffered the most losses the Red Devils have had since the 1930–1931 season, as they lost 14 times in all competitions before the new year.
Ten Hag’s team is now in eighth place, nine points out of even the top four and fourteen points behind the leader.
Although a long injury list has contributed, United’s ongoing inability to get value for money in the transfer market has been a greater problem.
Since joining for £72 million from Atalanta, Mason Mount, a midfielder worth £55 million, has not played much, and United’s elimination from the Champions League group stages was due to a string of errors from goalkeeper Andre Onana, who cost £47 million.
With British businessman Jim Ratcliffe acquiring a 25 percent share in the team and running sporting operations, a new era has just begun at Old Trafford.
However, Ratcliffe’s INEOS team has a lot of work ahead of it to get United back to the promised land at the top of the Premier League.
5. Chelsea’s billion-pound flop
United, however, may not even be the biggest disaster of the season since Chelsea, who set a record for transfer spending, are three points worse off and in 10th place in the standings.
Under American Todd Boehly’s consortium, the Blues have already spent nearly £1 billion on new players in just three transfer windows.
Chelsea has fallen through the standings under four different managers throughout that time.
Following a 2-0 loss to Everton last month, Mauricio Pochettino made a suggestion that he could have to enter the transfer window once more in January in order to bring in some much-needed goal threat.
Conor Gallagher, a graduate of Chelsea’s academy, may be transferred to rival Tottenham in order to assist the team balance the books in January and adhere to financial fair play regulations, which has caused great concern among Chelsea supporters.