Sport
TAKING SHAPE
The season is just less than a third the way through now and it is shaping up to be one of the most competitive campaigns for a long time at the top and bottom of the table.
Now the international games are over and the next international break is not until next March all the sides in the Premier League can put their focus on the race to win the league and the battle to stay up.
The current top four are separated by just three points with Tottenham in fifth just a point further off the pace and it could be argued all five sides look genuine title challengers.
Chelsea are the form team at the minute winning their last six games without conceding a goal to wrestle control at the summit and in their current mood it will take some effort to knock them off the top with Diego Costa and Eden Hazard seemingly back to the imperious form that propelled Chelsea to the championship two seasons ago.
Liverpool have been the most appealing team on the eye with their effervescent style of attacking football, but a nagging doubt still prevails that their Achilles heel of defending set-pieces will come back to haunt them during the campaign.
The bonus Chelsea and Liverpool have over their rivals is that they have no European commitments to contend with and that could prove to be vital in the final reckoning.
Manchester City were being tipped to run away with the title – and they still could – at the start of the season following their flying start of six straight wins in the Premier League, but Pep Guardiola is finding in his first season in England that the Premier League offers up different challenges than any other league in the world.
Arsenal have secured 20 consecutive finishes inside the Premier League’s top four under Arsene Wenger, but Gunners fans are desperate to see them finally end their wait for the title after their last success in 2004.
Tottenham remain unbeaten so far this season, but they have drawn too many games to leave them behind the leading pack. However, with Harry Kane back to full fitness Mauricio Pochettino’s men will be confident that they can build on last season’s showing when they pushed eventual champions Leicester City all the way before falling at the final hurdle.
Early season form does not count for everything, but it would be a major surprise if the title winner did not come out of the current top five with Manchester United probably just leaving themselves too much to do to reel in the leaders.
So to the other end of the table and to the pressures of avoiding the relegation trapdoor out of the Premier League and there are some surprise teams down there scrapping for their lives.
None more so than reigning champions Leicester who lie just two points above the drop zone and staggeringly enough have more Champions League points (13) than they have Premier League points to date (12). There shouldn’t be too many concerns for Leicester to go from champs to chumps in just one season as there are worse teams than Claudio Ranieri’s men in the bottom half.
Another of last season’s surprise packages West Ham are also failing to hit the heights of last season with Slaven Bilic’s men outside the bottom three by a single point and they have so far failed to adapt to their new surroundings at London Stadium.
Swansea are rooted to the bottom of the table, having not won since the opening day of the season and they have already sacked their Italian manager Francesco Guidolin to bring in American Bob Bradley. It was a gamble by the Swansea’s new American investors and so far it has not paid off as Bradley so far has been unable to get a response out of his under-performing players and there is even talk that he might not last long in South Wales.
Hull City after a flying start to the campaign with two opening wins are where most people expected them to be – in the bottom three – and having lost Steve Bruce just before the start of the season with Mike Phelan stepping into the helm it looks like it might be a long, hard winter for the Tigers.
Sunderland looked dead and buried just a few weeks after recording their worst ever start to a Premier League campaign, but back-to-back wins have raised hopes that David Moyes could be the latest manager to lead them to customary implausible late dash to safety.
Crystal Palace have the worst record of any of the 92 professional clubs in England for 2016 and they will be hoping a new year will bring a new optimism to the club otherwise they could find it hard to get off the slippery slope they have been on this year.
As things stand it is hard to predict what is going to happen at either end of the table, but whatever it is going to make for exciting viewing.
