International break provides an opportunity to assess the state of the Premier League table 11 matches into the season. Two storylines dominate the top of the table. The first thing to know about the first 11 matches is that the transition from Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot has gone far better than any Liverpool supporter could have hoped. The Red are out to a five-point lead atop the table and have conceded only six league goals to date. Of course, Liverpool was far from shoddy on defense under Klopp. Only champion Manchester City and second place Arsenal allowed fewer goals last season. Slot, though, has further tightened that attention to defense, eliminating some of the mistakes to be expected with Klopp’s more frenzied style, and taken Liverpool past Manchester City and Arsenal in the season to date standings. The second story line is the sudden fallibility of those latter two teams who have run first and second in the league the last two seasons. There seems to be an air of inevitability surrounding the wind down at Manchester City. Technical director Txiki Begiristain, the front office architect of City’s recent title winning squads, has already announced he is leaving at the end of the season. Manager Pep Guardiola’s contract expires this summer with the manager non-committal regarding his future with the club. Rumors regarding Guardiola taking the reins of the Brazilian National team next year have just this week given way to a purported agreement for a one-year extension with the club he has led to six Premier League titles. Superstar striker Erling Haaland has already been reported to have his eyes on a move elsewhere. Kevin De Bruyne, meanwhile, is hurt more often than he is healthy in what seems the final years of his illustrious career. The biggest factor in Manchester City’s poor start by their standards this season, however, is the absence of Rodri, the defensive midfielder and Ballon d’Or winner who is out for the season.
Arsenal, meanwhile, risks falling back before ever reaching the mountain peak. A key injury to their midfield captain and creative engine, Martin Odegaard, has been a major blow to Arsenal’s attack. The Gunners dropped eight points during Odegaard’s seven match injury absence to fall an ominous nine points behind Liverpool in the table. Unlike Rodri’s season ending status, Odegaard’s return provides hope, but has too much damage already been done to the Gunners’ title chances?
Chelsea, third on point differential over Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Brighton in a crowded top four scramble, seems to have stabilized after a tumultuous period of seeming madness by their ownership. The Blues new manager Enzo Maresca has asserted himself in terms of who he wants to play from the club’s deep roster of options and has been ruthless in his personnel decisions. Excess passengers such as Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell have suffered transfers out or exile to the reserve team under the manager. Fixtures in the lineup include rising league superstar Cole Palmer, improving young striker Nicolas Jackson and defensive midfielder Moises Caicedo who has settled in and begun to flash the form which helped make him such a hot commodity when he was patrolling the pitch for Brighton.
Nottingham Forest and Brighton round out the top six with Forest’s position in the table truly shocking. The Tricky Trees faced a tricky survival battle each of the last two seasons yet now they are suddenly contending for Europe. A defense which has conceded fewer goals than any club but Liverpool has been key for the Trees. Goalkeeper Matz Sels is second in the league with four clean sheets to his credit. In attack, 32-year-old New Zealand striker Chris Wood is the joint second highest Premier League goal scorer, having found the net for eight of the Tricky Trees’ 15 goals scored so far.
Brighton, meanwhile, posted a top six finish two years ago but fell back to midtable last season and said goodbye to highly acclaimed manger Roberto De Zerbi who thought the club’s player investments to be insufficient. In comes 31-year-old Fabian Hurzeler, the youngest manager in Premier League history and the Seagulls are soaring once again. Only Liverpool and Manchester City have won more matches and in its last two matches, Brighton has gone toe to toe with both, losing 2-1 to the league leaders and then defeating the defending champions by that same score.
Fulham has also pleasantly surprised supporters this season as the club sits just a point outside the top six. Former Arsenal man Emile Smith Rowe has injected creativity to the Cottagers’ attack and perhaps left the Gunners with some regret over parting ways with the attacking midfielder who could have helped the Gunners during Martin Odegaard’s injury absence. Instead, Smith Rowe has five goal involvements to date for the Cottagers and has become a focal point for Manager Marco Silva’s attack. Former Liverpool man Harry Wilson has also caught fire with three goals in the Cottagers’ two consecutive wins entering the break. Level with Fulham on points are Newcastle and Aston Villa, two clubs who have been streaky this season as they try to establish themselves as perennial top six contenders.
Streaky does not even begin to describe the schizophrenic results delivered by the wide-open style of Tottenham Hotspur Manager Ange Postecoglou. Spurs followed each of their last three victories with a loss, the last two inexcusable defeats to relegation battlers Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town. After 11 matches this is a tightly congested table.
Brentford is level on points with 10th place Tottenham Hotspur, Bournemouth and Manchester United a point further back in a Premier League table which sees only four points currently separating third and 13th place in the table. Manchester United are currently 13th, again based on goal differential, as the Red Devils’ uninspiring performances led to the seemingly inevitable departure of the perpetually excuse making Eric ten Hag. The Dutchman is now gone and, with the club having already showed improved form under interim manager Rudd van Nistelrooy, incoming Manager Ruben Amorim takes over a squad which should not be dismissed yet from talk of the European places.
West Ham and newly promoted Leicester currently fall in behind the Red Devils in the table standings. Julen Lopetegui is already in trouble after a poor start to replacing David Moyes at West Ham while Leicester Manager Steve Cooper is also seemingly on thin ice, van Nistelrooy having been mentioned as a possible Cooper replacement.
Everton is in familiar territory as it hovers three points north of the drop line as the Toffees face a relegation battle for the third time in a largely nerve racking four years for Toffee supporters. Everton’s survival chances may be buoyed, however, by the disasters which have been the seasons to date of Wolverhampton and Crystal Palace. The surprisingly poor play of those two clubs has been a boon not just to Everton but has also helped lift newly promoted Leicester and Ipswich Town out of the bottom three, if only marginally and perhaps temporarily.
Wolverhampton has spent all season in the relegation zone, conceding at least five more goals than any other Premier League side. A recent uptick in form by Wolves must be qualified by noting four of five points captured in the last three matches came against Southampton and Crystal Palace, the two clubs who currently share the low rent relegation district with Wolves. The Saints’ struggles are not terribly surprising as the promoted side tries to apply an aggressive style which worked at the Championship level but is far less effective against better Premier League competition. Crystal Palace, however, is a headscratcher. The Eagles were one of the best performing clubs down the stretch last season. While the loss of winger Michael Olise was an expected yet painful departure during the offseason, no one expected the type of regression which has seen the Eagles find the net only eight times this season, the poorest production of any club but for the Saints. Eagles Manager Oliver Glasner is now at risk to see his Premier League career, which began so brightly, end quickly in flames.
