First quarter down, where does the Premier League stand?

They say you should never look at the league table until ten games into the season but now that roughly twenty-five per-cent of games have been played it feels like the perfect time to take stock of what has happened thus far.

It’s a fair sample size of which you could make some assessments of teams and gauge how the rest of the campaign will pan out.

An extremely shortened pre-season led to some crazy results early in the season, notably Tottenham’s 6-1 win at Old Trafford and Aston Villa’s staggering 7-2 thrashing of Liverpool. Goals were raining in during the early stages and the record for the most goals during a single gameweek was broken during matchday two with the ball hitting the back of the net 44 times.

Since then things have begun to settle down a little, with the shock results now a bit more of a rarity. The bigger sides, in the main, are beginning to find their form while surprise early season pacesetters like Everton and Aston Villa have seen results start to level out.

Tottenham lead the way on goal difference and you could not argue that Jose Mourinho has done a fine job so far this season with some suspecting that this kind of truncated campaign may suit him. They were awful in an opening day defeat to Everton  but are unbeaten since then Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min in sensational form.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has settled in seamlessly and is the ball winning presence that the Spurs midfield has been lacking. They’ve had a relatively soft start in terms of fixtures but started a difficult run of games by beating Manchester City so the future looks positive.

Liverpool are along with them on top on 20 points despite losing Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez to potentially season ending injuries. This led to fears in some quarters that Liverpool may struggle to keep uo the incredible pace of last season and while nobody is expecting 95+ points again, they remain favourites for the title. Thiago’s return will be a huge lift but question marks remain over the durability of Fabinho and Joel Matip.

Chelsea and Leicester complete the top four with the Blues having steadied the ship in recent weeks thanks to the arrival of Edouard Mendy. The performances of Kepa in goal during the early stages looked set to undermine the signings of exciting attackers like Timo Werner and Kai Havertz but the Senegal international looks a steady hand in goal and has instilled confidence in the defence.

Leicester have suffered plenty of injuries themselves this season with Wilfred Ndidi and Caglar Soyuncu missing most of the campaign. The imminent return of Ricardo Pereira will give Brendan Rodgers’ side a huge lift and he will be hopeful of building on an impressive opening spell.

Southampton, Everton and Aston Villa all currently sit in the Europa League places (FA and League cup depending) and all three will be delighted with the campaign in these early stages.

Southampton look more than a match for anyone and will be hopeful of adding Danny Ings back to the ranks in the coming weeks.

Everton began with four wins from four and James Rodriguez seemed to take to English football like a duck to water. Things haven’t quite gone as well since then although Dominic Calvert-Lewin is already into double figures for goals with 10. Villa of course had that memorable win over Liverpool but the home form has been shaky since. Should they sort that out they could be set for a fine season as their attack looks menacing with Jack Grealish, Ross Barkley and Ollie Watkins.

What follows is a cluster of teams separated by just two points and it surprisingly includes Arsenal and both Manchester clubs. The Gunners have had serious issues in front of goal with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang  only scoring once from open play. Mikel Arteta has definitely made them tougher to beat but he needs to quickly find a balance and get his team scoring.

Manchester United made an awful start and only last week won their first home league game of the season but have been quietly impressive on the road. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looked like a dead man walking a few weeks ago but the pressure has now eased and they have their sights on the top four once more. Manchester City meanwhile have been far removed from the usual selves this season.

They look reasonably solid defensively which is usually the problem. Right now the issues are in attack having only scored ten goals in their opening eight games. Pep Guardiola needs a firing Sergio Aguero back soon or he will find himself facing up to a lot of criticism. A squad worth that much money needs to be far higher than 13th.

Wolves, West Ham and Crystal Palace are the other teams among this group and all will be relatively satisfied. Wolves look to be a team in transition with new players bedding in like Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo. Nuno Espirito Santo will be hoping to push for a European place again but even if it doesn’t happen this season, Wolves look in a healthy place going forward. Despite a shaky start, West Ham have picked up some big results and look a more than decent side. David Moyes has done a terrific job and finally it looks like the Hammers are on the right track. At Selhurst Park, Roy Hodgson is again defying expectation and keeping Palace out of harms way. Wilfired Zaha looks like he’s getting back towards his best and Eberechi Eze is settling in and should be a really exciting players to watch between now and May.

Leeds, Newcastle and Brighton haven’t been consistent up to now but all three are clear of the drop zone at present. Leeds have been exciting although they have hit a sticky patch recently but you would back Marcelo Bielsa to quickly reverse that. Brighton have been playing well but have been unlucky in games and haven’t got the wins that they probably deserve. They’ll now be hoping to push on after a victory at Villa Park last time out.

Things aren’t quite so happy up in the North-East and the natives are getting restless. Some of the early results were ok but now that the defeats are rolling in, Steve Bruce is finding himself under some pressure. The football has been desperately passive and he’s lucky that games are behind closed doors or the Toon army would be making their feelings known. They don’t expect the world, they’d just like their team to have a go.

There looks to be something of a mini league forming at the bottom with Burnley, Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield United cut adrift from the rest. Sean Dyche will be hopeful of pulling away after they recorded their first win of the season on Monday against Palace. They have the know how and you would expect them to grind out enough results although fans will be wary of any potential friction between Dyche and the board.

Sheffield United have only picked up one point so far and this has been a continuation of their worrying form since the June restart. Not enough has been made of the loss of Jack O’Connell and they badly miss him but they desperately need to find some goals. David McGoldrick is a key to their play but is far from prolific while Oli McBurnie has yet to justify his hefty price tag. Chris Wilder will be hoping that Rhian Brewster can deliver the goods but it’s a lot of pressure on young shoulders.

Fulham and West Brom have both struggled badly since promotion and nothing I have seen so far would suggest that this will be any more than a brief visit to the top flight. Scott Parker’s men have looked every bit as calamitous as their last top flight campaign but they should take some encouragement from their second half performance against Everton.

West Brom themselves actually looked decent against Manchester United and were quite unlucky with a few penalty decisions. Unfortunately though this a Championship team that wasn’t strengthened sufficiently since promotion and look as though they’re heading straight back down.

It’s been a bit of a wild ride so far and in this current climate we should expect the unexpected. We had good news this week with the announcement that up to 2,000 fans will be allowed into some grounds so with that, here’s to the next 75%.

 

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