After West Ham play Arsenal today, everyone will be sitting on 16 games played and heading into the Holiday busy season. Worth a pause to consider where we are, I think.
The top:
Liverpool ... 46 pts
Leicester (!) ... 38
Man City ... 32
Chelsea ... 29
Liverpool, fine. City trailing by more than you'd figure, but also fine. Chelsea coming off a summer movement ban, a coaching change, what for them passes for a sweeping youth movement and a seeming tightening of the belt? Ummm ... ok. Leicester? Like at all? Wow. And look, Chelsea sort of slipped into the top four by virtue of being a little better (and more efficient) than the more disappointing big names. Their Plus 7 goal diff isn't telling any lies. But freaking Leicester is 12-2-2 with a league leading +29 diff. They have hammered their way to 2nd place and more than deserve it.
The Chasers:
Man United ... 24 pts
Wolves ... 24
Spurs ... 23
High anxiety in Manchester and North London ... relative calm in the West Midlands. Spurs slow start cost Poch his job, and United are a tabloid editor's dream as usual. I don't see this lot making a move unless Spurs really were bagging it on the best manager they've had in 20 years.
The Mankie Middle:
Sheffield U ... 22
Crystal Palace ... 22
Newcastle ... 22
Arsenal ... 19
Brighton ... 19
Burnley ... 18
Arsenal made a change and hope to climb out of this neighborhood, and the Irons are just glad to be here. Everybody else ... something, something, water finds its level.
The Scrum for the Bottom:
Everton ... 17 pts
Bournemouth ... 16
West Ham ... 16
Aston Villa ... 15
Southampton ... 15
Norwich ... 11
Watford ... 9
Watford Is falling apart at the seams, which I honestly expected them to do LAST year. Meanwhile Bournemouth and Southampton have been on this arc for awhile now. Everton is just playing terrible football, but a change of bosses will probably get them up to the next group eventually. West Ham seem a general purpose mess, while Villa is fairly happy to survive and are coming off a stupidly challenging month with at least some dignity intact. Norwich isn't built for this and look to stick near the bottom. I look for Watford and Norwich to start getting ready for the Championship while the others slug it out for survival ... or pride ... or both.
January should be fun. There's a few relatively heavy investments looking to fail, which generally leads to drunken sailor level spending. Looking at Everton, West Ham, Arsenal and Man U here. Most everybody else that circumstances would suggest as buyers seem to be more invested in working a longer term program. We'll see. Somebody always breaks ranks and does something dumb and then it's Katie, bar the door.