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The Premier League Pre-Christmas Wrap-up

Dec 23, 2024

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The Premier League’s hectic Christmas fixtures are just around the corner, with matches to come hard and fast over the next few days until the new year.

But before that, lets take breath to look at how some of the teams have been doing so far.

Favourites for the title

Liverpool currently top the standings with a four-point lead at the summit.

The Reds have been one of this season’s surprise packages, as few had initially expected them to do so well so soon since the arrival of Arne Slot in the summer.

Less than halfway through his debut season, Slot has now guided his side to 12 wins and just one loss in the league.

It helps that their star striker Mo Salah has once again been firing on all cylinders. In fact, he’s already netted 229 career goals for the Reds…putting him fourth on their all-time scorers list.

Defending champions’ fall from grace

Just last season, Man City were celebrating their fourth successive Premier League title, which had cemented their dominance of the English game.

Less than half a year later, Pep Guardiola’s side find themselves seventh in the table and in the middle of what some are calling a full-blown crisis.

They’ve lost six games already this season and have just one win in their last five matches.

They’ve also conceded 25 goals so far…the second highest out of any team in the top half of the table.

Different manager, same results

Much had been said about Ruben Amorim as he took over from Erik Ten Hag at Man United.

Some had called him the next Jose Mourinho, while others tipped him as the one to finally help the Red Devils return to their glory days.

But six games in, United have managed just seven points under Amorim, with three defeats in their last five games.

What’s worse, United are struggling in 13th place, making this the first time in the Premier League era they’ll be spending Christmas in the bottom half of the table.

The Blues pull a surprise

Despite a relatively shaky start to the season…Enzo Maresca seems to have steadied the ship at Chelsea.

As we approach the halfway point of the season The Blues find themselves as genuine title contenders, sitting in second place and within touching distance of the leaders.

Consistently inconsistent

Just as in seasons past, Arsenal had started the campaign strongly, keeping the pace with Liverpool at the top end of the table.

They’ve not played particularly badly, but carelessly dropped points against Everton and Fulham have left the Gunners trailing in third place, six points off the leaders.

Stuttering Spurs

Tottenham have been really struggling since letting go of their talisman Harry Kane.

Son Heung Min has been trying his best to make up for his former partner’s absence, but there’s only so much the influential captain can do on his own.

Ange Postecoglou’s side head into Christmas in 11th place…with seven wins, two draws and eight defeats so far.

Other surprise packages

While the likes of Man City, Man United and Tottenham are struggling with their uncharacteristically poor performances…some of the ‘smaller’ teams have been taking the opportunity to shine.

Nottingham Forest are remarkably up to fourth in the standings, with Bournemouth rounding up the top five. Both teams, incidentally, are unbeaten in their last three games.

 

The Christmas schedule kicks off on Dec 26th with matches taking place every single day until the 31st.

Catch all matches LIVE on Astro.