Although it’s just the fourth game of the new season, Arsenal may now have a clearer view of their title rivals. Looking at the Premier League table, Manchester City currently leads with a perfect record, having won all four of their matches. Most Arsenal supporters anticipated a battle with Manchester City for the 2023-24 title, given the two-point gap that separates them from the front-runners. Arsenal will need to make up ground.
Following Manchester City in the league standings are Tottenham, Liverpool, and West Ham, with Arsenal closely behind, all having dropped two points. Among these teams, it appears that only Arsenal and Liverpool possess the qualities required to challenge Manchester City.
Arsenal’s strong performance last season suggests they will remain in the title race, as demonstrated by their 3-1 victory over Manchester United, maintaining their unbeaten streak. Additionally, Liverpool has resolved its midfield issues and made significant signings, reducing the likelihood of struggles similar to the previous season, barring the potential loss of Mohamed Salah to the Saudi League.
Regarding West Ham, while some may find it surprising, I do not view them as title contenders. The question is whether they see themselves as such. With four games played and strong top-four contenders in the league, it’s probable they will drop points. Teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City can exploit West Ham on a good day, despite West Ham’s victories over Brighton and Chelsea.
In contrast, I don’t believe Tottenham is prepared to win the league. They have performed well, but they haven’t faced formidable opposition, except for their 2-0 victory over Manchester United, who have been struggling recently.
Apart from Spurs and West Ham, there were high expectations for Manchester United and Chelsea this season. However, with United dropping six points and Chelsea eight, their poor starts could relegate them to competing for a top-four finish. If they wish to join the title race, they will need to emulate Manchester City’s strong performance in March and April of the 2022-23 season by putting together a long winning streak, although injuries could pose a challenge for both teams.
After the fourth matchday, it appears that the Premier League title race is shaping up to be a contest among Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool. Wouldn’t you agree?
Sam P
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Agreed, Sam P. Based on the first four games, I believe Man City will win EPL again and we’d likely become a runner-up
I think we can only win EPL if Haaland gets injured
The usual bait last sentence. We can only win EPL if we win more games than the rest. It doesn’t matter who gets injured or sent to the moon.
We’ll win EPL if we collect more points than other teams, but we’d likely not be able to do it because Haaland made Man City almost perfect
What role did Haaland play in our last season collapse?
He made Man City beat us home and away
But that didn’t make us lose the title didn’t it? What role did Haaland play when we dropped points against Liverpool, West Ham, Southampton, Forest and Brighton? Did they each loan him for those games?
Man City just collected 5 points more than us
If he didn’t make them beat us home and away, we would’ve won EPL, because we were almost as consistent as Man City
Doesn’t matter if we didn’t drop 12 points out of 15. Still Haaland doesn’t factor there.
Gai, There were factors that made us relinquish our top position to City but he as an individual wasn’t the reason we lost the league to City. You over emphasized the importance of Halaand. Before Haaland came to Epl there was Kane scoring goals for fun yet Spuds won nothing. Halaand is just an addition to City quality. Many City players were massive last season Gundogan, KDB, Grealish, Rodri, Stone etc..
First the good news. I think we, Arsenal, will challenge for the title. Now the bad news. Probably the James Maddison motivated Spuds. When we got Havertz and the Spuds got Maddison my heart missed a beat. Self-Harm. Hope I’m wrong, but we had some bad luck with Timber and some Edu/Arteta madness with Havertz. We could have had Maddison, but we gave our Enemy, The Spuds, Maddison…..insanity.
The rules of war ‘Do not give your enemy a weapon to harm you with’
Liverpool are looking good. Their game against Villa was vintage. I see them as the most likely team to deny Arsenal a runner-up finish, except they somehow lose Salah during the season.
My top 6 for this season based on what I’ve seen so far is:
1 – ManC
2 – Arsenal
3 – Liverpool
4 – Spurs
5 – Brighton
6 – ManU
Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U.
City
Liverpool
Arsenal
Spuds/ManU
To be honest, the way we look in the first few games I’ll just be happy to be in the top 4. Points have certainly been papering over the huge cracks.
Going with us ending 3rd, but that’s only if MA stops his rubbish with playing players out of position and stops his egotistical picking of the starters.
Don’t worry. We have the team and the manager (when he realize there is no need to prove how clever he is with 106 variations of formation in the first 5 minutes) capable of winning the league.
It is going to take an injury or an embarrassing loss to return his head to what is effective as it has done so many times before.
Gree with Jen above. Comments:
Man City with Haarland are very efficient but dull. Unfortunately their reputation is such that other teams are beaten before kick off. Only risk is Haaland injury.
Liverpool are great up front, have a skilled but lightweight midfield now but a dodgy defence. Success depends on whether they keep their confidence high to play on the front foot. And Salah needs to stay fit.
Spurs have an excellent midfield a great attacking and team spirit and confidence, but it’s recent and therore fragile. Good mixed with bad this season.
Brighton have been superb but any selling club struggles to reach the very top. Excellent manager.
Man Utd will be top six because they are tough at home , have some arrogant overrated stars who bully if given the chance but can equally easily crumble. Average manager.
Liverpool’s midfield is not weak.
Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Szoboslai.
These are three strong midfielders.
I stand with my earlier prediction.
1. Arsenal
2-6. A fight between Brighton, Man utd, Liverpool, Ncastle, City, Spuds etc (in no particular order)
We can only compete with the likes of City if we play our best players in their correct positions. That’s our only weapon against Pep and Klopp. Partey at RB has to end. Kai should be Ode’s alternative in games that demand height/physicality. Rice and Partey can interchange depending on opposition tactics. We could easily rotate without Galaxy-braining our entire setup. Partey Rice Odegaard/Kai will overpower 90% of EPL midfielders, we just have to find a way to shithouse the remaining 10%.
Interesting take on the Liverpool midfield Guy.The very talented Szoboszlai ,who we ought to have signed last season, is 6’1″ , and Gravenberch, who has immense potential, is 6’3″ .Add to that Macallister who can look after himself and I don’t think many analysts would describe the Liverpool midfield as “lightweight”..In any event I see them pushing us hard for second place, with or without Salah.Personally I feel he is not as quick and productive as he was 2 seasons ago, and if I was in charge of the purse strings at Annfield, I would find an offer of 150m too good to turn aside.
It’s a sad indictment of the EPL that people are seeing City as inevitable champions after four games, that an awful utd side will grab a CL spot, and that a Spurs side that had exactly the same start last season, yet, as ever dropped down with the xmas tree lights, and that our lot, who’ve been at best ‘unconvincing’, will take second place. I mean theres optimism, and theres, well, a crystal ball? As for Liverpool, beating Villa is not exactly proof of anything bar the latter are woefully inconsistent. If things are the same come April, then let’s discuss it.
Not many are saying it’s inevitable John. But they are favourites as the best club side in the world and are rightly favourites as they swept everybody aside last season. They were favourites before a ball was kicked and will probably remain so until the concluding games. I don’t see it as an indictment of the EPL. Football dominance is cyclical in every country and they are having their day in the sun, but nothing lasts forever.
No challenge…City post to post. Arsenal second, Spurs third and Liverpool fourth
City’s defense is too good. Invincibles mode and DeBruyne will return, fit and rested at the right time for another long winning streak to finish off PL and complete another treble, if not more (moose cup and Club World Cup). We scored 100 points with DeBruyne out for most of that season. A couple more acquisitions in January and it’s a done deal. Sorry Arsenal fans…maybe win PL once Guardiola leaves
I hate to say this but the headline is totally misleading. You can only be a challenger of anything when you “challenge” the current encumbent. As City are the current Premier League Champions it is Arsenal that are the “Challengers”. The headline should be “Who do you think will be the other challengers to Manchester City in the fight for the EPL Title”.
Oh no. Now we have two grammar police on board! I’m sorry but being an Arsenal website I thought I should have Arsenal in the title.
Apologies
PAT I suggest quite seriously that your underestimate of just two grammar police on JA is wildly inaccurate.
It may well be true that only very few such as I and now IAN,openly challenge you on your deliberately sloppy English in misleading headlines.
A great number on here have not English as their own first language, as we all can see and are thus not in a position to challenge your headlines.
But, as I REMEMBER YOU ONCE TOLD NE LONG AGO, MANY THOUSANDS read this site.
To my mind it is inconceivable that many of those will not agree with me and with IAN on our point of view. Unless, of course you were at that time greatly exaggerating the readership of JA.
BUT I have no reason to believe that you were, and so I repeat my above opinion.
It would have been the easiest of tasks to include Arsenal in the headline as challengers to City, which would have been accurate, even if not your personal choice.
I often wonder what you seem to have against accuracy.
Hi Pat,
Sorry, it’s nothing to do with grammar and all about getting the facts right. Arsenal are “Challengers”; City are “Champions”
Sorry but I don’t agree. City are reigning champions but aren’t champions of the present campaign. The headline writer obviously thinks we could be at the end of the season and is just asking who will be challenging us. People calling out grammar are just playing with semantics.
Grammar and semantics are not the same meaning, GB Semantics are concerned with words or symbols. The meaning of words actually.
Grammar is quite another matter, and has a far wider meaning, concerned with the principles or science of the correct use of language. There is sometimes an overlap but the two separate words have different meanings. If you are wise or wish to be educated, you will read and take note of what I outline in this post.
On the specifics of the headline used and in which context, what IAN andI wrote above is correct and your own post is incorrect.
Correct use of language is not an opinion but a fact, when correctly used. Agreeing with something that is linguistically wrong is foolish and uneducated.
Haaland. Nunez. Jesus. Hojlund. Son.
Grealish. Diaz. Martinelli. Rashford. Solomon.
Debruyne. Szoboszlai. Odegaard. Fernandes. Maddison.
Bernado. Salah. Saka. Antony. Kuluveski.
Kovacic. MAllister. Rice. Amrabat. Sarr.
Rodri. Gravenberch. Partey. Casemiro. Bissouma.
Gvardiol. Robertson. Zinchenko. Shaw. Udogie.
Akanji. V Dijk. Gabriel. Martinez. VanVen.
Dias. Matip. Saliba. Varane. Romero.
Walker. Arnold. White. Bissaka. Porro.
Ederson. Allison. Ramsdale. Onana. Vicario.
@SJ can you select your best 11 out of that list above? No sentiment, no favoritism. Based on your football knowledge who amongst these who will be your best 11?
Haaland.
Rashford. DeBruyne. Saka.
Bissouma. Rodri.
Gvardiol. Dias. Saliba. Walker.
Ederson.