Ranking the Premier League Teams So Far This Season.

Author: Liam Lacey, Last Updated: 19.12.2024

As teams enter the busy Festive and New Year period in the 2024/25 Premier League season, we thought it might be a clever idea to prepare a pre-Christmas summary of the League so far. Which sides have performed strongly up to now this season, who is where we thought they would be, and who is underachieving thus far in the Premier League.

The Highfliers

Few could have thought that Arne Slot would slot in so seamlessly to the Liverpool dugout when he took over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer, but the Dutch coach has led his side to top spot in the Premier League as we approach the Christmas and New Year fixtures. They currently lead by 6 points and must view this as their best chance to win their first title since their 2019/20 triumph.

Chelsea are another side who have surprised us with just how consistent they have been. They may have a net spend of nearly £800 million over the last five seasons, but given their recent struggles in the League, the job Enzo Maresca has done in his first Premier League season has been very impressive. Chelsea, led by the impressive Cole Palmer with 11 Premier League goals, have positioned themselves as Premier League challengers as we move into the New Year.

At the time of writing Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest find themselves in 4th position in the League ahead of Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham. It is a remarkable turnaround from Forest who in their two earlier campaigns in the Premier League had spent so much time looking over their shoulders at the relegation zone. Nuno crafted a dangerous and efficient side in his time at Wolves and looks to be doing the same at the City Ground with Chris Wood’s goals a major part of their success.

Finally, Andoni Iraola and Bournemouth are the last of our high achievers thus far. The Cherries finished last season with their highest points tally ever in the Premier League with 48 points, and so far, this season have claimed wins over City and Arsenal to find themselves well inside the top half of the table.

The Middle of the Road

There are a number of sides in the Premier League this season that are performing as well as can be expected, given their circumstances. The likes of Everton, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Brentford and Fulham are roughly where you might expect them to be at this stage, with Palace maybe the most under achieving side of those five, given the run they had at the back end of last season under Oliver Glasner. They did lose Michael Olise to Bundesliga giants Bayern however, and he has proved to be difficult to replace.

Arsenal and Aston Villa are also included in the average teams because although they are underperforming on where many might have predicted them to be, Mikel Arteta’s men are currently in 3rd place and 6 points off Liverpool at the time of writing. Villa find themselves in 7th place, but are impressing in their first ever Champions League campaign and are well placed to qualify for the last 16 of that competition.

The Under Achievers

Surprisingly, Manchester City must be listed among the underachieving sides so far this season. The current champions of England are on a disastrous run of just 1 win in their last 11 matches, and it will surely go down as one of Pep Guardiola’s greatest achievements in football if he can somehow take City to the title this season.

Manchester United are another side that once again are under achieving in the Premier League. These poor results have already cost Erik Ten Hag his job as United boss so we will have to wait and see if new man at the helm Ruben Amorim can reposition the club as a major Premier League force over the coming months and years.

Spurs, West Ham and Newcastle United are the other sides we are listing as underachieving this season. Spurs lack any kind of consistency, which is hindering their performances under Ange Postecoglou, while West Ham replaced David Moyes with Julen Lopetegui to bring attacking football, but so far, the former Wolves boss has struggled to get his message across to his players. Newcastle are another side that lack consistency, which means they are languishing in the bottom half of the table for much of the season to date. How long the Geordie fans put up with that remains to be seen, especially given the quality of players they have at their disposal.

The Newcomers

Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton would be the bottom 3 after 16 matches were it not for the disastrous season Wolves are having. There doesn’t appear to be much hope for Southampton at the foot of the table with 5 points after 16 matches, and they have just sacked their manager, Russell Martin. Leicester have already replaced Steve Cooper with Ruud van Nistelrooy to try and lift them up the table, while Ipswich seem to be best placed of the three promoted sides to stay up at this stage under Kieran Mckenna.

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✒️ Liam Lacey – Football and GAA Sports Expert

Liam Lacey is a sportswriter from County Laois in Ireland who specializes in delivering content on GAA, horse races, and football matters (though he does see himself as somewhat of a tennis aficionado also).

Liam has written about All Ireland Gaelic Football and Hurling Championships, Premier League, Champions League and international football, offering expert opinions and match previews and predictions. Occasionally, even getting some right!