Nobody escapes in the Premier League. A platoon of five teams advances compactly at the head of the race. Nobody wants to give up in the fight in what is being the most competitive English league in the last 15 years. Since Manchester City woke up from its lethargy to be able to win the 2011-12 Premier League, with Agüero’s legendary goal against QPR in the last minute of the last day, it had never reached these heights with the top five classified separated only by five points.
The champion will emerge from Liverpool, City, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Tottenham, but it is difficult to predict who has the most numbers. The closest precedent is a decade ago (2013-14) when there were seven points between the leading car – the leader then was Arsenal but the champion was Pellegrini’s City. The richest league has become more expensive than ever.
One of those title contenders, by the way, will be left out of the 2024-25 Champions League, something that has already happened to Liverpool and Tottenham this year.
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa wasted an opportunity to become co-leader with Liverpool. The villains did not go beyond a draw at Goodison Park, where Everton did a small favor (sacrilege) to their red neighbors by keeping the score at 0-0 and stopping Villa.
Emery’s team, with Lenglet and Alex Moreno as starters, were also lucky to have Draw Martínez who, on the edge of half-time, once again made a miraculous save with his leg that was reminiscent of the one at the end of the World Cup. This time the role of Kolo Muani was played by Calvert-Lewin, who stood in front of the Argentine goalkeeper, who stuck his foot out at the most unexpected moment to prevent the goal.
He did beat Martínez Doucouré in the 88th minute but the Malian started the play early and the goal did not go up on the scoreboard.
Those from Birmingham, who are the best local team, with nine wins and a draw at home, lower their performance away from Villa Park and are tied at 43 points with a Manchester City that was confirmed in Newcastle on Saturday as the best visitor (2- 3). The citizens add more points at home (22) than at home (21). Champions of the last three Premier Leagues, Guardiola’s men are counting on the reappearance of De Bruyne (goal and assist at Saint James’ Park) to chase down Liverpool, the leader with 45 points.
On New Year’s Day the Reds broke the statistics with 34 shots, 15 on goal, and even the artificial intelligence with 7.11 expected goals, against Newcastle (4-2). Now they are going to spend 20 days without Premier playing in the championship and they are the team with the fewest goals scored, with 18 goals conceded.
Arsenal have gone three games without winning, with two consecutive defeats in two derbies against West Ham and Fulham. Furthermore, yesterday he saw how another Londoner, Tottenham, equaled his 40 points. Manchester United took the lead twice at Old Trafford, first Hojlund and then Rashford, and twice the Spurs tied, with a header from Richarlison and a counterattack that Bentancur finished (2-2). Postecoglou’s team is fun and unpredictable, so much so that he has scored in all his outings and already has 24 goals on the road. He played without Maddison and Lo Celso (injured), without Bissouma and Sarr (in the Africa Cup) and without Son (in the Asia Cup). So it is logical that they have been reinforced in winter with Timo Werner and Dragusic. Both debuted.