Premier League: Can anyone stop Manchester City and are the promoted clubs already doomed?

5 talking points: Premier League after six games

We are already six weeks into the 2023-24 Premier League season and the table is beginning to take shape.

Defending champions Manchester City have shown no hangover from winning the Treble, with Pep Guardiola’s side having won six from six to sit two points clear of Liverpool at the top.

Brighton and Tottenham are third and fourth respectively after enjoying impressive starts to the campaign, ahead of last season’s runners-up Arsenal.

Meanwhile, it has been a baptism of fire for the three promoted clubs – Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton – who are yet to win a game between them. The Blades prop up the division following their humiliating 8-0 defeat at home to Newcastle.

We have crunched the numbers and picked out five need-to-know stats from the season so far.

Can anyone stop Manchester City?

Manchester City have navigated a potential post-Treble letdown and a lengthy injury list to take maximum points from their opening six matches.

Despite the absence of key men such as Kevin De Bruyne and John Stones, Pep Guardiola’s side have sent an early message to their rivals and appear determined to become the first team in Premier League history to win four consecutive titles.

They are the first reigning champions in 12 years to top the league after half a dozen games, following in the footsteps of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in 2011-12.

However, Fergie’s men famously lost the league to City that year and history suggests that the title race is far from a foregone conclusion this time around.

Only four of the previous 10 defending champions to sit top after six matches went on to lift the trophy at the end of the season, with the remaining six finishing as runners-up.

Chelsea were the last team to convert an early lead into a successful title defence, having done so in 2005-06 under the guidance of Jose Mourinho.

Could Chelsea be relegated?

The Blues’ current form is a far cry from those halcyon days, with Mauricio Pochettino’s side having collected just five points from their opening six matches.

Defeats against Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and West Ham have highlighted the number of issues facing Chelsea’s new boss, who has so far overseen a set of results not dissimilar from those endured by his predecessors – Graham Potter and Frank Lampard – in the second half of last season.

Since the start of 2023, Chelsea have won five, drawn 10 and lost 14 of their 29 Premier League games for a total of 25 points.

That’s the joint-lowest tally in the division alongside Everton, who have played two fewer matches.

The Blues’ calendar-year average of 0.86 points per game is their lowest in the Premier League era, behind 1993 (0.95).

Tottenham’s transformation

To make matters worse for Pochettino, his former club Tottenham – who were reportedly interested in re-employing the Argentinian during the summer – have enjoyed a resurgence under their new manager Ange Postecoglou.

Spurs have earned four wins and two draws from their first six games, including a victory over Manchester United and a creditable point at Arsenal where they twice fell behind.

Postecoglou is a known advocate of attacking football and his side have averaged 19 shots per game during his short reign, up from 13.5 last season. The increase of 41 per cent is the largest uptick in the division.

However, it is important not to get carried away, with six games of the new season representing a very small sample size.

Tottenham had an identical return of 14 points under Antonio Conte at the same stage of the disappointing 2022-23 campaign.

De Zerbi ball

One point ahead of Spurs, Brighton are the first non ‘big six’ side to win five of their first six Premier League matches since Charlton in 2005-06.

The Seagulls trail only Manchester City and Liverpool in the table, having recently celebrated a year under their highly-rated manager Roberto De Zerbi.

They are the league’s top scorers with 18 at an average of three per game, with their manager’s possession-based philosophy earning an increasing number of plaudits.

Remarkably, De Zerbi’s team are yet to launch a single goal kick upfield, with all 21 of their goalkeeper restarts played short so far.

Tottenham have recorded the second-lowest percentage of long goal kicks, at 20 per cent – or six out of 30.

Are the promoted sides already doomed?

The gap between established Premier League clubs and newcomers to the league looks to be wider than ever this season, with the three promoted teams currently occupying the relegation places.

Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton are without a win from a combined 16 matches, with each side having managed a solitary draw so far.

Only once before, in 2004-05, have all three promoted teams been winless after five games – and even then, Norwich and West Brom each had three draws on the board, with Crystal Palace trailing on one point.

Palace and Norwich were duly relegated that season, but West Brom survived with victory over Portsmouth on the final day.

Worryingly for this year’s trio, of 17 promoted teams to go five games without a win in Premier League history, the Baggies are the only one to avoid relegation.