Happy New Year!
And what a race for the Premier League title, top four and survival battle we have.
The first tranche of the season has produced plenty of Premier League 2023 highlights and results which have often upset the Premier League 2023 betting odds and created stories to savour.
Yet the truth is we are not quite halfway so the likelihood is there’ll be more to come.
Let’s start at the top and a team which finished fifth last season, yet finds itself with a seven-point advantage going into 2023.
Let’s be honest, who thought that would be the case?
Certainly not this SBOTOP writer.
It is Arsenal, preparing to face Newcastle on Tuesday, who are buoyed by an increasingly formidable-looking lead over champions Manchester City after 16 matches.
On one side, the Gunners will not want to get carried away.
They face a tough January before reaching the campaign’s midpoint, with Tottenham and Manchester United – the only side to have defeated them in the league so far – to follow after Newcastle.
Their two meetings with second-placed City are also yet to come, and boss Mikel Arteta will want to address the defensive frailties that surfaced on the south coast on New Year’s Eve in a 4-2 win at Brighton.
On the other side, the team which topped the Premier League table on Christmas Day has gone onto be champions in 10 of the past 13 seasons.
Arsenal have scored in their last 17 games in the Premier League, their longest run of games with a goal in the competition since a run of 20 between August 2018 and January 2019.
Captain Martin Odegaard has been involved in 12 goals in his last 13 Premier League appearances (seven goals, five assists) and has had a hand in more league goals this season (12 in 15 apps) than in the entirety of 2021-22 (11 in 36).
My money remains on City, but Arsenal could not have done more to date.
What of the side in third place?
Well, Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe was certainly correct when he said 2022 had been a “year of real progress” following his side’s goalless draw with Leeds.
For the Magpies head into 2023 a club transformed from the one that, three months after its Saudi Arabia-backed takeover, was 19th in the table a year ago.
The Tynesiders may have missed out on a seventh consecutive league win at St James’ Park on Saturday but it did stretch their unbeaten run to 12 games – a run which goes back to August – and are only two points behind the champions.
They end the year in the top three for only the third time in the Premier League era and the first time since the 2001-02 campaign.
Back to another big-spending club and developments at Chelsea make for a delve into the unknown as to what is coming next.
In what has been a year of real change in west London, the club are looking to be aggressive in January in an attempt to kickstart their top-four challenge.
Confident of extending the contract of N’Golo Kante, who has been so unfortunate with injury so far this season, reports suggest they are trying to boost their midfield by signing Enzo Fernández from Benfica and are also interested in the Brighton midfielder Alexis Mac Allister.
In attack they could rival Arsenal for the Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhailo Mudryk.
The Blues have already agreed to sign the striker David Datro Fofana from the Norwegian side Molde and are expected to confirm the arrival of Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama.
How manager Graham Potter shapes new recruits into his side could be the biggest challenge.
There is a club with even newer owners than Chelsea.
That is Bournemouth whose new man at the helm, Bill Foley, and minority owner, Hollywood actor Michael B Jordan, were introduced to the crowd at the weekend.
The touch of Las Vegas glitz added to the pre-match atmosphere as half a dozen pitchside flamethrowers, more usually seen around the boundary in Twenty20 cricket, greeted the players’ arrival on to the pitch.
When Foley travelled to Dorset in October to sign the takeover paperwork, he watched Gary O’Neil’s side come from behind to beat Leicester 2-1.
Now a Hollywood-style comeback would be ideal to avoid getting drawn into a relegation battle. It would be a fine achievement given the paucity of their resources to date, compared to most of their fellow top-flight sides.
Staying on the south coast, Southampton remain rooted to the foot of the table after a late winner by Fulham’s Joao Palhinha condemned the visitors to a fifth straight Premier League defeat on New Year’s Eve.
James Ward-Prowse’s superb second-half free-kick had seemed set to secure his side a much-needed point until an 88th -minute header from one of the unsung stars of the season so far, Palhinha.
Like Bournemouth, the Saints have struggled to keep onto their star talents, a factor which could prove crucial in the bid to beat the drop.
All will be revealed over the next five months.
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