Seven games into the Premier League season and there are only four noughts left in the overall table. Two of them are in the wins column next to the bottom clubs Stoke and Sunderland, who happen to be playing each other on Saturday in what both must regard as a chance to get their campaigns properly started. Up at the sunny end the nought relating to Manchester City defeats has disappeared, though Pep Guardiola’s side can still claim to be the only one in the division yet to be held to a draw, while perhaps the most significant zero is the one indicating Tottenham remain unbeaten.
Following Spurs’ convincing win against City last week, assessments of their ability to win a first title in 56 years were being swiftly revised. Spurs were pretty good last season, even if they did settle for third place in a two-horse race right at the end, and just as Guardiola had predicted beforehand, Mauricio Pochettino has continued to make improvements. It is far too early to say Tottenham are the real deal at long last but fairly safe to predict that not too many teams will be dismantling Manchester City in such a fashion.
While beating City under current management is a surefire way of getting yourself noticed, the title race is not always about head-to-head results against the favourites, as the more stoic among Spurs supporters know better than most.
Tottenham’s record against City is excellent though even as Pochettino’s team emerged as Leicester’s likeliest challengers last season, it was being said that they were not winning enough games. They ended up with 13 draws, the highest total in the top six, and two of them were against their next opponents, West Bromwich Albion.
Having to accept only a point at The Hawthorns last December was bad enough after taking the lead and letting it slip, though the 1-1 result at White Hart Lane towards the end of the season was even worse, more or less signalling the end of Tottenham’s title hopes.
Vital to their chances of mounting a more effective challenge this season will be winning the low-key fixtures as well as the high-profile ones. Spurs fans could be forgiven for refusing to get carried away until their side have secured maximum points from the next two games, against West Brom and Bournemouth.
One could say the next three games, except Leicester do not seem to have decided yet whether they are going to be fearless or feckless this season. What can be said is that if Spurs can keep going through October they will take a lot of confidence to Arsenal on Bonfire night weekend, and if they come through that test their title odds will shorten further still.
Not that Arsenal can be discounted after recovering so well from their opening-day defeat. The theory that north-west teams were going to dominate this season’s title race seemed a reasonable one when Liverpool won at the Emirates and even Everton got off to an impressive start, though while there has subsequently been a downward revision of expectations at Goodison and Old Trafford, north London has effectively driven a wedge between the best Manchester and Merseyside have to offer.
Manchester City and Liverpool are the joint highest goalscorers after seven matches with 18 apiece, though the latter’s goal difference is actually inferior to that of Spurs thanks to Pochettino’s defence conceding a miserly three goals to date. That is fewer than half a goal per game, and another indication that Tottenham and the title may be reacquainting themselves in the near future.
One defeat does not spoil a season though, and City still look the team to beat. Everton have been above Liverpool and Manchester United at times this season but never above Guardiola’s side, and Ronald Koeman’s task in trying to elevate his new club into something beyond the fourth-best team in the north-west faces its ultimate challenge with a trip to the Etihad on Saturday .
Were the fixture at Goodison it might be described as a showdown, with the Everton fans perhaps even tempted to reproduce the raucous atmosphere that seemed to help Celtic knock City off their stride in the Champions League recently. At the Etihad, where one imagines Guardiola has spent the international break concentrating on how to prevent a winless sequence stretching to three matches, Everton could easily catch a backlash.
The rather bigger Merseyside v Manchester fixture of this round of matches, however, is United’s visit to Liverpool on Monday. Forget the past, this is not about historic accumulations of titles or ancient grievances, it is simply Jürgen Klopp pitting his wits against José Mourinho to see which manager is making most sense of the present.
Both sides were well fancied to have a decent Premier League season on account of having no European involvement. That is to say, United are in the Europa League but Mourinho was not expected to take it seriously.
Defeat in the opening game at Feyenoord initially changed that, and now Mourinho is moaning about fixture overload, making the not unreasonable point that a game against Liverpool on a Monday is less than ideal preparation for meeting Fenerbahce on the Thursday, which in turn is not what you need when you are away to Chelsea on the Sunday.
That is some seven days for United and their manager: away at Anfield, at home to the Turkish side then a first return to Stamford Bridge, especially with a derby against City in the League Cup the following week.
In theory few would blame Mourinho for treating the European game most lightly. In practice it probably depends on results in the other matches.
