Is the Premier League already a two-team title race? — SkimNews
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- Arsenal and Manchester City are the only two Premier League teams with 12 points from four games, sitting four points above third-placed Hull City.
- Arsenal, defending champions under Mikel Arteta, are on a nine-game league winning run after beating Coventry, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland, plus Napoli in the Champions League.
- Manchester City under new manager Enzo Maresca — replacing the departed Pep Guardiola — also won four from four, including a controversial 1-0 victory at Manchester United where the PGMOL admitted Erling Haaland's winning goal should have been ruled out for offside.
- The underlying numbers undercut the visual dominance — Brighton (13) and Chelsea (10) have scored more goals than the top two (8 each), while Arsenal and City rank only 10th and 11th for shots.
- Chelsea sit fifth with 10 goals scored but 9 conceded, Liverpool are seventh with three draws, Manchester United are 13th equalling their worst Premier League start since 1992-93, and Tottenham are 17th — failing to score in their first four league games for the first time in the club's history.
- History offers cold comfort to the chasing pack: just 9 of 28 Premier League sides to win their first four games have lifted the title, and only two clubs (Ferguson's Manchester United five times, Guardiola's City in 2020-21) have won the league from five or more points behind after four games.
Why it matters: The chasing pack's combined early-season mediocrity — Chelsea leaking nine goals, United matching their worst start in three decades, Spurs yet to score at all — gives Arsenal and City unusual breathing room, but the historical record (only 32% of 4-0-0 starts convert to titles) means a four-point gap after four games is hardly a verdict.
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