WITH just over 20% of the season gone, the Premier League table is starting the take shape and narratives are being built. Is the title heading for north London? Are Brighton the Premier League’s most entertaining team? Can teams stay up after terrible starts? Let’s find out what history tells us…
The title
For the first time since the 1990-91 season, both Arsenal and Spurs are unbeaten after eight games in a top-flight season. The Gunners went on to win the league that year under George Graham and Tottenham finished 10th, although no Premier League side has finished outside the top-four when unbeaten at this stage since Newcastle in 2011-12, who came fifth. New Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou has made a superb start, becoming only the seventh manager in Premier League history to win 20 points in his first eight games and first since Maurizio Sarri in 2018, while he is now guaranteed to keep Spurs on top of the Premier League until at least October 20th, which will take his total days top to 14 – that is more than Mauricio Pochettino (6) and Antonio Conte (7) ended the day top with Spurs combined (13). Four of the last six Premier League champions have been unbeaten in their first eight games, which is also good news for Arsenal and Spurs’ chances. Manchester City started this season with six wins but have lost their last two, their worst run since December 2018, although two of the last three title winners with two defeats after eight games are… Man City in 2013-14 and 2020-21. No team has won a top-flight league title after losing three of their first eight games since 1967 (bad news for Chelsea) and with four defeats in eight games since 1913 (terrible news for Man Utd).
The entertainers
Few things are guaranteed in football but, for the moment at least, you are almost certain to see goals when Brighton play. The Seagulls are the Premier League’s top scorers this season with 21 goals, which is already over 60% of their entire tally for their first ever season in 2017-18, when they netted 34. At the other end, however, only the bottom three clubs have let in more goals than they have (16), with both teams finding the net in all eight of their games this season. They are only the fourth side in Premier League history to have done that in the opening eight games of a season – the last? Leicester City in 2015-16, who had only conceded one fewer goal than Brighton have currently and then won the league. With 37 goals in total, this is the joint-fourth most at this stage of a season by any team in Premier League history, with the last team with this many winning the league (Man City last season), and two of the other three reaching the Champions League. For the neutral observer, long may it continue.
The basement
It has been a difficult start for the newly promoted teams in the Premier League this season, with just two wins in 24 games between all three, and one of those was for Burnley against Luton. It’s the joint fewest wins by promoted teams across their first eight games in Premier League history, with Crystal Palace, Norwich and West Brom also gaining just two between them in 2004-05. Their 19 combined defeats is the most ever at this stage in a Premier League season, with 15 the previous most in 2020-21. With Sheffield United at the bottom on just one point and without a win, drawing one and losing seven, they will need to create history if they are to remain in the league. All eight previous promoted Premier League clubs without a win at this stage have then been relegated, while they are only the second promoted side in top-flight history with one point at this stage, along with Leicester in 1983-84. Helped by the 22 goals of one Gary Lineker, the Foxes recovered to finish 15th that season and avoided relegation. Perhaps if Oliver McBurnie’s goals keep the Blades up, he could be the face of crisps in 20 years.
It’s also been a terrible start to the season for Bournemouth, the only side in the bottom four not newly promoted to the division this season. The Cherries have failed to win any of their opening eight league games in a season for the second time in their history, also doing so in 1994-95. All eight games have come under new manager Andoni Iraola, who is the first Spanish manager in Premier League history to win none of his first eight games in the competition. He’s only the (unlucky for some) 13th different manager to win none of his first eight Premier League matches at a club in the first eight games of a season and the first since Slaven Bilic in 2020-21 with West Brom. Of the previous 12, every single team was relegated at the end of the season, although encouragingly for Iraola, eight of those managers were still in charge at the end of the campaign, so history does tell us that he will be given the opportunity to turn it around, with 2023-24 the first campaign in which each team has the same manager on MD8 as they started with on MD1 since 2020-21.
No team wins the league eight games in, nor does any team get relegated at this stage of a campaign. But history is always there to remind us what is possible and what has gone before. And you’d certainly be happier with your chances of a positive finish this season as a fan of a North London team than as a supporter of any of the three promoted clubs.
