THE Premier League 2023 calendar year table reveals Aston Villa would bag a top-four spot while Chelsea flirt with relegation.
With one-month of football action remaining this year, clubs are already turning their attention to the January transfer window.
At the beginning of 2023, Chelsea recruited Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk.
It was supposed to herald an upturn in fortunes for the Blues but actually things took a turn for the worse as they had one of their lowest finishes to date.
With only eight league wins in 2023 and four different managers, Chelsea failed to finish in the top half of the table last term in 12th.
The last time they failed to finish in the top ten was the 1995-96 season and their worst performance before that was in the 14th spot in the 1993-94 campaign.
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And it looks like the West London club’s perpetual struggles have continued.
According to the 2023 calendar year table the biggest shock is Chelsea’s 15th-placed position – having picked up 36 points from 36 games.
The Blues sit behind Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace who have both collected 38 points in 35 games.
Meanwhile, the top four reflect a slightly different standing to what we saw at the end of the 2022-23 season.
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Top spot is unsurprisingly taken by Manchester City (82pts) followed by Arsenal (71pts), Aston Villa (71pts) and Liverpool (67pts).
Last term’s top four finishers Manchester United and Newcastle are bumped down to fifth and sixth respectively.
Unai Emery’s side have had a terrific start this season with nine wins and an unbeaten home record.
And Jurgen Klopp’s side surprisingly has the same amount of points as Erik ten Hag’s squad who have struggled in the opening months of the current campaign.
But what is even more astounding is United are seven points ahead of Eddie Howe’s top-notch Magpies.
Despite Ange Postecoglou’s high-flying start to life at Tottenham, they sit eighth in the table.
However, for Chelsea excluding the six teams who got promoted or relegated, they sit 15th out of 17 teams.
After Mauricio Pochettino’s side, Everton and Bournemouth sit just one point below in the table.
Then Leicester, Leeds and Southampton are all closely ahead of the current bunch of former Championship sides Luton, Sheffield United and Burnley.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
