December is upon us, one third of the Premier League season has been completed and a definite hierarchy has been established. You could throw a blanket over the top four of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, who are separated by only three points after 13 matches. With the gap from the fourth-placed Arsenal to the best of the rest a more emphatic four points, the smart money suggests that barring an unlikely surge from Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester United, this season’s Premier League title will almost certainly go to one of those four.
With a busy period of festive football looming, now seems as good a time as any to take stock and see which of the four look freshest and perhaps best equipped to pull away from their rivals. Each of them will have to play seven league games by the end of the first week of January, when Premier League teams will contest the third round of the FA Cup.
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