The Premier League is now 20 matchdays old. In other words, old enough to start definitively judging people. Chelsea have established themselves as the team to beat after going on a 13-match winning run to close out 2016. Their opening match of 2017, a 2-0 loss to Tottenham, has added some extra intrigue to the title race, but the Blues are still favorites.
The top six looks nailed on, with Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and both Manchester clubs in dominant form so far, but the order in which they finish will almost certainly change over the final 18 matches. At the other end of the table, Hull, Swansea, Sunderland and Crystal Palace have taken turns being the league’s most incompetent team, while Leicester and West Ham find themselves a long way off the standards they set last term.
Here we take a look at the players, managers, teams and moments that stood out during the first half of the season, for better and worse.
The good
Best player: Diego Costa
There have been several excellent individual performances through the first 20 games of the Premier League season. Alexis Sanchez has been key to Arsenal’s title challenge this year, and has notched an impressive 12 goals for the Gunners already. If Philippe Coutinho hadn’t gotten injured, then this award might well have gone to the little Brazilian. He’s been a standout performer in a Liverpool side full of potential player of the season candidates. Sunderland would be nowhere without Jermain Defoe, while the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eden Hazard have all impressed.
However, it’s impossible to look past Diego Costa for this award. The Spain international is the league’s top scorer with an impressive 14 goals. But that number itself doesn’t really capture the extent of his impact for Chelsea. He’s scored the winning goal in six of the Blues’ matches, including several during the 13-match winning streak that has seen Antonio Conte’s side run out to a five-point lead at the top of the table.
One of the key games during that stretch came against Manchester City, where Chelsea were fortunate to be only 1-0 down after De Bruyne missed an open goal at the start of the second half. Costa’s equalizer, a clinical finish that Chelsea had done little to merit, turned the game on its head. The Blues have had plenty of standout players this season, but none more so than Costa, whose tireless work ethic and world class finishing (not to mention his newfound discipline) make him perhaps the biggest single reason Chelsea are the team to beat at the halfway point.
Best manager: Antonio Conte
There was really only one acceptable choice for best manager at this stage of the season. Antonio Conte took over at Chelsea after the club stumbled to a disastrous 10th-place finish in 2015-16.
After winning their first three matches of 2016-17, Chelsea hit a bit of a rough patch: they drew with lowly Swansea before losing to Liverpool and Arsenal in consecutive matches. Conte had been utilizing a back four up to this point, but switched to a 3-4-3 in the second half of the loss to Arsenal, and stuck with the formation the following week against Hull. The Blues won 2-0. Chelsea have dropped three points from a possible 42 since then.
The stretch included a 13-match winning streak, during which the Blues conceded only four goals. The run featured some big victories — 4-0 against Manchester United, 5-0 against Everton — but, maybe even more importantly, also demonstrated Chelsea’s ability to grind out narrow wins when necessary.
By switching to a 3-4-3, Conte has been able to get more of his attacking talent on the field at the same time. With excellent defending provided by the back three, led by Gary Cahill and David Luiz, and stability in central midfield thanks to Nemanja Matic and new signing N’Golo Kante, Conte’s wing backs and forwards have been free to terrorize opposing defenses.
A resurgent Willian and Victor Moses have combined out wide with Pedro — who is showcasing why he played so regularly with Barcelona — to create a plethora of scoring chances for Chelsea. Eden Hazard has found his form, scoring nine goals. But no one has benefited more from the improved service and increased chances in front of goal than Diego Costa. The imposing forward leads the Premier League with 14 goals, and has added five assists for good measure.
The winning streak may have been snapped away at Tottenham last week, but Conte has his side five points clear of second-place Liverpool. That’s a remarkable achievement for a manager in his first season at a new club and in a new league. There’s still a long way to go, but Conte has been comfortably the league’s standout manager in the first half.
Surprise team: West Brom
West Brom finished the 2015-16 Premier League season in 14th place on 43 points. Midway through this season they sit in eighth place on 29 points, ahead of the likes of West Ham and Leicester.
Tony Pulis took over as West Brom manager halfway through the 2014-15 season. One of his first acts as head coach was to sign veteran Darren Fletcher and instate him as captain. The following season he added Salomon Rondon and Jonny Evans. And, for the current season, Pulis secured Matt Phillips and Nacer Chadli. These players have formed a core group that have allowed West Brom to finish the calendar year in the top half of the Premier League.
West Brom’s defense has been steady, conceding 24 goals. That’s only one fewer than second-place Liverpool. Ben Foster has continually put in excellent shifts for the Baggies in goal, and he’s currently third in the Premier League with 70 saves.
Rondon is leading the charge up front for West Brom, scoring seven goals, while Matt Phillips leads the Baggies with eight assists, and trails only Rondon in shots. Calm and steady captain Fletcher leads the team with 682 passes completed. West Brom have won most of the games they should, including a 4-2 thumping of West Ham in September, and drawn when they needed to, such as their 1-1 tie with Spurs. They’ve also held their own against the big boys, losing 1-0 to Arsenal and Chelsea.
With half of the season left, West Brom have surprised the rest of the Premier League by holding steady in eighth place, four points ahead of ninth-place Bournemouth. With the system and players employed by Pulis, West Brom fans should feel optimistic of at least matching their best-ever Premier League finish (eighth in 2012-13).
Best game: Swansea 5-4 Crystal Palace
This is perhaps a bad choice, given the defining feature of this match was how low the quality was. But it’s a truth, mostly ignored, that the best games are often also, and in another way, the worst.
Swansea led this match 3-1 with 15 minutes remaining in the second half. Crystal Palace led this match 4-3 heading into stoppage time. Swansea won this match 5-4. The Premier League, folks. The silliest league in all the world.
This match has actually gotten better with age, now that both managers have been sacked. Bob Bradley celebrated his first win as a Premier League manager following a show of defensive incompetence so bad it became good. He has since been fired following several displays of more run-of-the-mill defensive incompetence.
Alan Pardew, meanwhile, suffered his sixth league defeat in a row, and somehow still lasted four matches before getting his marching orders from the club. He’s been replaced by Sam Allardyce, who’s just as terrible but twice as competent.
These two sides played their second match of the season on Jan. 3, and it resulted in a much less hilarious 2-1 victory for Swansea, now led by Paul Clement.
There have been a lot of excellent games so far this season — Arsenal 3-4 Liverpool, Bournemouth 4-3 Liverpool, Manchester City 1-3 Chelsea, to name a few — but none were quite as ridiculous as the one between Swansea and Crystal Palace at the Liberty.
Best goal: Dimitri Payet vs. Middlesbrough
After 20 rounds of matches, there have been 571 goals scored in the Premier League so far this season. But a few stood out above the rest. Alexis Sanchez scored two fabulous goals for Arsenal against West Ham, while Paul Pogba scored with the sweetest of half volleys against Swansea. Sadio Mane had an unbelievable solo effort against Arsenal on opening day and Xherdan Shaqiri scored a couple of beauties against Hull. Most recently, Olivier Giroud gave Arsenal the lead against Crystal Palace with an outrageous scorpion kick back heel.
But Dimitri Payet earns the award for a stunning solo goal against Middlesbrough. The Frenchman’s form hasn’t been as impressive as it was last year, and it took him a while to get his first goal of the season, but it was well worth the wait. The Hammers were 1-0 down to Middlesbrough and once again struggling to find inspiration in their home stadium. Payet then stepped up with a moment of brilliance as he expertly collected a long pass from Winston Reid. After bringing the ball under is control next to the touchline, Payet proceeded to beat five Middlesbrough players before coolly rolling the ball past a helpless Victor Valdes.
The bad
Biggest disappointment (player): Paul Pogba
Paul Pogba is a once-in-a-generation talent, a physical specimen who is just as comfortable muscling players off the ball as he is dancing around defenders or playing sublime cross-field passes. That being said, the Manchester United man has failed to live up to his billing. There’s been very little dancing, not nearly enough sublime passing and very limited production from the man that holds the crown as the most expensive soccer player ever. When your price tag is the value of a small country’s GDP, you have to do better than four goals and three assists at the halfway point of the season.
The disappointment here is certainly related to Pogba’s outrageous price tag, which was of course beyond his control, and so perhaps this is unfair to the Frenchman. He’s still only 23, and he’s playing for a new(ish) team in a new league under a new manager — any reasonable fan should’ve anticipated a period of adjustment. But even so, it’s hard to imagine many United fans envisaged Pogba’s first season (back) in the Premier League getting off to such a slow start.
There are plenty of other players who cost a fraction of the price Pogba cost United who have yielded similar, if not better, production on the pitch. The money spent was of course partly an investment in the future, and Pogba may turn out to be the star his talent suggests he can be, but even in an occasionally dysfunctional team, it’s been troubling to see the Frenchman struggle to impose himself on games in midfield. Michael Carrick’s re-introudction into United’s starting XI has helped Pogba settle further, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s recent contributions have eased the creative burden, but none of that has diminished the sense the real Pogba, the one United paid all that money for, has yet to show up.
Biggest disappointment (team): Manchester United
The post-Alex Ferguson era has been difficult for Manchester United. David Moyes struggled in his lone campaign, and Louis van Gaal wasn’t much better despite guiding the Red Devils back to the Champions League in his first season in charge.
Jose Mourinho, initially overlooked for the job after Ferguson’s retirement, was supposed to change all that. After United won their first four matches of the season, it seemed they had rediscovered their old magic. But things unravelled after that. Losses to Manchester City, Watford and a thrashing at Chelsea, combined with a few unfortunate draws, saw United slip off the pace in the hunt for the title.
In a season in which the top six have been a cut above the rest, United now face an uphill battle to finish in the top four. They’ve been on an excellent run lately, winning six in a row since early December, but so have all their closest rivals, and they still trail fourth-place City by three points.
In truth, United haven’t done much wrong this season, but the standards at Old Trafford, not to mention the significant outlay in the transfer market this summer, mean it’s been hard not to feel a little underwhelmed by their performances this campaign. They’re certainly headed in the right direction, but their +12 goal difference (at least seven points lower than any other side in the top six) is a good illustration of an uninspiring season so far.
There were other contenders for this award. Everton have stumbled at times under Ronald Koeman, but seventh place is a fair reflection of both their talent and wealth; West Ham’s drop off has been alarming, but expectations were lower and they’ve had serious injury problems; and Leicester’s title defense has been awful, but disappointment still feels like the wrong reaction seven months after their miracle title win. That leaves United, where standards remain so high even a six-match winning run isn’t guaranteed to get the fans excited. Anything less than a top four finish has to qualify as a disappointment in Mourinho’s first year in charge.
Biggest disappointment (manager): Jose Mourinho
The story with Mourinho mirrors the story of his team. He entered the season with massive expectations and, while he hasn’t been bad by any stretch, the fact he isn’t challenging for the title is reason enough to feel disappointed.
The Portuguese manager entered the year with even more to prove than usual after leaving Chelsea in disarray midway through last season. Manchester United was supposed to be his dream job, but he’s looked uncomfortable for much of his time in the Old Trafford dugout so far.
The post-match rants and me-against-the-world mentality are to be expected with Mourinho, but this season more than ever they haven’t seemed to serve any real purpose. Mourinho complained his team was simply the victim of bad luck after a series of draws against Stoke, Burnley and Arsenal, and while there was some truth to that, it was hard to deny United didn’t possess the same fear factor for opponents they once did.
Mourinho’s bizarre preseason clash with Bastian Schweinsteiger, his initial refusal to play summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan and his difficulty getting the best out of Paul Pogba were all ominous reminders of the way his Chelsea tenure came to an end a season earlier.
Things have been running much more smoothly since then, Mourinho seems happier and United are right in the thick of the race for the top four, but for better or worse, the Manchester United manager doesn’t get the luxury of nuance. In hindsight, the preseason title talk was a step too far, and the top six is better than its ever been, but until Mourinho gets this side into the top four, he’ll go down as a disappointment.
Worst game: Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United
Every match between Liverpool and Manchester United is probably bad for anyone who isn’t a Liverpool or Manchester United fan. But some matches between Liverpool and Manchester United are worse than others. Like the one at at Anfield this season, which ended 0-0 and featured a grand total of four shots on target.
On reflection, it was no real surprise to see a Jose Mourinho team set up to defend away from home against a dangerous attacking side, but that didn’t make it any more enjoyable to watch. David de Gea was forced into two good saves as Liverpool slightly edged the chances, but that was about as far as it went.
The two sides meet again this weekend at Old Trafford, where United will presumably feel a little more compelled to attack. But while it might literally be impossible for that match to be worse than the one from earlier this season, don’t get your hopes up.
This was far from the only bad match we’ve seen this season. Hull, Middlesbrough and Burnley (away from home) have been routinely awful to watch. Arsenal’s match against Manchester City last month was a dud, while Tottenham have struggled to entertain for much of the season. But for the ratio of hype to disappointment, Liverpool and Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at Anfield comes out on top (or bottom, depending on how you look at it). Here’s hoping the return fixture is a little more memorable.
Worst signing: Moussa Sissoko
An international tournament can be a funny mistress with regard to the ensuing transfer market. On the one hand, the stage affords underexposed players an opportunity to shine in front of many more than usual, allowing bigger clubs to take notice. On the other, a limited sample size can cause otherwise intelligent soccer minds to overlook past shortcomings in skill or effort.
Such is the case with Moussa Sissoko, the worst signing of the 2016 summer transfer window so far. His impressive Euro 2016 showings with France immediately garnered speculation that some club would find it necessary to pay an exorbitant amount to wrangle him from Newcastle. When Tottenham broke their own transfer record for the midfielder in August, fans were predictably skeptical. Spurs seemed to have ignored Sissoko’s Premier League tenure entirely, which consisted of occasional sparks surrounded by general listlessness and mediocrity.
It didn’t take long for Tottenham fans to realize Sissoko’s inconsistency was not simply due to the situation around him at Newcastle. It took just two months for Sissoko to draw a three-game ban for an elbow against Harry Arter. Though he managed two assists in December, he’s still yet to score and has played over 44 minutes in a game just thrice in Tottenham’s past nine matches across all competitions.
Under Daniel Levy, Tottenham have been quick to make questionable player personnel decisions. Though the jury remains out on Erik Lamela, the summer of 2016 seems destined to be remembered among White Hart Lane faithful as a failure for the acquisition of Sissoko.