The 2023-2024 Premier League season has been anything but boring. There have been betting scandals, points deductions, a club’s official social media calling out a ref for being a fan of a rival team and even the introduction of a stadium whose away section requires fans to walk through someone’s backyard.
However, what this season will likely be remembered for most is giving Premier League fans something they have not had since 2008: a three-way dogfight to capture the title at the end of the season. With just a handful of games remaining before a winner is crowned, here’s what you need to know about the three candidates.
Manchester City
Until 2008, Manchester City was nothing but a minnow sharing the town of Manchester with the biggest fish in the pond — Manchester United. That was until Sheik Mansour, a billionaire investor and current vice president of the United Arab Emirates, gained ownership of the team.
However, Manchester City’s meteoric rise didn’t truly begin until Spaniard Pep Guardiola joined the team as manager. Guardiola’s version of ‘total football,’ in which short, quick passes within a fluid structure are prioritized over individual talent, has turned City into a robotically efficient team. With Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne’s magician-like passing and Norwegian striker Erling Haaland’s ability to bury nearly any chance, City have all the tools to win the Premier League for a fourth straight year.
Standing (as of Wednesday): Third place, 73 points, +44 goal differential, six games left to play
Toughest games left: Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United
Arsenal
If there’s going to be a coach to take down Guardiola, then it might as well be someone who studied under him. Mikel Arteta, former Manchester City assistant coach, took charge of Arsenal in 2019 and now has the club knocking on the door of its first Premier League title since 2004. Arteta’s reign did not get off to a great start, as he led Arsenal to an eighth-place finish in his first full season as head coach. However, his success in recent seasons has erased any doubt that he is the man to take Arsenal forward.
Arsenal plays similarly to Manchester City, but players like England’s Bukayo Saka and Norwegian Martin Ødegaard add a touch of youthful exuberance. Arteta has Arsenal playing slick, easy-to-watch football that sees his team score a lot and give up very little. It feels like only a matter of time before this team finally gets over the hump.
Many thought that year would be last year, as Arsenal led for nearly all of the season before crushing draws to West Ham and Southampton saw Manchester City steal the title at the end of the season. Arsenal will be desperate to finally put the trophy back in its hands and shed the bad memories.
Standing: First place, 77 points, +56 goal differential, four games left to play
Toughest games left: Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United
Liverpool
There’s only one team that has had what it takes to go toe-to-toe across a whole season with Guardiola’s Manchester City, and that’s German manager Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Since his hiring in 2015, Klopp has turned Liverpool into an all-out attacking machine, with his version of the ‘Gegenpress,’ a German football style that encourages playing on the front foot with near-reckless abandon, regardless of how strong the opponent is. Liverpool secured its first and only Premier League title under Klopp in 2020, and has been the only team since the 2017-2018 season to deny Manchester City the Premier League title.
On paper, Liverpool has everything it needs to make a run at the crown, with a dynamic offense featuring Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Colombian Luis Diaz, along with one of the best defenders in the league, Dutchman Virgil Van Dijk.
There’s just one problem, however. Klopp announced that he is departing Liverpool immediately after the end of this season, leaving the future of the club in doubt. After attempts to attract current Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso to the position fell short, Liverpool now has to face the challenge of winning the Premier League knowing it may be its last chance with the man who made it possible.
Standing: Second place, 74 points, +41 goal differential, four games left to play
Toughest games left: Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa
