Seven weeks into the Premier League season, teams are starting to sort themselves into groups and one thing is starting to become very clear – there are more average-to-poor teams than usual, the collection of them continuing to bounce around the table even as preseason rust becomes a thing of the past. Manchester City, who are in first place despite the cloud of their financial breaches, and Arsenal remain the cream of the crop while Brighton and Hove Albion are the unexpectedly exciting side of the season thus far. Liverpool and Chelsea feel a step behind but still feel on course for strong campaigns.
Every other team feels somewhat flawed, in some ways notably unspectacular but the places on the table need to be filled by someone and so a number of teams currently find themselves in surprising spots. The surprises are not always good ones, though, depending on the team in question. Some are doing their best to claw themselves out of the surprisingly bad circumstances they find themselves in, Bournemouth and Fulham each picking up their first wins of the season this weekend while Aston Villa added another to their tally after a poor start.
Brighton, meanwhile, are joined by Leeds United in finding themselves further up the table than some might expect. The early season confusion in the standings has not dissipated just yet, though, resulting in another fascinating batch of power rankings. Here's a check-in on the Premier League, seven weeks into the season.
Manchester City will only get so much credit for a lopsided win over Ipswich Town but they rise to the top because they boast a notable lead over Arsenal, who were the team to beat at the start of the campaign. Arsenal were not their most dominant selves in a narrow win over Nottingham Forest but they also went with a rotated team and their depth handled the challenge well enough. There are some reasonable caveats to make seven games into the season but Brighton have excelled on multiple occasions already this campaign, Sunday's 5-0 win over Crystal Palace included, and have earned their high ranking here, without a doubt.
Liverpool benefited from a red card in their win over Brentford but even then, they are starting to shake some of the newness out of the system as Andoni Iraola continues his first season in charge. Maybe, just maybe, Chelsea's early-season defensive chaos is behind them. Stiffer tests than Everton await but a relatively straightforward win over the Toffees is not nothing.
Leeds look like a midtable team but in a league full of them, someone's bound to rise above the rest. Daniel Farke's side have an admirable consistency about them, one that was on display in their draw against Manchester United, which is why they land here. Brentford have not maintained their surprisingly strong start the way Brighton have but they still feel like one of the stronger midtable teams, even in defeat against Liverpool.
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