We have a title race, people. Nearly halfway through the Premier League season, just four points separate fourth place from first. And perhaps most importantly for the drama of the race itself, the three-time defending champs, Manchester City, are the ones in fourth.
What's that? Yeah, I see you rolling your eyes. And I can tell you're thinking to yourself, Get a life, man. We do this every year, and Manchester City still win every time (except that one time). While we won't get into how I know which parts of your thoughts belong inside of parentheses, I will simply reply with what the betting markets are telling us.
Per Sporting Index, which allows you to place bets on both sides of each team's point-total projection, Manchester City are projected to finish with 84 points, Liverpool with 81 and Arsenal with 80. Before the season, Liverpool were projected to finish 12 points back of City, while Arsenal's projection put them nine points behind. In other words, the expected gap between first and second has already shrunk by two-thirds, and we still have a few games to go before we're even at the halfway point of the season.
Given Aston Villa's, you know, consecutive wins over front-runners Man City and Arsenal, we have to throw the Villans (projected to finish fourth, on 71 points) into the conversation, too.
So let's run through the four Premier League title contenders, in order of their present positions in the table, and sketch out why they all will and won't win the Premier League title.