When compared to the same point in the previous season, each Premier League club is as follows: Liverpool worst.
Newcastle United, Arsenal, Brighton, and Brentford are the Premier League teams that have improved the most since the same period last year, while Liverpool, Chelsea, and West Ham have all had severe declines.
At this point in the 2022-23 Premier League season, with the bulk of teams having played 26 of 38 matches, we’ve taken stock of how each team is performing relative to the same point in the previous season.
Last season, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal were in fourth place after 18 games, but ultimately failed to qualify for the Champions League. This season, however, they have had a meteoric ascent.
Arsenal have 15 more points than they had at the same position in 2021-22, have scored 19 more goals, and have surrendered six fewer goals. They are the better team from front to back.
Yet, Arsenal is not the Premier League’s best improved team. Newcastle has had a remarkable turnaround under Eddie Howe; they are now in contention for Champions League qualifying and have the best defensive record in the league.
Following the same amount of games last season, Newcastle was just beginning to edge away from the relegation zone as Howe began to improve the team’s performance.
Manchester United scored three more goals at the same point last season despite relegating leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo to a supporting role before to his midseason departure. The astonishing turnaround in Marcus Rashford’s performance; the England international scored only four Premier League goals in the previous season.
Yet they’re playing better and demonstrating better game management; they’ve earned four more points and climbed one spot in the standings compared to the same stage in their catastrophic 2021-22 season.
Last season, Brighton and Brentford were arguably already punching above their weight to be in the middle of the league. Yet, the two surprise teams continue to grow, having earned places in the top half.
Despite Erling Haaland’s incredible goal-scoring exploits, Man City have scored only three more goals than at this time in their title-winning 2021-22 season.
Yet, they have accumulated five fewer points and have a significantly weaker defensive record, making it difficult for them to catch league leaders Arsenal.
West Ham is among the teams who have declined the most compared to last season. Last year at this time, David Moyes’ Hammers were flying high and vying for a top-four position, but today they are in a relegation struggle.
Chelsea and Liverpool finished in the top four last season, but both teams have experienced significant reductions over the previous year. Liverpool, in particular, has a dismal record compared to their title-contending results from the previous season: they have collected 18 fewer points, scored 23 fewer goals, and conceded nine more goals after the same amount of games. Despite recording a historic 7-0 victory over Manchester United, this is all that can be said.
We have omitted Fulham, Bournemouth, and Nottingham Forest, who were all promoted from the Championship previous season. With 11 games remaining, eighth-place Fulham already has 11 more points than they had in the entirety of their last Premier League season (2020-21) despite being in eighth place.
Each team is ranked according to how much it has progressed or declined from the same time last season. Unless otherwise noted, every team has played 26 games.