The opening stretch of the 2026\/27 Premier League season has lasted longer than usual because of a change in the international calendar, but five games is still only enough to reveal early patterns rather than a settled table. The 20 clubs remain closely packed, and a single result can still reshape the picture quickly.<\/p>\n
There is history behind treating this stage with caution. Last season, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United were the bottom two after five matches, while Bournemouth and Sunderland turned strong starts into European qualification. This year, the early evidence is already pointing in a few different directions.<\/p>\n
Manchester City are the only side to have preserved a 100% record. Their 5-3 win over Sunderland, combined with Arsenal\u2019s defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion, sends them into the break top of the table on 15 points, matching Liverpool\u2019s total from the same stage last season. City are also in a much stronger position than they were in 2025\/26, when they sat ninth and were eight points worse off.<\/p>\n
Brentford and Brighton have made the sharpest gains. Both are five points better off than they were at this point last season, with Brentford rising 13 places and Brighton 11. Keith Andrews\u2019 side were among those tipped for trouble before the campaign, yet they are now being mentioned as a possible European contender. They are one of five unbeaten teams.<\/p>\n
Leeds United have also carried their momentum forward, while Newcastle United, Everton and Aston Villa have improved on their starts from last year. Nottingham Forest have the same points total as they did after five games last season, but they are two places higher.<\/p>\n
At the other end, Tottenham sit bottom with two points and did not score their first league goals of the season until Aston Villa were already 3-0 up. Bournemouth are still without a first league win under Marco Rose, a clear fall from the fourth place they held after five matches last season.<\/p>\n
Fulham and Crystal Palace have also gone backwards, with both lower in the table after managerial changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City lead the early table, while Spurs, Bournemouth, Fulham and Palace have all started below last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,728,773,465,687,713,702,194,298,172,187],"tags":[1836,1162],"class_list":["post-20151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-brentford","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-crystal-palace","category-everton","category-fulham","category-leeds-united","category-newcastle-united","category-nottingham-forest","category-epl","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}