Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca warned that the Premier League summit is unsettled and insisted several clubs must be treated as genuine challengers after recent results tightened the table.<\/p>\n
Manchester City moved to within two points of leaders Arsenal with a third straight win, while Aston Villa sit third, three points off the top. Fourth-placed Chelsea are eight points behind the leaders. Maresca, speaking after a frustrating outing on the south coast, said: \u201cThe table is so tight,\u201d he told assembled media. \u201cYou win two games in a row and you are there. Lose two and you drop. I still think four, five, six teams that are at the top, [can win two] and will all be close.\u201d<\/p>\n
The standings, correct as of end of Dec. 6, 2025, show Arsenal top on 33 points with a +19 goal difference, Manchester City second on 31 (+19) and Aston Villa third on 30 (+7). Chelsea are fourth on 25 (+10). Everton sit fifth on 24 (+1) with Crystal Palace and Sunderland level on 23, and reigning champions Liverpool eighth on 23 (0 goal difference).<\/p>\n
Liverpool were held to a 3\u20133 draw after a late equaliser from Leeds condemned them to one point. Dominik Szoboszlai conceded the uncertainty: \u201cLast year we became champions, now I don\u2019t even know which position [in the table] we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Villa sit a single win behind Arsenal, yet manager Unai Emery urged caution. \u201cAfter 15 matches it\u2019s very difficult,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not contenders. If we are still [in the race] in game 35 then maybe I can speak about it.\u201d Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta disagreed: \u201cThey are [in the title race],\u201d he declared. \u201cWhen you look at where they are, the way they play, they have beaten some big teams, especially at home. Everybody is going to have to play everybody, so at the moment they are where they are and we are there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manchester City collected nine points across a testing week, recovering from nervy moments including Leeds overturning a two-goal deficit at the Etihad and a wild win at Fulham, before a 3\u20130 victory over Sunderland. Pep Guardiola reflected: \u201cMany things are going to happen still,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cIt\u2019s down to the way we play, not how many points behind we are. It\u2019s the way you perform. The players are not stupid, consistency doesn\u2019t come from one result. ]”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca says up to six teams can challenge as Arsenal lead is cut and the table stays tight. (Dec 6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[1162,1089],"class_list":["post-4933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933","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=4933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}