The Premier League form table over the last five matches offers a blunt snapshot: Manchester City and Aston Villa sit clear at the top with perfect returns, while Arsenal\u2019s recent wobble has tightened the title race.<\/p>\n
Man City lead the five-game form standings with five wins from five and have their goal difference to thank for their spot above Aston Villa, the only other perfect side. Liverpool follow in third after a five-game unbeaten run that produced 11 points, one more than Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Arsenal, managed by Mikel Arteta, occupy fourth in the form list on 10 points. Their title hopes were dented by a last-gasp defeat at Villa and the dip has been exacerbated by injuries. The gap in recent form contrasts with the seven-point lead Arsenal once held at the top of the actual table.<\/p>\n
Lower down the form standings, Fulham and Leeds United have improved their positions and pulled away from the drop zone with stronger recent results. Manchester United\u2019s sequence of two wins and two draws has them seventh in the form table on eight points.<\/p>\n
Newcastle United and Sunderland have also collected eight points apiece over the latest five matches, two more than Enzo Maresca\u2019s Chelsea, who sit on six. Chelsea\u2019s inconsistent run follows draws and defeats, and recent poor results against Leeds, Bournemouth and Newcastle have underlined the side\u2019s fragility.<\/p>\n
Tottenham Hotspur find the last five-game picture bleak, sitting 16th with just four points. The bottom three in the form table mirrors the actual table: West Ham United, Burnley and Wolves are all struggling. Rob Edwards\u2019s strugglers have failed to pick up a single point\u2014they are already 16 adrift, with just two to their name.<\/p>\n
The form table rankings read: Man City 15, Aston Villa 15, Liverpool 11, Arsenal 10, Fulham 9, Leeds 8, Man Utd 8, Newcastle 8, Sunderland 8, Brentford 7, Chelsea 6, Everton 6, Nott\u2019m Forest 6, Crystal Palace 6, Brighton 5, Tottenham 4, Bournemouth 3, West Ham 2, Burnley 1, Wolves 0. That sequence captures how the season\u2019s momentum has shifted during this festive period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Man City and Aston Villa top the five-game form table; Arsenal’s recent dip raises questions. Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1162,1307],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-collapse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","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=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}