Top of the PL Table at Christmas Odds 2021/22

Defending Premier League champions come in at 1/1 with the bookmakers to be top of the table come Christmas Day having won the Premier League title by 12 points ahead of city rivals Manchester United.

Pep Guardiola’s side were last top at Christmas in the 2017/18 season when they flew away from the rest of the pack and won the league title with 100 points via Gabriel Jesus’ late winner at Southampton on the final day of the season. The Spaniard’s side showed last season with a 19-game unbeaten run (18 wins) between their 2-0 loss at Spurs in late November till they were beaten 2-0 at home by United in early March that if they can find the consistent rhythm then they could be borderline unstoppable to any challengers of their crown unless another side steps up significantly.

At the start of the 2017/18 season when the Citizens were last top at Christmas, they managed to go unbeaten for their opening 22 matches in the league, only dropping points to the likes of Everton and Crystal Palace in 1-1 and 0-0 draws, whilst beating the likes of Liverpool 5-0, Spurs 4-1, Chelsea 1-0 and United 2-1.

City are priced at 1/1 to be top of the Premier League come Christmas Day 2021 - click here to claim this bet in your bet slip!

Liverpool come in at 7/2 despite having been at the top of the table for the last three Christmas’ running.

Last season the Anfield club were top of the Premier League after their final match prior to Christmas with 31 points, following a 7-0 demolition of Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on 19th December. However, their season dipped off badly following just three wins in their next 14 matches which saw them desperately scramble over the line for a third-place finish on the final day of the season.

What will give Liverpool fans some hope, however, is that they will have the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez back for the upcoming campaign as they were both ruled out with lengthy injuries last time out, meaning that they will likely have a lot more defensive stability in order to challenge for the top spot at Christmas for a fourth time running.

Liverpool are priced at 7/2 to be top of the Premier League table at Christmas for a fourth season running.

Chelsea are next on this list of odds for teams to be at the top of the table on Christmas Day as the Blues look to build on their Champions League triumph last May against City in Porto.

The Blues haven’t won the Premier League since the 2016/17 campaign and that was in fact the last time that they had been top at Christmas Day, having scored 43 points in 17 matches under Antonio Conte, seeing them sit six points clear of Liverpool in second.

What will give Thomas Tuchel’s side some encouragement is the run that they went on under the German in the league at the end of last season, having won 10 of their first 15 league matches under the German, losing just once in a freak 5-2 home loss to West Brom, keeping 11 clean sheets in the process. Something that the Blues will need to do to challenge for the league title in the upcoming season is to improve on their goalscoring record as a whole, having only hit the back of the net 58 times, 25 fewer than top scorers, City.

Next up is Manchester United who have made significant progress under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, having finished third and second place in the Norwegian’s first two full seasons in charge of the Red Devils.

With the imminent arrival of Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund, as well as the potential of Raphael Varane joining from Real Madrid there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic for United fans as they look to chase down their first Premier League title since the 2012/13 campaign.

The Red Devils came back from a tricky start to their Premier League season last time out having had next to no pre-season and some shoddy displays which saw them lose to the likes of Tottenham 6-1 at home, to being third on Christmas Day, having hammered bitter rivals Leeds 6-2 at Old Trafford, leaving them just five points adrift of Liverpool with a game in hand.

United weren’t top at Christmas last season, but they were top less than a month later on 12th January following a vital 1-0 win at Burnley thanks to a Paul Pogba strike. With United improving season upon season, having eight more points than the previous season with 74, as well as managing to score seven more goals, there is no doubt that Old Trafford club are on the right track.

Solskjaer's side have the odds of 13/2 to be top of the table at Christmas for the first time since 2012.

Leicester City haven’t been at the top of the table at Christmas since they sensationally won the league in the 2015/16 season when they sat on 38 points from their opening 17 matches.

Since then, the Foxes have been second at Christmas twice, firstly in the 2019/20 season where they managed 39 points from 18 matches, but they were still 10 points shy of an unstoppable Liverpool side who had played one less match than them.

Brendan Rodgers’ side were also second coming into Christmas Day last year, following a 2-0 victory against Tottenham Hotspur on 20th December, via a goal from Jamie Vardy and an own goal by Spurs defender Toby Alderweireld. This saw Leicester move to within four points of Liverpool who yet again pipped them to top of the table on Christmas Day for a second season running.

The final team on this list is Tottenham Hotspur who are also the only team to have been mentioned here that have a completely new manager for the start of this season having appointed former Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

Spurs were fifth at Christmas due to their 2-0 loss to Leicester as mentioned above, on 25 points from 14 matches under the stewardship of current Roma manager Jose Mourinho, who was eventually sacked following a 2-2 draw with Everton in April where his side registered just three efforts on target.

The Lilywhites looked like they could’ve been in for an unlikely title challenge, having beaten City 2-0 and United 6-1 in the early stages, but, following a dip in form after a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace on 13th December, Spurs went on a run where they won just five of their next 21 league matches between then and that draw at Goodison Park on 16th April.

If Spurs can keep their main players in their squad such as Harry Kane and Son Heung-min then they could stand a chance of having a good start if they can adapt well to Nuno Espirito Santo’s tactics and style of play which is usually defensively solid with a clinical counter-punch, perhaps a more progressive style of football to that of which Mourinho was trying to introduce in his time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.