Ten Hag and Howe.
Pochettino vs. net spend? Absolutely. I find him hard to assess though. There's an expectation that Chelsea will do well because of the spend and them being good for the past 20 years, but this is now their 2nd season in mid-table, 3 managers have been unable to get a tune out of them and the managers had very little say in who they bought under Boehly. Perhaps they'll improve as they get older as there's a lot of young players in there, but for now it's looking like they massively overspent on a load of turd. I have a hard time deciding where they should be in the table based off their squad. Can see an argument for top 4 but also for about 8th-9th. Strange club currently.
Not having Edwards in there at all. 21 points behind Burnley in the Championship last season which itself was a huge over achievement. Didn't have much of a transfer budget at all and have done the best of the 3 promoted clubs when they were expected to finish dead last. They'd have been well adrift if not for Forest's and Everton's points deductions but I still think they deserve a lot of credit.
Luton do look like they're running out of steam a little, and losing to Bournemouth when 3-0 up a few weeks must have been a killer but in general they've fought well in nearly every game, always seem up for it and I've been impressed. They lack serious quality but have a never say die attitude that I can only think is instilled by the manager to large extent. Potential manager of the year if they stay up.
Burnley and therefore Kompany have done the worst of the promoted teams vs. expectations so far and it's not even close. Of the newly promoted sides they're the one with the most recent appearances in the top flight so should have more PL infrastructure/resources in place, they won the Championship at a canter and spent quite a lot. Even then nobody would be surprised if they go down vs. pre-season expectations.
Frank vs. last season? Think they've had the biggest drop in position of all teams so far, but where should Brentford actually be? Last season was a huge success and a surprise to many. Losing Toney through suspension and Mbeumo to injury for 3 months at a key point this season was always going to be difficult for them. Just being in the PL should be an achievement for them in my book.
Guardiola could actually be a shout as a (dis)honourable mention depending on how the rest of the season pans out for City. Should they finish 3rd and not make the CL final that would be disappointment. On the other hand they might end up winning both!
