Temperament could be the key to title success
There comes a point in every Premier League season when the table begins to tell the truth. Early-season quirks are ironed out, the surprise packages either harden into contenders or start to fade away, and the pressure begins to settle where it belongs. As the 2025/26 campaign moves past its halfway mark, the league is beginning to reveal its shape and it is a familiar one, albeit with a few twists.
At the top, Arsenal have placed themselves in a position of quiet authority. This Arsenal side no longer feels like a young team learning its trade or a hopeful challenger punching above its weight, hoping one of Manchester City or Liverpool would slip up.
Mikel Arteta’s team looks composed, clinical and, crucially, comfortable with the expectations of being title favourites and trying to win the club’s first Premier League title since the Invincibles won in 2003/04. They are winning games in different ways, dominating some, grinding out others and that adaptability has allowed them to open up a narrow but meaningful gap on their rivals.
What separates this Arsenal side from previous near misses is not just quality, but temperament. There is less panic when conceding first, less recklessness when protecting a lead. The margins remain fine, but champions are often defined by how they handle those moments, and Arsenal so far have passed most of those tests.
One of the most impressive aspects of Arsenal’s game this season has been their ability to threaten teams and be so effective from set plays consistently. They have the second-best record of goals scored from set plays this season, with thirteen, and that is something that you would never have been able to associate with Arsenal of recent years, who had the reputation for years of being a bit soft and more likely to concede a set play rather than score one.
Manchester City remain the obvious threat, yet they have not reached the heights they know they can. Pep Guardiola’s side still controls matches with familiar ease, and even though they had been on a six-game winning run in the Premier League, they still find themselves six points behind Arsenal at the top of the table after conceding the late equaliser at home to Chelsea on Sunday.
Arsenal have been relentless as leaders and are forcing mistakes from the teams below them, and City can’t afford to drop any more points. Usually, City is the side piling the pressure on the chasing pack, but now that the shoe is on the other foot for them, there are defensive lapses that are rare by their standards, which have cost them so far.
They are close enough to strike, as they always are, but the sense of inevitability that once surrounded City’s title charges feels slightly dulled, and that is all down to the brilliance of Arsenal more than anything.
The most intriguing subplot has been Aston Villa’s continued presence near the summit. Once labelled plucky overachievers, they now look like a side that could be here to stay and show that they belong in elite company. They are a really well-drilled, physically and tactically disciplined side. Villa have been so consistent that their expectations will change from what they were at the start of the season, and now anything other than Champions League football next year will be a failure for them, given that they are eleven points clear of those outside the Champions League places.
While there is still a title race with Arsenal, City, and Aston Villa all competing, the opposite end of the table is starting to look very bleak for the three sides who occupy the relegation zone.
Wolves are realistically already doomed, and it took until the twentieth league game of the season for them to get their first victory. Up until last week they had lost eleven straight games, but they have shown a bit of fight getting four points from the last two games but it even at this early stage it is too late.
They are twelve points off the team just outside the relegation zone, and after winning just one of twenty games this season, it is very hard to see where they are going to win the seven or eight games they need to stay up.
Burnley have double the points Wolves have and are only six points behind Nottingham Forest, but I still think Burnley will finish second bottom of the league table when the season ends. They have been a yo-yo club in the last five years, and this looks like it is going to be their third relegation, and it will be back to trying to get promoted once again to the Premier League.
If any side is to get out of the relegation zone, it looks most likely to be West Ham United. There is a four-point gap between them and Forest, but the Hammers are on a terrible run of form.
They haven’t won in nine games, and it has put them in a very vulnerable position. While they have the money to spend and get out of trouble, they could be their own worst enemy.
Their transfer record, especially when signing attacking players, is really poor, and some of the players seem like they can’t handle the pressure of playing in front of the die-hard Hammers fans.
They probably need to have some change to stay up, though, and Nuno Espirito Santo looks like he is on borrowed time, especially after the 3-0 loss to Wolves on Saturday.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already sacked by the time you are reading this, but whoever comes in will still have a very difficult job on their hands to try keep the club in the Premier League for next season.
