Premier League Table 2013 Week 26: Updated Standings Following Matchday 25

The English Premier League saw a change at the top of the table last weekend, and the shakeup continued in Matchday 25 with a new club ahead of the pack. Chelsea’s 1-0 road win over Manchester City last week helped Arsenal claim first place, but the Blues jumped all the way to the head of class thanks to Arsenal’s 5-1 shellacking at the hands (or feet) of Liverpool.

Standings

Before we recap the weekend’s action, here is how the league stands at the moment:

Pos.	Team	G	W	D	L	GD	PTS
1	Chelsea	25	17	5	3	27	56
2	Arsenal	25	17	4	4	22	55
3	Manchester City	25	17	3	5	41	54
4	Liverpool	25	15	5	5	33	50
5	Tottenham	25	14	5	6	0	47
6	Everton	25	12	9	4	11	45
7	Manchester United	25	12	5	8	10	41
8	Newcastle United	25	11	4	10	-2	37
9	Southampton	25	9	9	7	7	36
10	Hull City	25	7	6	12	-5	27
11	Swansea City	25	7	6	12	-3	27
12	Aston Villa	25	7	6	12	-9	27
13	Stoke City	25	6	8	11	-14	26
14	Crystal Palace	25	8	2	15	-16	26
15	West Ham United	25	6	7	12	-7	25
16	Norwich City	25	6	7	12	-18	25
17	Sunderland	25	6	6	13	-13	24
18	West Bromwich Albion	25	4	11	10	-8	23
19	Cardiff City	25	5	6	14	-25	21
20	Fulham	25	6	2	17	-31	20

Recap

Home	Score	Away
Liverpool	5-1	Arsenal
Sunderland	0-2	Hull City
Southampton	2-2	Stoke City
Norwich City	0-0	Manchester City
Crystal Palace	3-1	West Bromwich Albion
Chelsea	3-0	Newcastle United
Aston Villa	0-2	West Ham United
Swansea City	3-0	Cardiff City
Tottenham	1-0	Everton
Manchester United	2-2	Fulham

The week started with a bang as Arsenal lost their first match since December 14—but they lost in startling fashion.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Liverpool gave the Anfield crowd a dream start with a blitz attack that—for all intents and purposes—ended the match before Gunners manager Arsene Wenger had any time to blink.

Martin Skrtel got a shin on the end of a Steven Gerrard free kick to give the Reds the lead just one minute into the match.

The same duo hooked up just nine minutes later—this time off a corner—for a looping Skrtel header that beat the keeper and men on the goal line.

Ten minutes, two goals. That’s not completely insurmountable, is it?

But the humiliation was far from over. Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge scored two more goals before the 20-minute mark that decided the outcome with 70 minutes of action left.

Michael Regan/Getty Images

There were two more goals—one for each club—to bring the final score to 5-1, but Arsenal looked shell-shocked and completely outplayed.

What’s even more astounding is that the scoring disparity doesn’t completely reveal the utter dominance of Liverpool in this contest. Fortunately, Jason Burt of The Telegraph does:

"

For 20 astonishing first-half minutes Liverpool produced the most exhilarating football seen in the Premier League this season. Or any season. They scored four. They should have scored six. The emphatic score-line did not reflect Liverpool’s superiority. It should have been more. There were outstanding performances from Suarez, Philippe Coutinho and—in front of the watching England assistant manager Ray Lewington—from the superb Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling who must be pushing hard for the World Cup squad.

"

Arsenal’s devastating loss was the first domino to fall atop the league table. The result gave Manchester City the chance to reclaim pole position with a win or a draw—a result that seemed inevitable against a Norwich City club that was sitting just above the relegation zone in 15th place.

The matchup of Manchester City’s overwhelming and goal-hungry attack with the most goals scored in the league (68) against a Norwich defense that had given up the fourth-most goals (37) entering the match seemed to favor the Citizens.

Manchester dominated possession, but real chances were few and far between.

Team	Possession	Shots	Shots on Goal	Corners	Saves
Manchester City	68%	15	2	14	2
Norwich City	32%	7	2	4	2

Unfortunately for manager Manuel Pellegrini, the offense eluded his side for the second consecutive match and the game ended in a 0-0 draw.

Pellegrini’s men blew their chance to overtake Arsenal in the standings, leaving the door wide open for Chelsea to take full advantage.

The Blues were hosting a Newcastle United side desperate to bounce back from an embarrassing home defeat to rival Sunderland last week, but Jose Mourinho’s men took care of business with ease thanks to an Eden Hazard hat-trick.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

With the win, Chelsea are now in first place and have the second-best chance of hoisting the Barclays Premier League trophy at the end of the year—at least according to the Soccer Power Index of ESPN:

For what it’s worth, manager Jose Mourinho is not getting caught up in the hype according to PremierLeague.com:

"

I know today we are top of the league but I look to fifth place. I look to Tottenham v Everton and Manchester United v Fulham tomorrow and I want to be far from fifth. When we are far from fifth and have a Champions League position under control, then it will be time to look at Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool and see where they are and see the distances. From that point, we can start thinking about other things.

"

The end of the EPL season will be full of excitement at the top of the table, but each side will be taking the same approach: one week at a time.