Contenders Health Check: Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Spurs

Liverpool (Fourth, with 16 points from seven matches)

There hasn't been a collective stirring of loins like this in Liverpool since the Beatles were regulars at the Cavern Club. Rare is it a football club finds a perfect fit with a manager. Liverpool might just have one with Jurgen Klopp.

Few crowds are as happy to decree demigod status on a manager as readily as Liverpool's. A year on from taking the reins, Klopp has the Anfield faithful surfing a wave of his infectious enthusiasm. Talk is of a first title in over 26 years. There was a Soviet Union when Liverpool captain Alan Hansen held aloft the First Division trophy in 1990.

With any football club, but particularly those based in a city, a manager needs to understand its people almost as much as his players. Rafa Benitez got Liverpool from the moment he set his eyes on the Shankly Gates, and as a result, Liverpool got him. 

It wasn't just because of his on-field success Benitez became an honorary Scouser. He was in tune with the ethos of the people as much as he was the football club, surrounding himself with Liverpool folk to help him soak in his new surrounds. 

Great managers forge relations beyond football, becoming part of a city's fabric. Klopp enjoyed a similar relationship with Dortmund, via his work with Borussia. He looks well on his way to establishing an equivalent connection on Merseyside. 

Klopp's personality could not be any more different to Benitez, but what they seemingly share is an inherent understanding of what Liverpool supporters want from their team.

Last season when he took over from Brendan Rodgers, there was always going to be a bedding-in period, a process replete with as many false starts as moments of promise. Reaching two major finals in his first year was a measure of how far he has taken the club. The 3-1 defeat against Sevilla in the Europa League final was a yardstick for how much further they still have to travel. 

This term, with a full pre-season behind him and a healthy transfer budget to play with over the summer, Liverpool look very much a side in the image of their manager.

Given Klopp's track record, that's a pretty healthy position to be in. 

Position at this stage last season: Ninth, with 11 points from seven matches.

Results so far: Arsenal away—won 3-4, Burnley away—lost 2-0, Tottenham Hotspur away—drew 1-1, Leicester City home—won 4-1, Chelsea away—won 1-2, Hull City at home—won 5-1, Swansea City away —won 1-2.

Next six Premier League fixtures: Manchester United (h), West Bromwich Albion (h), Crystal Palace (a), Watford (h), Southampton (a), Sunderland (h).

   
What's Gone Right?

As a starter for 10, scoring a bucketload of goals on a regular basis is a healthy habit to pick up. In seven matches, Liverpool have plundered 18, making them the joint-most prolific side in the Premier League alongside Manchester City. 

That's quite some going considering Liverpool's two recognised strikers in Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi have spent the majority of the season running up and down the touchline, while Klopp puts on his best bus driver face in pretending not to have seen them. 

Whereas with City there's always a sense they are only ever a Sergio Aguero injury away from a potential fallow period in front of goal, Liverpool are adhering to Klopp's abiding principle that everything is about the team by sharing the load. Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, James Milner, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane have each scored at least three Premier League goals already. All are in outstanding form.

When, in just their second game, Liverpool fell to a 2-0 defeat against a Burnley side who recorded just 19.4 per cent of possession, it was very much a case of after the Lord Mayor's show having begun the campaign with an exhilarating 4-3 win at Arsenal on the opening weekend. 

It would have been easy to toss them in the "work in progress" pile of contenders were it not for the fact Liverpool have been sensational for the most part since then.

A creditable 1-1 draw at Tottenham was followed up with a 4-1 blitzing of champions Leicester City and a win at Chelsea, in which Klopp's side looked from back to front far more credible title challengers than their hosts.

Hull City were suffocated by a gegenpress in full working order to the tune of a 5-1 defeat at Anfield, before a trip to Swansea City prior to the international break proved Liverpool can win ugly without playing well.

With Mane a revelation, Georginio Wijnaldum adding a subtle balance to Liverpool's midfield three and Joel Matip striking a promising partnership with Dejan Lovren, Liverpool's summer dealings have been infinitely more productive than previous window moves.

Milner proving a surprise smash hit at left-back (Alberto Moreno hasn't started a league game for Liverpool since his horror show at Arsenal), and Lallana finally adding a goalscoring touch he always looked like he should have in his locker without ever being in possession of the key, is further testimony to Klopp's alchemist's touch.

     
What Needs Work, and Can They Win it?

Without a clean sheet in the league all season, it's not hard to pinpoint Liverpool's Achilles' heel. To concede 10 goals in seven league games should set alarm bells ringing for any club with UEFA Champions League aspirations.

Milner and Nathaniel Clyne have both been exceptional going forward, but there remains a question of whether they can be got at defensively. Neither deposed goalkeeper Simon Mignolet nor current incumbent Loris Karius have fully convinced between the posts. At 23, though, there's plenty of potential in the latter. 

Matip has quickly acclimatised to the physical nature of the Premier League and looks an astute addition, with Liverpool having conceded a solitary goal in each of the five league games he has figured in. It's not perfect, but it's a significant improvement on the five Liverpool shipped in total from their opening two games against Burnley and Arsenal.

There's no doubt the best talent at the club is heavily weighted towards the top end of Klopp's side. If Liverpool had a centre-half or central midfielder as good as Sturridge is a striker, they would be starting every week. 

If Klopp can get the defensive side of things right, and again he will see it as a collective responsibility rather than simply an issue with his back four, Liverpool will have every chance of seriously challenging come May. 

At the moment, there's a sense they are perennially on a knife's edge due to an inability to comfortably see out tight games. It could be a transfer window or two more until Klopp has the ideal personnel at his disposal. 

It looks as though Sturridge will continue to be the odd man out. It's tragic to see such talent gathering dust on the sidelines, especially as it's more than likely at some point he'll trip over it and injure himself, yet at the same time, how do you argue with Klopp when his side are playing such glorious football going forward? 

Untouchable under Rodgers and a purported favourite of the Fenway Sports Group, Sturridge's plight demonstrates the German's autonomy at Anfield. Prior to the close of the transfer window, he cut loose 13 players. Only once before in the club's 124-year history have so many players left the club during a summer.

Weeding out players who were never going to fit into his system or embrace his philosophies was always a key part of Klopp's plan to grow a club united in its aims and expectations.

So far it looks to be working. Realistically finishing in the top four and/or winning a trophy would be a good season. 

With Klopp at the helm, though, there's always a sense something special might be around the corner. 

   
Manchester City (First, with 18 points from seven matches)

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

Those who worship at the altar of Pep Guardiola have had plenty to smile about.

A perfect start to life in England was halted in the week prior to the international break by a pair of results that proved he's not infallible. Perfect he is not―as, in fairness, he is often at pains to point out―but he's not half bad either. 

A draw at Celtic in the UEFA Champions League and a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham in the Premier League have stopped the bookies from paying out just yet, after a start to the campaign in which even the biggest Guardiola sceptics began to accept his one weak spot may indeed be his bald spot after all.

Even then, he still cuts more of a dash than any of his more hirsute touchline rivals. 

With many of those occupying the top echelons of the division playing each other in the next month or so, City's upcoming fixtures look relatively straightforward in comparison―even if Everton and Southampton next up boast excellent form themselves.

It would certainly not be a surprise if over the next month City were to open a healthier gap at the summit than the one-point advantage they currently hold.

Position at this stage last season: Second, with 15 points from seven matches.

Results so far: Sunderland home—won 2-1, Stoke City away—won 1-4, West Ham United home—won 3-1, Manchester United away—won 1-2, Bournemouth home—won 4-0, Swansea City away—won 1-3, Tottenham away—lost 2-0.

Next six Premier League fixtures: Everton (h), Southampton (h), West Bromwich Albion (a), Middlesbrough (h), Crystal Palace (a), Burnley (a).

What's Gone Right?

Top spot on the back of six wins from seven Premier League matches; 18 goals from seven league games; 33 goals in 12 games in all competitions; a Manchester derby victory in some style; the rejuvenation of Raheem Sterling's career (five goals and six assists from 10 appearances); Aguero playing better than ever in scoring 11 goals from eight appearances; ditto Kevin De Bruyne (prior to injury); lovely touchline attire; full-backs in midfield; Ilkay Gundogan making a £20 million fee look like an absolute steal; David Silva period; John Stones morphing into the quintessential Guardiola centre-half in seven matches; John Stones' cagoules; the shifting out of dead wood (in Guardiola's eyes) to prove he has an iron fist in a velvet glove (in the eyes of the rest of us); for the large part, spellbindingly good football. 

Other than that, City have been bang average. 

   
What Needs Work, and Can They Win it?

Like Liverpool, it's at the back where City have issues. They have managed just one clean sheet from seven league games. Seven times they have been breached in the league, while 11 have been shipped in all competitions. 

It's hardly a disastrous record given City have conceded fewer league goals than Liverpool (10), Manchester United (eight), Chelsea (nine), Leicester City (11) and the same as Arsenal. On the flip side, Burnley (nine) have conceded only two goals more, while Tottenham (three), Everton (five) and Southampton (six) have all proved tougher to breach. West Brom have conceded the same, but Jeff Astle was their last goalscorer. 

After the Tottenham defeat, I wrote: "Aside from John Stones, excellent in spells again on Sunday, City's back four looks at the very least a transfer window away from being anything like good enough to mount a serious tilt for the Champions League. Kolarov, Zabaleta, Clichy, Sagna, Fernando and 'Jesus, Navas' playing in a Guardiola team is like the cast of The Bill starring in a Martin Scorsese film."

It's probably generous to leave Nicolas Otamendi off that list. Few would be surprised were Guardiola to act decisively in January to bring in defensive reinforcements. Both full-back positions need strengthening, while an additional centre-half wouldn't go amiss.

Having dispatched Joe Hart to Torino, Yaya Toure to the corner to think about his actions and Samir Nasri to fat camp, via Sevilla, it's safe to say Guardiola is not afraid to tell big-name players when their game is up. Had he taken over at Old Trafford rather than the Etihad over the summer, it is odds-on Wayne Rooney would have been in MLS or the Indian Super League by now. Or eating an Indian in MLS. 

Claudio Bravo continues to deal with crosses in a manner that suggests Bela Lugosi is a shoo-in to play him if ever a biopic of his life is made, but the Chilean retains his manager's unimpeachable faith courtesy of a shared belief that there is no greater sin in life than to kick the ball long.

Much has been made of how Tottenham's high-press left them flummoxed at White Hart Lane, perhaps too much given coming up with the plan is often the easy bit. It's the execution that separates the wheat from the chaff. 

In pressing high, Spurs knocked City out of their stride by dictating a frenetic tempo. Errors were forced, as City steadfastly refused to break from the way Guardiola has demanded they work the ball patiently forward from the back.  

Tottenham are probably the best-drilled pressing side in the Premier League. If a medical doesn't pick up a third lung, Mauricio Pochettino won't sign you. To conclude a blueprint showing how to stop Manchester City has now been drawn up is like saying the only thing you need to be a model is beauty. 

City have more than likely already played their most difficult game of the season. 

    
Manchester United (Sixth, with 13 points from seven matches)

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

When the widest smile in English football threatened to swallow Hull whole, it felt like Manchester United were back. Substitute Marcus Rashford's winner in driving rain at the KCOM Stadium arrived in the 92nd minute to hand United a third successive Premier League victory since the start of the season.

More than that, it symbolised a return of a fighting spirit largely conspicuous only in absence since Sir Alex Ferguson called time on the most decorated of managerial careers.

After three seasons stumbling in the dark under the inert tenures of first David Moyes and then Louis van Gaal, Manchester United finally had in charge a manager willing to shine a light on the club and tell them exactly what was needed.

Then came the Manchester derby.

For 45 minutes, United were schooled in their own backyard. Mourinho was made to look a mug by Guardiola. Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports destroyed Paul Pogba. Blue was the colour making all the noise inside Old Trafford at full-time. Pitch black was the mood. 

The hangover lasted as long as the honeymoon period. Defeat to City set off a run of three successive defeats in all competitions. Suddenly, Mourinho and his band of Galacticos looked fallible. 

A glorious 45 minutes of football to take a 4-0 half-time lead against Leicester City was more like it. The stuff of champions no less.

A 1-1 draw with Stoke City at Old Trafford prior to the international break decidedly less so.

Position at this stage last season: First, with 16 points from seven matches.

Results so far: Bournemouth away—won 1-3, Southampton home—won 2-0, Hull City away—won 0-1, Manchester City home—lost 1-2, Watford away—lost 3-1, Leicester City home—won 4-1, Stoke City home—drew 1-1.

Next six Premier League fixtures: Liverpool (a), Chelsea (a), Burnley (h), Swansea City (a), Arsenal (h), West Ham United (h).

   
What's Gone Right?

The goalscoring form of Zlatan Ibrahimovic has proved a feather in Mourinho's cap over those who questioned whether the Swede was heading to the Premier League too late in his career to make any real impression.

Six goals in all competitions is a healthy return, while his all-round display against Leicester was a masterclass in how to lead the line. There's every chance he'll become the first United striker to score 20 goals in a season since Robin van Persie in 2012/13.

Fears Rashford could be the fall guy to accommodate Ibrahimovic looked to have resonance in the early stages of the season, but since his winner at Hull City, he's quickly found favour with Mourinho.

"The Kid" appears to have become a favourite with the Portuguese, with Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial the two players struggling for form. Actions speak louder than words, and it appears neither has the full trust of their manager. 

Eyebrows were raised when Mourinho sanctioned the £30 million acquisition of Eric Bailly from Villarreal. The Ivorian has proved a steal. He endured an off day at Watford but otherwise has been largely immaculate. As aggressive a defender as there is in the Premier League, he can play, too, and loves to pick out a pass from the back. 

It's a measure perhaps of how things haven't quite panned out as expected for Mourinho that Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Daley Blind have been among United's better players. All three were not thought to be in his plans when he took over.

That it has been reported by the Daily Mirror's Steve Stammers a new deal is being put together for Mata suggests talk of a rift between them from their time together at Chelsea, when Mourinho sold him to United, is little more than hearsay. 

     
What Needs Work, and Can They Win it?

Tucked five points behind City, Mourinho will be concerned but far from panicked. This may need reassessing after United's next two league games, away at Liverpool and then Chelsea. 

It's quite a seven days coming up for United. A trip to Anfield on Monday is followed by a Europa League game against Fenerbahce on Thursday. An exhausting week concludes on Sunday as Mourinho returns to Stamford Bridge for the first time since Chelsea sacked him for a second time. After that it's a Manchester derby in the EFL Cup the following week. No pressure, Jose. 

In the three seasons since Manchester United last won the Premier League title back in 2012/13, they have finished 22 (2013/14), 17 (2014/15) and 15 (2015/16) points behind the eventual champions.

Mourinho, by virtue of being Mourinho, will be expected to orchestrate a serious title tilt. Especially given he conceded his own expectations were in line with such a scenario at the start of the season, per The Independent's Pete Oliver.

Having the most expensively assembled set of players in history to work with should stand United in good stead, yet there's a growing sense they are no better equipped to win the league than at least a handful of clubs.

United are three points and five places worse off than they were at this stage last season under Van Gaal. 

Much ado about nothing, at least in the eyes of this writer, was made about Mourinho's criticism of individuals after the City and Watford defeats. However, for many it was a return to the grizzled, ill-tempered manner of his final days at Chelsea. It's a shame, since over the summer he had looked revitalised, having finally landed the job he's wanted since the first time he left Chelsea. 

What to do with Rooney remains a perennial problem. With the player's stock at an all-time low, out of United's starting XI and booed playing for his country against Malta, it will be fascinating to see how Mourinho handles him over the next few weeks.

With Liverpool and Chelsea up next, there will be no time for kid gloves. Conspiracy theorists proffer a view Mourinho was doing little more than demonstrating his Machiavellian streak by starting the season with Rooney as his captain and striker while telling anyone who would listen he is no midfielder.

If the intention was to give Rooney enough rope to hang himself, a showreel of the player's lowlights against Watford is all the proof you need that even if Mourinho has lost a little of his charisma, he's no less cunning. 

Of greater concern than how to get the best out of Rooney will be how to do likewise with Pogba. The world's most expensive footballer is not playing as though he's the world's best footballer―far from it. 

Given it's only seven games into the new season, it would be churlish to go too hard after a manager unsure of either his best formation or starting XI. Still, in two months in charge at Old Trafford, he has used 24 players.  

Mourinho will be acutely aware the time for experimentation in any season is limited, especially one in which Manchester City look as though they may take some stopping. 

If that paints the gloomiest of pictures, it really shouldn't. United have yet to find any real coherence or consistency under Mourinho, but these are early days, and with the bit between his teeth, few are better than the Portuguese at building title-winning sides. 

Tottenham Hotspur (Second, with 17 points from seven matches)

Rui Vieira/Associated Press

Tottenham this season have been a bit like a TV sleeper hit. No one bothered with them on the first broadcast, but after the Manchester City episode was the talk of every office in the country, we're now all up to speed via catchup and calling Pochettino's men contenders again.

Despite arguably playing the best football of any side last season, Spurs were missed off pretty much every list published over the summer predicting the likely title challengers. 

The Galactico managers were supposed to ride roughshod over mere mortals, with Pochettino usually the obscured face in the background of any montage as Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp fought for a prime spot in the foreground.

Which is just the way he likes it.

Other than a serious injury to Harry Kane, Tottenham could not be in finer fettle. The joint-best defence in the Premier League last season is way out in front this time around.

Lloris-Walker-Vertonghen-Alderweireld-Rose is starting to roll off the tongue like, whisper it quietly, Seaman-Dixon-Bould-Adams-Winterburn. In seven Premier League matches, they have conceded three goals. That's fewer than half a goal per game; Tottenham are so tight it is rumoured Rising Damp's Rigsby is their defensive coach. 

The only remaining unbeaten side in the Premier League went into the international interlude on the back of four successive victories and their finest start to a league season since 1960/61—coincidentally the last time Spurs won the title.

Few give them more of a puncher's chance of claiming a first title in 56 years, but the way in which they took Manchester City apart will not be repeated by too many sides this season. 

Even if the big boys are better this term, there's no reason why Spurs will be worse. 

Position at this stage last season: Sixth, with 12 points from seven matches

Results so far: Everton away—drew 1-1, Crystal Palace home—won 1-0, Liverpool home—drew 1-1, Stoke City away—won 0-4, Sunderland home—won 1-0, Middlesbrough away—won 1-2, Manchester City home—won 2-0.

Next six Premier League fixtures: West Bromwich Albion (a), Bournemouth (a), Leicester City (h), Arsenal (a), West Ham United (h), Chelsea (a).

       
What's Gone Right?

Given the only points Tottenham have dropped to date this season have been courtesy of 1-1 draws with Everton and Liverpool, respectively, there's not a lot to be critical about. 

Suspension and injury have deprived Pochettino of the outstanding Mousa Dembele for all but two games, while Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Moussa Sissoko and Danny Rose have joined Kane in the treatment room at various points. Taking all this into account, it's a measure of just how well Pochettino has his side organised that results haven't dipped.

Now in his third season at Spurs, he has at least a year on most of his rival managers, two on some, in terms of getting his ideas across to his players. Arsene Wenger is the noticeable exception. Whereas Mourinho and, to a lesser extent, Guardiola spent the summer buying players to help build a team around, Pochettino's acquisitions were all about fitting into existing methodologies. 

Victor Wanyama has been the pick, with his outstanding display against Manchester City the culmination of an excellent season's work to date for the giant Kenyan. A typically unglamorous Pochettino signing, he's exemplified everything that has been good about Spurs. Infectiously aggressive while maintaining discipline, a problem for him last term at Southampton, Wanyama looks to be one of the buys of the season.

A first Premier League goal for new boy Vincent Janssen wouldn't go amiss, even if the 22-year-old has acquitted himself reasonably well with a series of industrious and unselfish performances. Heung-Min Son's remarkable form has ensured Kane has not been missed. 

With Dele Alli also starting to play his way into form after a slow start to the campaign on the back of a disappointing summer with England at the Euros, focus may slowly start to shift from eulogising over Tottenham's back line to grasping for superlatives to describe English football's most exciting young talent.

It's a measure of the ludicrous standards he set last season that it seems preposterous this is just his second campaign as a Premier League footballer.

   
What Needs Work, and Can They Win it?

Having shown they can beat the best, Tottenham must now demonstrate a ruthless capacity to get the job done against the Premier League's lesser lights. 

Last season they drew 13 matches. Teams so willing to share the spoils do not win titles—no side in the top six last season settled for a point as often as Tottenham. 

It would be hopelessly premature to say Tottenham's next two matches could define their season, yet it would be equally remiss not to stress the importance of taking maximum hauls from trips to sides like West Bromwich Albion and Bournemouth. If Spurs want the title, they can afford precious few slip-ups.

Last season two 1-1 draws with West Brom were hammer blows to their title aspirations. Dropped points at White Hart Lane against Tony Pulis' side at the back end of April ultimately signalled the beginning of the end for their bid for silverware.

After a south-coast sojourn to Bournemouth, they have a home game against Leicester City, before a triple-header of capital derbies against Arsenal, West Ham United and Chelsea.

Come through that lot unscathed and talk of another title push will be more than justified.

They may only have a puncher's chance, but Pochettino looks more than capable of delivering a knockout blow.

     
All stats provided by WhoScored.com unless otherwise stated

Read our assessments of Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City here