Could a surprise package clinch an EPL top four spot this season?

Can Ronald Koeman guide Southampton to a top four finish this season?

This season could be a unique one in the Premier League. For years the same teams have been and around those top four positions and claimed Champions League spots.

However, this season only one of those so called big teams has started the season with any real conviction.

That team Chelsea already look like champions in waiting, as even rivals managers like Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger have admitted the Blues will be hard to beat this season.

Inconsistent

Inconsistency has been the order of the day for most of last season’s Premier League top seven.

The reigning champions Manchester City seem to be in crisis at the moment and pressure is turning City boss Manuel Pellegrini even greyer than he was when he joined the club.

City rescued a point at bottom of the table QPR with an 83^rd minute equaliser from Sergio Aguero securing a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road.

Last season’s runners-up Liverpool lack the bite in attack that Luis Suarez brought to the team. Brendan Rodgers team seems to be struggling to keep other teams out as well, which is not good for a team that have not exactly been prolific in front of goal.

A 2-1 home defeat against Chelsea on Saturday leaves the Reds just five points clear of the drop zone and a massive 15 points behind the Blues.

Then there is Arsenal, whose veteran boss Arsene Wenger seems to have lost any sense of tactical nous and taken the Kevin Keegan approach to tactics of throwing caution to the wind no matter what the score.

Unfortunately for Wenger it is not working out too well because his team seem to have a soft centre, as the Gunners suffered a 2-1 defeat against Swansea on Sunday, after going a goal ahead through an Alexis Sanchez goal.

Everton seem to have put all their eggs in one Europa League shaped basket. The Toffees have experienced mixed results after European games and a 1-1 at Sunderland may not turn out to be the worst result in the world.

Tottenham suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Stoke on Sunday. It seems just like Everton, Spurs are suffering from their exertions in the Europa League. Although having watched Spurs of late the problems run deeper than just playing on a Thursday night.

Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham find themselves on 14 points, with the latter two currently occupying positions in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

With all those teams struggling for consistency it could provide an opportunity for a surprise package to clinch a top four spot.

Surprises

The top five has a rather unfamiliar look about it with Southampton in second, West Ham in fourth and Swansea in fifth.

Southampton have been outstanding this season, despite being dismissed by some at the start of the season as relegation fodder. This season’s team look even stronger than the one last season that earn so many plaudits for their style of play.

Ronald Koeman has put together a very strong team and the spirit seems to be soaring at the moment. A 2-0 home win against Leicester on Saturday put the Saints four points behind league leaders Chelsea.

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was basically given an ultimatum this summer by the clubs owners, improve his teams style of play or lose his job. The former-Bolton boss has done just that, with new signings Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia and Alex Song key to their improvement.

The Hammers have been in good form and currently sit fourth in the Premier League table. However, Allardyce’s team will be frustrated by their goalless home draw against struggling Aston Villa on Saturday.

It looks unlikely that they will stay in the top four for the rest of the season, but even if they do not it seems the team are now playing football that is far easier on the eye than in previous campaigns.

Swansea’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal proved that they are no pushovers this season. That victory came on the back of an excellent 0-0 draw at Everton’s Goodison Park. Swans boss Garry Monk is the youngest boss in the top-flight, but has shown already that he could have a promising career in management with some shrewd decisions so far in his short managerial career.

Unlikely

This scenario is not a new one. Teams have threatened to upset the top four applecart before, but usually the usual suspects recovered their form to gain one of the top four spots in the Premier League table.

Everton and Newcastle are good recent examples of teams threatening to upset the established order at the top, but in the end neither managed to achieve it.

It looks unlikely that Southampton, West Ham and Swansea can maintain their current positions, but it would be exciting for the Premier League if one of those three teams could maintain their good form and claim a Champions League spot come the end of the season.

Could a surprise package clinch an EPL top four spot this season?