As the Premier League drama is producing moments every week and the teams near the top of the table are currently seeming unstoppable. What about the sides that have struggled to get going this season and standout as the biggest underachievers so far?
We spoke to a number of football writers to find out.
We spoke to a number of football writers to find out.
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00:00So, we're looking at the Premier League so far. Who's been the biggest underachiever
00:07across the top flight? Obviously, there's been a few with poor starts. Wolves, probably
00:13very poor, but they have had bad fixtures and maybe a few that you might have expected
00:18to do well have just gone slightly below par so far.
00:22West Ham suffer another heavy defeat at the hands of Tottenham at the weekend. They made
00:27that decision to get rid of David Moyes, who won them the first European trophy, the first
00:33trophy in how long? They wanted to go down a different route and bring in Julian Lopetegui,
00:37but it hasn't worked so far. They spent money in the summer.
00:42You mentioned Wolves, you say. I think it's harsh on Gary O'Neill about difficult fixtures
00:46so far. That man City, that was a gut-wrencher, wasn't it? For me, it was offsides. I don't
00:55see how it wasn't with Bernardo Silva. It was a foul, it wasn't offside. He pushed at
01:01the goalkeeper. But, yes, I think those two, West Ham and Man Utd, are the teams that definitely
01:09come to mind so far.
01:10I think the obvious one is Crystal Palace, who I'm looking at the table now, as I speak,
01:16or I was. They still haven't won a game after seven matches at this stage, which is so disappointing.
01:21Obviously, they ended last season brilliantly with Matera and Eze. Obviously, they lost
01:26to Lice in the summer, but I felt like in the summer we were talking about some of their
01:29players being linked with big moves. Morgehi as well. There's a lot of optimism, I think,
01:35around Palace. It's not really transpired this season. So, they're one who have been
01:39a bit of a disappointment. I think West Ham as well, with Lopetegui coming in. I thought
01:43they were going to have a really good season. I'd say they still might do, but 15th at the
01:47moment, eight points from eight games, really not an encouraging start. And I think the
01:52concern I think would be not just the results, but the performances. And they've really underwhelmed
01:56in terms of defensive record and how they've gone about setting up under Lopetegui. Big
02:00difference, big change from Morge to the new manager. And it's not quite worked out brilliantly
02:05in these early few weeks, but we'll have to see. And he is a very good manager, Lopetegui,
02:09so I do think he could well turn this around.
02:11Well, I think the clear and obvious one is probably Crystal Palace. The way they ended
02:17last season, scoring goals for fun under Oliver Glasner. A lot of people were tipping them
02:21to potentially fight for top half or maybe even European places this season, but they
02:25were out to win in their opening eight games and they've been really disappointing, struggling
02:30to score whatsoever, looking fairly sloppy defensively at times as well. They of course
02:35did lose Michael Alize to Bayern Munich. That was always going to be a big miss, but they've
02:39still got Eberich at ESEA. They've still got Jean-Philippe Meteta. They signed Eddie Nketiah.
02:44You've got the likes of Adam Wharton, Daniel Munoz as well. Mark Gay stuck around. This
02:49squad is capable of great things and to not have any wins in those first eight games is
02:54relegation for them, quite simply. So I don't think a lot of people were expecting that.