NEW YEAR CAN BE NEW START

Season's first half has been poor, let's hope for better in 2026

- camondunphy

City's Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki celebrate

IT'S HARD to get into the festive spirit as a Premier League fan these days.

We are hitting the halfway point in a very poor season.

To say all the top clubs are underperforming would be one hell of an understatement.

You have the defending Premier League champions Liverpool, winners last season by 10 points, having a dramatically poor campaign.

They've lost a third of their games so far and, at the weekend, they had to scramble over the line against Wolves, a team with TWO points from their first 18 games.

Wolves are on course for an all-time low points tally, but they made life difficult for Liverpool at Anfield.

We were told Chelsea would be contenders this season. But the world club champions are level on points with Manchester United.

They don't look like a team at all and they don't look like they are playing for their manager.

Aston Villa went to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and got the win, and Villa, despite their position, are nowhere near a top team.

There are rumours about Enzo Maresca. He came from Manchester City and the talk is he might go back there and replace Pep Guardiola.

He'd be lucky to get the Mansfield job at this rate, never mind Manchester City.

There is real instability at Stamford Bridge and I don't think Maresca will survive in that job for much longer, regardless of whether he ends up back at City.

He took Cole Palmer off on Saturday when Chelsea were still chasing a winner. Palmer is one of the best players in the game right now, he is a match-winner, a goalscorer and a goal maker for others.

It's been a frustrating season for Palmer with injuries, but he should be seeing out games now, especially when Chelsea are searching for a winner.

Something very strange is happening there.