Chelsea currently sixth yet not playing their 10th fixture which will be played tomorrow, a win against United will be pushing them to the 3rd position on the table ahead of Arsenal if Villa will likely lose to Tottenham.
Quite remarkably, many big teams have struggled to string good results together of late. This is a tough spell for Manchester City, who find themselves in a difficult phase with a number of players who normally feature centrally now out injured. The series of defeats surely add to the pressure on Pep to find a solution by using the depth of the existing squad. A good one for Chelsea is that they are in quite a good place at the moment and, if they do beat United, they have a chance to get into the top three- depending, of course, on other results. But the season is still a long one, and changes in the standing will most certainly change with different performances and strategies from each side.
Liverpool continue to display the kind of winning mentality much needed in this tight competition. Bournemouth have looked surprising and proved to be a thorn to the big teams; they will take wins against top teams. The wins do not just show the strength of Bournemouth but just how unpredictable the competition is this season.