Biggest losers at midseason of the Premeier League

John Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images

Liverpool

After being so close to winning the quadruple last year and to only winning the two smaller trophies, Liverpool has dropped off a cliff since last season. Much of the failure comes down to the loss of Sadio Mane, who transferred to Bayern Munich for only €32 million. 

 

Liverpool signings have not panned out exactly how they would have hoped, with Darwin Nunez struggling to adjust to the level of the Premier League and Arthur Melo struggling to get minutes due to form and injury. Another big drop-off has been the play of Virgil Van Dijk, once the definitive best defender in the world has just not been the same as he has been the past four seasons. 

 

Liverpool now sit in ninth place in the Premier League but could hop up to sixth with their game in hand, which is still far from their expectations of challenging for the league. Liverpool will look to make the race to a Champions League position before the season ends. The signing of Dutch international Cody Gakpo should help with the loss of Mane. It will be a tough road ahead for the Reds.

Photo from Sky Sports

Chelsea

Another Big Six club that has struggled this season is Chelsea. The Blues have been feeling blue lately after new ownership took over due to outside politics of Ukraine and Russia. Chelsea fired Thomas Tuchel and hired Graham Potter, who has struggled to adjust to Chelsea. 

 

To make things work, Chelsea has a net loss of €403 million in the past two transfer windows. It is a new owner, but the transfer policy seems to stay for Chelsea, which is to spend big. They now sit 10th in the league and really need to improve to recover some of the money they have spent on players. 

 

Chelsea was supposed to finish somewhere between third and sixth position in the table and will have to have a spectacular run to do that in the latter half of the season. They will look to new signing Mykhalo Mudryk to carry them offensively since he cost €70 million after they swooped him from Arsenal. 

 

However, Potter has a lot of work to bring the Blues to greener pastures.

Photo from WestHam.com

West Ham

After a seventh-place finish and making it into the Europa Conference League, West Ham has seriously fallen off. 

 

They are in 16th place and are only one point above the relegation zone. West Ham has so much talent that it would be a shock if they did go down, but it is certainly not out of the question. Manager David Moyes now is on the hottest seat of all Premier League managers. 

 

After two consecutive successful seasons, the Scotsman has been struggling this year. West Ham made some big signings in the summer transfer window, including Lucas Paqueta, Gianluca Scammaca, and Nayef Aguerd, but they have yet to have the impact that the Hammers hoped for. 

 

West Ham had their legendary captain retire in the offseason, which could explain their poor play and that the team is struggling to snap out of their bad form. West Ham just needs to focus on staying up and then trying to defend their players from poachers of other teams when the summer comes along. 

Photo from Football 365

Everton

The last disappointing team of this season is not the biggest surprise but more just upsetting to see a Premier League staple struggle so much. Everton has been terrible this year. After barely escaping relegation last year, they are once again in a relegation fight. 

 

Everton has just dropped manager Frank Lampard who saved them from relegation last year but has not shown any promise this year. So they are looking for a fresh start midway through the season. Sean Dyche could be a decent option for them to be saved since he has shown a history of being able to steal points and find wins, but his teams are often very defensive. 

 

Everton has struggled to find goals this year. They have the second-least amount of goals scored this year. Teams usually get relegated because they can not score, not because they concede too much. Everton made a bunch of quality signings, but they have not been able to string the pieces together this year. It will be sad if Everton goes down since they have been in the Premier League since its inception. 

 

Premier League loyalists will root for Everton to make a run to stay up in the second half of the season.

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