Nathan Johns
Dec 21, 2025, 06:48 PM
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An arbitrary enough point at which to assess the season, Christmas has nevertheless become a marker for plenty when looking at who might finish where in the Premier League table.
Arsenal find themselves top of the pops heading into the festive period, Mikel Arteta's side two points clear of Manchester City.
Down the other end, Wolves are the league's bottom-dwellers with just two points to their name. They are nine points off 19th-place Burnley and a whopping 16 away from safety.
Does any of this matter? How have sides top and bottom of the league at Christmas fared across the history of the Premier League?
Where have teams that were top on Christmas Day ended up?
1992: Norwich City -- finished 3rd
1993: Manchester United -- finished 1st
1994: Blackburn Rovers -- finished 1st
1995: Newcastle United -- finished 2nd
1996: Liverpool -- finished 4th
1997: Manchester United -- finished 2nd
1998: Aston Villa -- finished 6th
1999: Leeds United -- finished 3rd
2000: Manchester United -- finished 1st
2001: Newcastle United -- finished 4th
2002: Arsenal -- finished 2nd
2003: Manchester United -- finished 3rd
2004: Chelsea -- finished 1st
2005: Chelsea -- finished 1st
2006: Manchester United -- finished 1st
2007: Arsenal -- finished 3rd
2008: Liverpool -- finished 2nd
2009: Chelsea -- finished 1st
2010: Manchester United -- finished 1st
2011: Manchester City -- finished 1st
2012: Manchester United -- finished 1st
2013: Liverpool -- finished 2nd
2014: Chelsea -- finished 1st
2015: Leicester City -- finished 1st
2016: Chelsea -- finished 1st
2017: Manchester City -- finished 1st
2018: Liverpool -- finished 2nd
2019: Liverpool -- finished 1st
2020: Liverpool -- finished 3rd
2021: Manchester City -- finished 1st
2022: Arsenal -- finished 2nd
2023: Arsenal -- finished 2nd
2024: Liverpool -- finished 1st
2025: Arsenal -- finished ?
Is being top of the Premier League actually a bad omen for Arsenal?
As if Manchester City's recent resurgence wasn't enough to get Arsenal fans' palms a little sweaty, a glance at the history books could be enough to tip them over the edge.
Surprisingly, Arsenal have never won a top flight league title in season in which they have been top of the league on Christmas Day.
City went on to win the league both in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 despite hanging onto Arsenal's coattails.
Guardiola's side being in second as things stand becomes even more worrying for superstitious Arsenal fans. In the last 17 years, the team in second place on Christmas Day has gone on to win the whole thing just twice. Both of those occasions were the above years when Guardiola and Co. overtook the Gunners.
Add to that the following nugget: in each of the last five seasons where the team that was top at Christmas failed to win it all, the team that usurped them was Man City.
Mikel Arteta's team couldn't be tipped to the Premier League title again... could they? Harry Murphy - Danehouse/Getty Images
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Where have teams that were bottom on Christmas Day ended up?
1992: Nottingham Forest -- finished 22nd (relegated)
1993: Swindon Town -- finished 22nd (relegated)
1994: Ipswich Town -- finished 22nd (relegated)
1995: Bolton Wanderers -- finished 20th (relegated)
1996: Nottingham Forest -- finished 20th (relegated)
1997: Barnsley -- finished 19th (relegated)
1998: Nottingham Forest -- finished 20th (relegated)
1999: Sheffield Wednesday -- finished 19th (relegated)
2000: Bradford City -- finished 20th (relegated)
2001: Ipswich Town -- finished 18th (relegated)
2002: West Ham -- finished 18th (relegated)
2003: Wolves -- finished 20th (relegated)
2004: West Brom -- finished 17th (survived)
2005: Sunderland -- finished 20th (relegated)
2006: Watford -- finished 20th (relegated)
2007: Derby County -- finished 20th (relegated)
2008: West Brom -- finished 20th (relegated)
2009: Portsmouth -- finished 20th (relegated)
2010: West Ham -- finished 20th (relegated)
2011: Blackburn Rovers -- finished 19th (relegated)
2012: Reading -- finished 19th (relegated)
2013: Sunderland -- finished 14th (survived)
2014: Leicester City -- finished 14th (survived)
2015: Aston Villa -- finished 20th (relegated)
2016: Hull City -- finished 18th (relegated)
2017: Swansea City -- finished 18th (relegated)
2018: Fulham -- finished 19th (relegated)
2019: Watford -- finished 19th (relegated)
2020: Sheffield United -- finished 20th (relegated)
2021: Norwich City -- finished 20th (relegated)
2022: Wolves -- finished 13th (survived)
2023: Sheffield United -- finished 20th (relegated)
2024: Southampton -- finished 20th (relegated)
2025: Wolves -- finished ?
Just how bad has Wolves' season been so far?
As for Wolves, well, the tea leaves are not good.
Two points at Christmas is a record low. Well, a joint one, alongside Sheffield United in 2020.
Months later, the Blades were relegated as they could not get off the bottom of the pile.
Only four times in the 33-year history of the Premier League has the worst team at Christmas avoided relegation. Funnily enough, one of those examples was Wolves themselves back during the 2022-23 season.
Their turnaround was miraculous, a 13th-place finish representing the highest any team that was bottom in December has gone to reach.
That year, Wolves had 10 points at Christmas, eight more than their current total. So it's a monumentally more difficult task this time around.
If Wolves were to pull off a climb out of the bottom three, it would be a miracle of historic proportions.
Stuart Leggett/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images