Comparing every Premier League club’s wage bill to its league position. The largest overachievers in the Premier League this year are Brentford, Brighton, Newcastle United, and Arsenal, while the biggest underachievers are Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton, and Leicester City.
At least, if you think a club’s pay budget serves as a rough indicator of where they should rank on the rankings.
Brentford, who are remarkably up in seventh place and posing a real fight for European qualifying, are the team with the lowest pay expenditure in the English top flight. For better or worse, Bees have the largest salary gap between their present league standing and their performance.
The tale of Brighton & Hove Albion is like to a fairytale. When you consider how little it cost to put together their squad and that their pay bill is just £28.3 million, third-lowest in the division, it is somewhat of a small wonder that the Seagulls have a chance of making the Champions League.
Even though Newcastle United may be entering a new phase of investment, they are undoubtedly punching above their weight as they currently hold the third spot in the standings. Eddie Howe’s team is currently doing very well to rank above teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool in the table, but you can anticipate their wage budget of £62.6 million, which ranks them tenth in the division, to increase over the next years.
Comparing every Premier League club’s wage bill to its league position
The lowest of the traditional ‘big six’, league leaders Arsenal’s wage budget of £85.4 million is rather modest. Expect the Gunners’ salary cost to increase as they develop further in the upcoming years, with a return to the Champions League all but mathematically assured and perhaps a Premier League title on the horizon.
Manchester United and Chelsea are presently outspending title contenders Manchester City in terms of wages despite their famedly high recent spending.
Manchester United presently spends more on salaries than any other English club, which highlights how bad it was for them to finish seventh with a record-low number of points last season.
They have improved under Erik ten Hag in 2022–23, and despite their recent slump, they still seem like a good bet to finish in the top four. However, given their expenditure on transfers and wages, it is debatable whether they are quite where they should be.
Graham Potter’s firing by Chelsea, who spent the second-highest amount of money on salaries in the Premier League at £169.7 million, may not come as a surprise given their egregious underachievement in the bottom half of the standings.
