According to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, the Premier League title will be decided by how the top six teams fare against each other.
There will, of course, be the occasional banana skin for English football's heavyweights, but there is growing evidence of an elite mini-league involving Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, City, Arsenal and Manchester United.
The so-called super six have won 257 points between them so far,which is 35 more than at this stage last season and is better than the top six equivalents over the three previous seasons by 25, 11 and 26 points, respectively.