The unpredictable season so crazy that Spurs or Liverpool could yet end up winning this title

Congratulations to Manchester City, winners of the 2015-16 Premier League!

A bit premature, perhaps, with six months, one transfer window and countless soft-tissue injuries still to go? Thing is, recent trends are on their side. Because only one team this decade has topped the table at the start of December then failed to convert that early ascendency into the title.

Can you guess?

That's correct, Arsenal in 2013-14. It somehow had to be poor old Arsenal, didn't it?

Manchester City are certainly the team considered most likely by the cognoscenti right now, leading the league despite inconsistent form which has seen them thrashed 4-1 twice and, even more worryingly, look the least-potent attack during a match involving Manchester United. The logic is that if City can make it to the top despite all that, they'll take some stopping with David Silva and Sergio Aguero returning refreshed.

All of which would usually make perfect sense, except this season's Premier League is a gloriously unpredictable mess.

City are one of four teams to have been afforded serious consideration this season by the punditocracy. Chelsea were the pre-season pick almost right across the board, which at least demonstrates to children the dangers of groupthink.

City took over the mantle of favourites after their fast start, before losing it to Arsenal, who put an impressive five-game winning run together. The Gunners have since embarked on a stuttering seven-game sequence during which they've won only two matches and lost several big names to injury.

Enter United, whose solidity and cussedness, coupled with decades of experience in getting the job done, is always going to win them a constituency, and did exactly that for a couple of weeks back there.

And now everyone's come back home to City, who have returned to the top after a spectacular winning run of one in a row.

It's a cycle of sorts, though what an uneven ride! The bike must be pedalled by someone whose knees are jerking all over the place. But such are the uncertainties of the New Unpredictability. This is partly a result of the Premier League's middle classes, emboldened by the upcoming TV cash bonanza, becoming much harder to beat and more confident in their own skin. These traditionally middle-ranking teams, once happy to make up the numbers and simply survive, now boast plenty of talent and play with distinctive, aggressive, determined styles. No more forelock tugging.

But the New Unpredictability is also a product of the great uncertainty surrounding all of last season's Big Four. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that, next season, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal could all have new managers.

Jose Mourinho suddenly looks a beaten docket. Neither set of supporters in Manchester appear head over heels with their leader. And Arsene Wenger has been raging against the dying of the light for a few seasons now, and an early exit from Europe for his injury-depleted team, coupled with a bad run in the league, could finally snuff it out.

Pep Guardiola hovers ominously over all. He could feasibly end up at any one of the four megaclubs next season. Unless he's using the rumour mill to renegotiate a new deal at Bayern, of course, but let's not cloud the waters here: the lack of permanency at the Big Four isn't doing much for team cohesion.

Which brings us to two teams knocking on the door. Mauricio Pochettino is settled at fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, and after a season's hard work his industrious side are beginning to look the real deal. It's possible they might be one knock to Harry Kane away from losing precious momentum - their squad isn't the deepest - but a team unbeaten in the league since the opening day of the season has to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile there's Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp, a couple of calendar months into the job, can't claim Pochettino's (relative) longevity. But he is secure in his position, and preaches a high press that has been practised at Liverpool for several seasons now, even if Brendan Rodgers did lose a little faith in his own teachings towards the end of his reign. The tactic might not exactly be ingrained as a result of Rodgers' late-era wobble, but the fundamentals are there to work with; Klopp isn't rebuilding from scratch on scorched earth. His predecessor has perhaps left him a slightly better legacy than it first appeared.

Liverpool are far from the finished article. Klopp enjoys ostentatiously pooh-poohing suggestions that his team are a half-decent outside bet for the title. Penny for his thoughts in private, though.

In a short space of time, Liverpool have won convincingly at two of last season's Big Four; have shored up a notoriously unreliable defence; and have learnt to grind out wins at home when playing poorly. The return of Jordan Henderson, who is more adept at picking out a clever pass on the edge of the opposition's area than most give him credit for, could further alleviate some of their Anfield constipation.

Ditto Daniel Sturridge, though let's see how long that lasts.

Baby steps, but Klopp's team is growing up fast. Much more of this progress, with a friendly run of fixtures to come, and you never know. Liverpool were seven off the lead in December 2013, utterly unfancied, and look what nearly happened when they found their groove in the second half of that campaign. They're only six off the lead now.

The wise money is still on Manchester City, the romantic pound with Leicester. But if flawed United and Arsenal sides are permitted to dream, then so should the similar works in progress at Spurs and Liverpool. Especially during a season like this. All hail the New Unpredictability!