Manchester United are the Premier League's biggest underperformers when you stack up their position in the 2023-24 table to their wage bill.
How much every club spends on wages has always strongly correlated with how the table ends up in the end, although clubs like Brighton and Brentford have done spectacularly well to punch above their weight in recent years – and they continue to do so at the start of this season.
Brighton's wage bill has crept up steadily as they've made major steps forward but with an annual outlay of just £47million they still sit just 14th in terms of Premier League wages.
Roberto De Zerbi has the Seagulls sitting pretty up in sixth, above the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea who spend several times over what they do on player wages.
Tottenham, Crystal Palace and even Luton – relative to their outlay – are among the other clubs overachieving at this fledgeling stage of the 2023-24 campaign, while Everton, Chelsea and Bournemouth sit alongside Manchester United at the other end of the scale.
The newly-promoted clubs are all more-or-less where you'd expect them to be. Likewise, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal are up in the European spots – as they ought to be.
Of course, it is still early in the campaign and you'd expect the table to take further shape in due course, with Manchester United and Chelsea surely set to drag themselves out of the bottom half and reach a position that correlates more closely with their lavish spending.
We've listed every Premier League single club by their league position in comparison to their wage bill, ranking them in order of the biggest differences between the two.
Note: All wage bill data is via FBref.com, who source their numbers from Capology.
Brighton
League Position: 6th
Wage bill: 14th
Total wage bill: £47million
Difference: +8
Tottenham
League Position: 1st
Wage bill: 7th
Total wage bill: £91million
Difference: +6
Crystal Palace
League Position: 9th
Wage bill: 12th
Total wage bill: £51million
Difference: +3
Luton Town
League Position: 17th
Wage bill: 20th
Total wage bill: £3million
Difference: +3
Wolves
League Position: 14th
Wage bill: 16th
Total wage bill: £41million
Difference: +2
Brentford
League Position: 15th
Wage bill: 17th
Total wage bill: £31million
Difference: +2
Arsenal
League Position: 2nd
Wage bill: 3rd
Total wage bill: £163million
Difference: +1
Aston Villa
League Position: 5th
Wage bill: 6th
Total wage bill: £106million
Difference: +1
West Ham United
League Position: 7th
Wage bill: 8th
Total wage bill: £90million
Difference: +1
Newcastle United
League Position: 8th
Wage bill: 9th
Total wage bill: £85million
Difference: +1
Fulham
League Position: 12th
Wage bill: 13th
Total wage bill: £47million
Difference: +1
Liverpool
League Position: 4th
Wage bill: 4th
Total wage bill: £134million
Difference: =
Burnley
League Position: 18th
Wage bill: 18th
Total wage bill: £18million
Difference: =
Nottingham Forest
League Position: 13th
Wage bill: 11th
Total wage bill: £57million
Difference: -2
Manchester City
League Position: 3rd
Wage bill: 2nd
Total wage bill: £192million
Difference: -1
Sheffield United
League Position: 20th
Wage bill: 19th
Total wage bill: £12million
Difference: -1
Bournemouth
League Position: 19th
Wage bill: 15th
Total wage bill: £43million
Difference: -4
Chelsea
League Position: 11th
Wage bill: 5th
Total wage bill: £128million
Difference: -6
Everton
League Position: 16th
Wage bill: 10th
Total wage bill: £69million
Difference: -6
Manchester United
League Position: 10th
Wage bill: 1st
Total wage bill: £205million
Difference: -9