At the start of the Premier League season, the top questions were clear: Could Liverpool repeat? The defending champions had spent over $500 million to deepen and freshen up their squad, but did that throw off their balance? And what might Mohamed Salah have in store after the contract year of all contract years?

The answers: No, yes, and not much. Liverpool lost six of seven league matches in a spell from late September through late November, then went another five matches without a win in January. Their rapid demise opened the door for a different champion, and Arsenal marched right in.

We think. The Gunners lead a charging Manchester City by two points in the table, they probably still have to win their last two matches, and they really haven't been the best team in the league since January or February. But they're close.

We'll see if they can finish the job over the next two weekends. But in the meantime, it's time to check on everyone's form one last time before the season ends.

Below are our final updated power rankings for the 2025-26 season, followed by some analysis of the most notable changes from our previous rankings in February. Arsenal and City lead the way, but pretty much every team between No. 3 and No. 15 is up for debate. Here's what we came up with.

The updated Premier League team rankings

Our rerankings -- the combination of the individual rankings from Bill Connelly and Ryan O'Hanlon -- are listed along with the last rankings from February, and each team's present points total and ranking in the Premier League table.

Man City are back to No. 1. What took so long?

Really, Manchester City are always supposed to rank No. 1 on a list like this.

They have the most celebrated manager of the 21st century leading what has been, per Transfermarkt, the most high-value roster in the league every season since 2016-17. (That season, they were the second-most valuable behind the Chelsea of Eden Hazard, N'Golo Kanté and Thibaut Courtois.) Best talent + best coach = best team -- that's not particularly advanced math there.

This is, however, the first time City have ranked No. 1 on this list since early in the 2024-25 season. After the typically excellent start to their Premier League campaign that season -- 23 points in nine matches and a one-point lead over a torrid Liverpool -- Pep Guardiola's squad fell into a funk that, depending on how you define it, lasted well over a year.

In 51 league matches from Nov. 2, 2024, through Jan. 19, 2026, Man City lost 14 (27.5%) -- that's a total most teams would happily accept on the spot, but it was a spectacular letdown for a team that had lost only 15 of their previous 153 league matches (9.8%) before that run.

They spent €218 million to bring in five players in January 2025, and then spent another €302 million on nine more arrivals in this season's two transfer windows. They brought in new attackers, new midfielders, new defenders and new goalkeepers. But it took until midway through the January window for City to finally begin looking like full City again.

What was the problem? What held them back to such a significant degree that they spent more than a year as, gasp, merely the second- or third-best team in the best league in the world? The answer is the same as it's always been: transition defense.

Typically when City fall into a funk, for however long, it comes because opponents have found holes in their transition game. Guardiola always plugs those holes, but it took a while this time: Among the 17 teams that played in both of the Premier League seasons in this 51-match span, City ranked dead last in xG, or expected goals, allowed per shot. Arsenal ranked fourth. You can overcome that if you're allowing fewer shots, but while City ranked fifth in shots allowed per possession, Arsenal ranked first. Checkmate.

City enlivened their attack with recent additions such as Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo, but they almost always have a better attack than Arsenal. When the tide turned back toward Manchester City is when they began defending again.

They're unbeaten in their last 14 league matches, a span in which they've both scored the most and allowed the fewest goals in the league. They're seventh in xG allowed per shot in this span; if they rank in the single digits in that category at any time, they're probably the best team in the league.

City have climbed back to within two points of Arsenal with two matches left in this year's title race. With any Arsenal slipup, they might still be able to sneak away with another title. Regardless, they've again looked like they're supposed to in the home stretch. -- Connelly