At the start of the season, nobody would have predicted that Liverpool and Chelsea would be occupying the top two places in the Premier League approaching the mid-way point in the season.

Both teams have clearly exceeded expectations, thanks in no small part to their excellent head coaches: Arne Slot has skipped the transitional period that he was expected to go through after replacing Jurgen Klopp, and Enzo Maresca has somehow brought stability to a club that had become accustomed to chaos in recent years.

Slot and Maresca are both deserving of plaudits, yet Chelsea legend Joe Cole seemingly let his bias get in the way as he declared Maresca to be the manager of the season so far over the weekend.

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"I think Enzo Maresca is so far manager of the season," Cole told TNT Sports on Sunday. "What he had to contend with at the start, we were talking to him at West Ham, and he said about the 30-odd players he's got and trying to manage the squad. A lot of question marks on the recruitment.

"And since maybe late September, it's just been an upward curve, faultless in Europe. He's managed to use the squad in that competition. The midfield, Enzo [Fernandez], [Moises] Caicedo, [Romeo] Lavia and [Cole] Palmer, three of the four in there. He's just dominating most games.

"So it's all looking rosy. I still feel there's a way to go, but I did say if come January Chelsea are within four points of Liverpool, I think they're in the title race, and they're closer than that now."

Regarding the question marks around recruitment, few soccer managers will have been feeling much sympathy for Maresca during the summer when Chelsea splurged another $250million on new players.

Liverpool, meanwhile, spent $44million, with the vast majority of that going on a goalkeeper who was loaned straight back to the club the Reds signed him from.

As for Chelsea's success in Europe, the club is competing in the Conference League, two rungs lower than the Champions League (in which Liverpool has a 100 per cent record after six matches, including wins against Real Madrid, AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen, by the way). As impressive as Maresca has been, Slot is undoubtedly the manager of the season so far; it's barely even a debate.