5 Premier League players who have had disappointing starts to the season

Christmas is nearly upon us and Manchester City fans will probably have the most cause for celebration this festive season. City have begun this season in stellar form and currently sit eight points clear at the top of the table.

The Citizens have already scored 46 goals with the midfield and attack combining expertly under the command of Pep Guardiola. The likes of Kevin De Brune, Leroy Sane and David Silva have hit the ground running and City has seen some stellar individual performances from their prominent players.

The same can hardly be said for the clubs that have been left struggling in the wake of Coty's rampaging run, with several players underperforming for the rest of the pack. Players who took the league by storm last season, like Alexis Sanchez and Dele Alli, have yet to find their best form in the league. The following is a list of five such players who are yet to kick into top gear in the league.

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#5 Gylfi Sigurdsson

Much like the fabled Achilles of Greece, who individually changed the course of the Trojan war, Gylfi Sigurdsson has single-handedly carried Swansea through three season's worth of relegation battles. Swansea have struggled considerably in recent years and they would have been languishing in the Championship if it weren't for Sigurdsson's uncanny ability to engineer a goal out of thin air.

To truly put this into context, the Icelandic midfielder scored 9 goals and provided 13 assists in the 2016/17 season, which means he had a part to play in nearly half of Swansea's total tally of 45 goals. However, since his move to Everton, he has failed to impress, scoring two goals and assisting twice in 14 appearances.

This is in spite of the fact that Everton have been extremely accommodating to the midfielder, even doing their best to recreate the terrible club form that Swansea enjoyed over the last few seasons.

Sigurdsson arguably has a much better group of players around him than he had at Swansea, which should ideally have resulted in better yield for the midfielder. Everton's fortunes do seem to be improving though, with two wins and two clean sheets in their last two matches.

Sigurdsson has played a part in these two matches, with one goal and one assist, and the midfielder could be on his way to regaining the form that he has shown over the last two seasons.

#4 Tiemoue Bakayoko

Bakayoko has struggled when paired with Cesc Fabregas

AS Monaco suffered a mass exodus this summer with several of their stars making high-profile moves to the Premier League. One such move was Tiemoue Bakayoko's switch to Premier League champions Chelsea for a fee of £40 million.

The midfielder's combative style of defending was instrumental in AS Monaco's title-winning campaign of the last season but he has struggled to reproduce the same level of performance for the Blues this season.

Bakayoko first featured for Chelsea in an impressive win against Tottenham back in August, and he managed to put in good shifts in the next few matches. His rapid progress as a Chelsea player was completely undone by an injury to the industrious N'Golo Kante, with the diminutive French defensive midfielder tweaking his hamstring.

In the absence of Kante and his defensive abilities, Bakayoko was found out on several occasions as Chelsea suffered defeats against Crystal Palace and AS Roma.

Since then, Conte has favoured Danny Drinkwater in midfield, with Bakayoko starting only one of the last four matches. Chelsea is currently enjoying a good run of form in the league, but the London club will be playing a large number of matches in the upcoming months, and Bakayoko could still fight his way back into a first-team role.

#3 Dele Alli

Dele Alli was on the radar of clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid in the summer

Dele Alli's rapid ascension in the footballing world has been quite astounding to watch, and the youngster has established himself as one of the best attacking midfielders in England. He has also nailed down a first-team place in an exciting Tottenham team that has come close to winning the title twice, scoring 32 goals in his first two seasons.

Alli attracted interest from clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid in the summer, and it seemed like there was nowhere to go but up for the youngster.

Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse in the last few months for Dele Alli and Tottenham. Alli has struggled to impose himself on opposition defenders in Tottenham's last few games, getting a paltry return of 3 goals and 2 assists in 14 games for Spurs.

Tottenham currently sit in 6th place in the Premier League, 18 points adrift of league leaders Manchester City.

Spurs will need Alli to return to his best if they hope to go on a successful run and catch up to Manchester City. Alli definitely has it in his locker, and his performance against Real Madrid proved that the 21-year-old is capable of being entirely unplayable on his day.

#2 Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Mkhitaryan has struggled to even make the bench in recent games

Prior to joining Manchester United, Henrikh Mkhitaryan was a formidable goal threat for Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund, scoring an impressive 85 goals in 6 seasons.

However, the attacking spark provided by the Armenian winger has petered out considerably since he joined Manchester United and a mixture of injuries and a lack of playing time have meant that he has not been at his best for the Red Devils.

The Armenian midfielder began the season in impressive form, with five assists in his first three games. Since then his form has dipped considerably, and he has been forced out of the first-team by manager Jose Mourinho. Mkhitaryan's form is currently so bad that he has failed to even make the bench in the last two games in the Premier League.

United are currently the closest club to Manchester City in the table and trail the league leaders by 8 points. Should they win the Manchester derby on Sunday, they could close the gap to 5 points and put some serious pressure on their local rivals.

They will need their attacking players to step up and Mkhitaryan may get a chance to prove his critics wrong.

#1 Alexis Sanchez

Sanchez appears to be on his way out of Arsneal, with his contract expiring in the summer

Alexis Sanchez's stint at Arsenal has appeared to follow the same plot as a Liam Neeson film at times, with the Chilean winger constantly fighting against all odds in his heroic quest for trophies and titles.

Often, Sanchez has fought alone, working tirelessly to inspire a stale and toothless Arsenal side to victory on evenings when it looked like they would rather be anywhere else in the world.

In the 2016/17 season, Arsenal finished in fifth place, scoring a total of 77 goals. Alexis scored 24 of those goals and provided 10 assists, which means that he had a role to play in 44% of Arsenal's total goal tally. However, with only 4 goals in 12 appearances, it feels like he has lost his edge this season, and that he is content to wait out the rest of his contract in mediocrity.

Arsenal have also struggled as a unit, losing three key fixtures against Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool. The Gunners currently sit 15 points behind Manchester City in 5th place and need Alexis Sanchez to regain his goalscoring prowess if they have a chance in the league.

The Chilean may be on his way out of the club soon, and perhaps he will perform at greener pastures than the ones available to him at the Emirates.