Almost everyone would agree that Man United and Chelsea started the campaign badly, and so far United is slightly better than Chelsea. I think the performance of these two clubs will improve in the second half of the season, but I am not sure that The Red Devils and The Blues can finish in the Champions League zone. Factors involving player injuries and the slow adaptation process have meant that Ten Hag and Pochettino's squad has not consistently won. I think Liverpool is more promising than Arsenal, after seeing their performance in the past six weeks.
On the other hand, Man City is a club that is unbeaten in the EPL this season, but surprisingly Newcastle was able to beat Pep Guardiola squad in the Carabao Cup. Maybe this is because Pep is playing his second squad and saving key players, for the next matches in the EPL and UCL.
Both clubs are having many similarities with things are surely not suitable for the top spots because they are already lost their chance but as mentioned they have chance into second half of the season which can bring good success for them because players chemistry need time and coaches are also having time for bringing suitable changes currently Manchester United is doing good job as they already won their two last matches with more wins are expected because they are going to face teams which they can handle and this could be surely good booster for them in future.
Most chances they will be not able to have chance into top four because we already have few teams which are widening gape of points which is surely not easy to do narrow because of performance and quality difference Newcastle United is also improving after having few bad results in last few games.