Every year, the prospect of someone winning a Quadruple gets shoved down our throats. Very, very rarely does any team actually go on to achieve it.

And if you’d had to predict one Premier League team to fight on four fronts this season, it would probably have been Arsenal. But Quadruple-hunting teams don’t get knocked out of cups by Fleetwood Town. Oops.

So, are we safe from Quadruple-peddling for another year? Don’t get too carried away.

There are still some candidates remaining to complete an unlikely four-trophy haul this season, so we’ve ranked them by their likelihood of going all the way – or at least keeping the narrative alive for as long as possible.

1. Liverpool
As far as aiming for a Quadruple goes, Liverpool certainly had a good go of it in the 2021-22 season, winning the FA Cup and EFL Cup and being the runners-up in the Premier League and Champions League.

In all four competitions, they took it to the very last game while still being in with a chance, only for their success rate to end up at 50-50. Close, but no cigar.

In reality, it was the beginning of the end for their prime Jurgen Klopp years. They would never finish as high in the league again under their beloved German manager.

Now, after the highs and lows of their two years under Arne Slot, Liverpool are waiting to see the fruits of their new project with Andoni Iraola at the helm.

It will take time to determine how high their ambitions can be under the former Bournemouth coach, who has never managed a club with the expectations of winning a trophy per season, let alone four.

But he’s made a comfortable enough start to life in the Anfield dugout. Eight games in, despite a lukewarm start, Liverpool have lost just once in the Premier League this season. Granted, they were miles off it when they did, but it was a weird one anyway.

Alexander Isak is starting to get among the goals again and they have every right to be looking up from their current vantage point of fourth place.

Elsewhere, three wins from three in the Champions League suggest they’ll be just fine for knockout-stage qualification, while they’ve overcome two fellow big-sixers in the Carabao Cup to set up a quarter-final against Iraola’s former employers, Bournemouth.

Whether they have enough in the tank to go all the way in any of these competitions will depend on a few things, like whether Florian Wirtz can get his act together on a consistent basis, and when and in what state Hugo Ekitike can return from injury.

But of course they’re going to be in the conversation for as long as they can keep pace.

2. Manchester City
The only other remaining candidates for the preferred Premier League, FA Cup, EFL Cup and Champions League combination are Manchester City, who of course are an extremely easy club to assess at the moment in light of everything.

On the pitch, it’s been a fine start to the Enzo Maresca era. City are top of the Premier League with seven wins from eight and only have to get past Bradford City to book their place in the EFL Cup semis.

While Fleetwood’s elimination of Arsenal is a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted, you’d suspect Maresca’s side should be getting through that one.

Their only blemish in the Champions League so far was against back-to-back defending champions PSG, who blitzed them in the first half. No massive shame in that – City will be there or thereabouts come the knockouts.

They feel like the world’s against them at the moment, but barring the odd mishap, they’re using that to fuel their efforts on the pitch. By hook or by crook, they’ve assembled a brilliant team. Even the excessively priced Elliot Anderson looks like he might be up to the task of succeeding at the Etihad after all.

During their Pep Guardiola heyday, City were often talked up as Quadruple contenders. At this rate, Maresca might be steering them into the same kind of conversations.

There’s absolutely a world in which they can win all four trophies this season. And also one where they then immediately get them all taken away. Who knows anymore?

3. Arsenal
Now wait a minute. Wasn’t the whole premise here that Arsenal are out of the running for a Quadruple?

In the traditional sense, yes. But with the Community Shield already in their back pockets from the summer, would Arsenal class it as a Quadruple if they went on to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League from here? You bet they would.

We’ve seen it with City’s domestic Quadruple in 2018-19, following up their Community Shield win with the Premier League title and both national cups. Elimination in the Champions League quarter-finals didn’t matter.

Before he became a Premier League winner, Mikel Arteta was keen to point out any successes in the Community Shield should be counted in his honours collection as well.

There was a time when he was trophy shy as a manager and so you could understand him bigging up those relatively easier-fought achievements. Would he feel the same way now he’s got his hands on a bigger prize? We wouldn’t like to say no.

And so we have absolutely not heard the end of it when it comes to Arsenal and a Quadruple. They’re level on points with City in the Premier League and will naturally be seeing the Champions League as the place they have to go one step further in after being runners up last season.

On many fronts, they are still the team to beat and are genuine contenders to end the season with four trophies. Just not quite those four exact trophies.

4. Bournemouth
And so we descend into the less realistic half of could-be Quadruplists. But, as we’ve established, when has it ever been realistic anyway?

Bournemouth are enjoying their first ever European campaign this season after Iraola led them into the Europa League. And when we say enjoying it, boy do we mean enjoying it.

Iraola’s successor, Marco Rose, has overseen wins over Real Sociedad, Sturm Graz and even the once-great, now not-so-great, but still them AC Milan in the Europa League so far.

Premier League sides have done well in the Thursday night tournaments in recent years, so why can’t a well-run club like Bournemouth dream?

Then, in the EFL Cup, they now stand in the way of Iraola’s Liverpool for a place in the semi-finals.

OK, time to come back down to earth. They don’t need to go all the way in the Europa League for it to have been a successful adventure. They are the underdogs in the cup. And we’ve not even mentioned their Premier League form, which was a bit dodgy until recently.

Rose failed to win any of his first six league games in charge, but Bournemouth have since turned things around by beating Sunderland and a chaos-era Manchester United.

Still, long story short, they’re not winning the league. We can stop there.

5. Sunderland
Speaking of dodgy Premier League form, Sunderland are currently propping up the table with just one win from their first eight.

We don’t need to dwell on this one for much longer. Have fun in the Europa League and all that, but it’s survival mode right now for Regis Le Bris.

6. Crystal Palace
And it’s absolutely survival mode right now for Pierre Sage, who doesn’t have Le Bris’ credit in the bank.

Palace and Sunderland will meet in the EFL Cup quarter-finals in December, by which point they’ll be three-quarters of the way through their Europa League league phase schedules.

But those are merely pleasant distractions for two teams in desperate search of more stability in the top flight.