What a title race we have this season. After 13 round of Premier League football, we officially have the most open and tightest title race we’ve seen in the Premier League in a good half decade or more.
This is the type of title race you can only dream of.
After years of having just one horse or two horse title races, the Premier League has finally gotten back to its roots with multi-horse title races as there are AT LEAST 6 teams capable of winning the title this season. And, to be honest, I really can’t say which team is going to win.
Alright, I know I can’t be the only who is super excited to see so many teams competing at the highest level of the Premier League and capable of winning the title this season. Speaking as a Manchester United fan and hopefully for the other 18 teams in the league besides Man City, I can safely say that watching the overwhelming dominance of Man City come crumbling down this year has been a joyous sight for my (and I’m sure all of you guys’) sore eyes.
Obviously, I’m not saying that Man City are bad by any means as that would be patently false with them currently sitting 2nd in the league on 29 points, but at least this year they are just as much in the hunt as the rest of their competitors. I mean, just go back and watch their matchup against Liverpool this morning if you don’t believe me.
Despite playing at home at the Etihad in front of their 53,ooo fans, having 61% possession of the ball, double the shots Liverpool had (16 vs. 8), over double the amount of passes (594 vs. 396), an EXTRMELY impressive 90% passing accuracy (they completed 534 passes against Liverpool!), AND scoring first and early through Erling Haaland’s record-setting strike (he is the fastest to 50 goals in Premier League history), City were unable to close out Liverpool as they would have had in the past and ended up conceding an 80th-minute equalizer at the boot of Trent Alexander-Arnold to draw 1-1.
But, what makes this loss even draw even worst for City is that they not only dropped two precious points, but they also allowed Liverpool to stay within just a single point of them on the same number of matches. Yes, Man City’s 29 points (2nd place) is only a single point better than Liverpool’s 28 points as they sit in 3rd place.
And, to make matter worse for both of these teams, they had to sit back and watch one of their other title rivals in Arsenal go into Brentford today, snatch an 89th minute winner by Kai Havertz, be the first team to reach 30 points, and go atop the Premier League table. See what I mean about this crazy title race?
Well, that’s not all as Newcastle, who utterly smashed the ever-collapsing Chelsea 4-1, jumped three places to get back within the Top-6 as they currently sit on 23 points. Sure, that’s a full two games behind Man City and Arsenal and they are the most far-fetched title challengers, but the team in 6th place being within even 7 points of the current title leaders is CRAZY for this time of the season.
Hell, just last year, 7th place Brighton (21 points) were 11 points behind Man City in 1st place (32 points) and 10 points behind Arsenal in 2nd (30 points), while Newcastle, who were in 3rd place this time last season, were a full 7 points behind Arsenal!
Nevertheless, I haven’t even mentioned the two most surprising title challengers in Tottenham (4th-26 points) and Aston Villa (5th-25 points) as both teams are currently within the Top-5 and have the ability to jump above 3rd place Liverpool if they win their, respective, matches tomorrow. Now, I don’t know if these two teams will be able to keep up this impressive challenge for another 13 games when we reach the 2/3rds mark of the year, but both Ange Postecoglou and Unai Emery have to be in the Manager of the Year conversation for how they have gotten Spurs and Villa, respectively, playing.
So, as I said, this really is such an insane title season, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out for the rest of the year!
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