Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
It’s time for another guest article now as Chelsea fan and owner of the great website Socabol George (who you can follow on Twitter here) gives us his views as to whether or not there is still a title race to be run or whether or not the trophy is already heading to Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. So without further ado, it’s over to you George
As a Chelsea fan I couldn’t be happier with the progress we’ve made this season. After last season’s shambles which saw Chelsea finish tenth – their worst finish in over 20 years – it’s been a huge relief to see that they’ve recovered completely, and through the guidance of Conte, the Blues may well be on their way to 6th Premier League title.
The question at hand, though, is whether or not Chelsea can be caught. To understand this, we need to first analyse their fellow title challengers.
As the season began there were six title challengers (not including Leicester, who didn’t really stand a chance of retaining their league title). Currently, though, two of those title challengers seem near enough dead and buried. The first of those two sides is Arsenal, who have been awful in recent weeks. After a decent enough start to the season, they’ve gone on a really bad run – losing to both Chelsea and Watford in recent league fixtures. Arsenal are 10 points adrift of Chelsea with 13 games remaining, so it’s possible for the gap to be closed – but taking into account the quality of recent performances, I seriously doubt they’re going to recover.
The other title challenger who has almost no hope of achieving their aim is Liverpool. The Reds have had a very peculiar season, which can largely be attributed to their manager and the rock-and-roll style of football that he’s brought to Anfield. One week they lose to Hull City, then the next they beat Tottenham. This lack of stability is a serious issue, and for that reason I don’t think they’ll catch Chelsea.
Spurs and Manchester United are two sides who I haven’t quite made my mind up about yet. Spurs have been outstanding this season and near faultless. In fact, their one and only fault, which I believe is the reason why they’re not in first place, is their unhealthy obsession with drawing games. At the start of the season they went on a run of drawing multiple games back to back, and that’s made a huge difference to Pochettino’s side.
That being said, they’re only 10 points adrift, and unlike Arsenal I think they have the quality to recover (so long as they’re helped by a couple of Chelsea slip-ups). As for Manchester United, I’m not going to spend too much time on them. All I will say is that you can never count out a team with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and David De Gea, managed by Jose Mourinho – even if they are currently 6th in the league.
Finally we have Manchester City. They were tipped by many to win the league this year, but so far they’ve really underperformed. With a squad including stars like Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure they should really be significant distance clear at the top of the league.
But they’ve lacked a bit of character and fight this season, and have crumbled against both the big teams and some of the smaller teams. Pep Guardiola’s first season in the Premier League hasn’t been as easy as we all thought it would be – but, in fairness, City are only 8 points adrift of Chelsea and there’s more than enough time to catch them.
In reality, I don’t think Chelsea can be caught. But as an overly cautious Chelsea fan, I don’t think it’s impossible for us to be caught by Manchester City, Spurs or even Manchester United – however, in my opinion Liverpool and Arsenal are out of the title race for good. But surely the title must be ours to lose, it’s going to take some collapse for Antonio Conte not to win the Premier League in his debut season, we will find out come May.
Thanks George and I look forward to your next installment
If you would like to give a view from your club on a weekly basis then please get in touch – you can email me at – realfootballmanwordpress@gmail.com
