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Left chasing second places

January 17 - 24, 2018
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Gulf Weekly Left chasing second places

There’s an old joke about (enter the name of any team you don’t like) holding their end-of-season awards dinner – in January. However, throughout Europe’s top leagues this is almost the case.

The main talking point last weekend was the thrilling 4-3 victory Liverpool secured over runaway leaders Manchester City, becoming the first team this season to overcome Pep Guardiola’s rejuvenated side. 

Yet despite Jurgen Klopp’s charges, fresh with the cash generated from the sale of Coutinho, thoroughly deserving the three points, it is not expected to make a difference in the title challenge.

What it has done is tighten the group of challengers behind them, all fighting to ensure a place in the Champions League next season.

Before Manchester United’s game against Stoke, three teams were level on 47 points with Tottenham Hotspur only one win behind. Arsenal appear to be in disarray following defeats to Championship side Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup and in the league against Bournemouth, five points adrift of their archrivals.

Yet the Premier league is not alone in seeing a single team lead the charge and effectively render the competition for top-spot obsolete.

While certain individual teams have the wealth to cherry-pick the world’s best talent, the English Premier League can still sustain spending from top to bottom. In other countries the headline-grabbing acquisitions are monopolised by one or two teams.

La Liga in Spain is a classic example, with Barcelona and Real Madrid predominantly occupying the top two positions, although Atletico Madrid occasionally upset the apple cart.

Despite going two goals down to Real Sociedad, Barca flexed their muscles and hit four without reply to extend their lead at the top to nine points, without their latest import, the $150m man, Coutinho.

Defending champions, Real Madrid, are languishing in fourth position a stunning 19 points behind the leaders. That would normally be sufficient to see their manager lose his job although Zidane has achieved too much glory for Los Blancos for that to be an easy decision to make.

It is Atletico and Valencia that represent the filling in the sandwich between the two traditional giants and it currently looks to be those teams that will finish second and third. In Spain four will qualify for the Champions League and so Real will be looking over their shoulders at Villareal who are snapping at their heels.

German football appears to be making most of its headlines as a result of which players (or not) are making their way to England and when. 

The main protagonist in this regard, RB Leipzig, helped create a greater gap at the top of the Bundesliga as a result of a 3-1 home victory over the side previously placed in second, Schalke.  It was the Liverpool-bound Keita who opened the scoring that saw Germany’s most-hated team leapfrog into second and help Bayern Munich extend their lead at the top of the division to 13 points.

The runaway leaders picked up in 2018 where they left off in 2017. Javi Martinez gave the visitors lead at halftime by tapping in a deflected ball from a corner while Franck Ribery, who missed six league games in the first half of the season, scored his first Bundesliga goal after the winter break.

All is not rosy at Dortmund who missed the chance to go second after wasting numerous opportunities to score although the main talking point was the suspension of star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for failing to attend a team meeting. Expect this to precipitate a departure from the club.

The French league has been disparaged for lacking quality in recent seasons yet with the huge inward flow of cash and corresponding improvement in results in European competition it is starting to show signs of producing excellence and competition.

This is one league that has traditionally produced a runaway winner and while that is true again this season, behind Paris St Germain (PSG) three teams are vying for the place immediately behind them.

While I should stress that there have been no allegations of professional bias, PSG appeared to receive a helping hand (or kick, rather) from the referee in securing their victory last weekend.

Angel Di Maria had opened the scoring for the Parisian giants before a remarkable incident just before the end of the game. Nantes player, Diego Carlos, appeared to accidentally collide with the referee, Tony Chapron, who fell to the ground and then appeared to swing his right boot at the player. To compound the situation Chapron then showed the red card to Carlos!

However, the brutal spending of PSG has again resulted in Ligue 1 being a battle for second place.

Second-placed Monaco are now 11 points adrift after only being able to secure a goalless draw at Montpellier. Despite that, and the clamour for position around them, their performances this season have been remarkable given the number of players they sold in the summer. Of the chasing pack they are the only side not still involved in European competition and so should have the most energy to sustain a challenge.

Owner Dmitry Rybolovlev’s financial difficulties have been well documented and despite securing a world record fee for centre forward Kylian Mbappe there are still rumours circulating around existing players who will find themselves on the move.

That they are still in prime position for a return to the elite competition of Europe is largely due to the goals of the evergreen Radamel Falcao.

Third placed Lyon, level on points with Monaco, also sold heavily in the summer but have reinvested in youth in addition to providing opportunities to players graduating from their academy, widely considered to be one of the best in Europe.

Conversely, Marseille’s project under the former owner of the LA Dodgers, Frank McCourt, appears to be to find value in forgotten senior players and to revitalise them. This is particularly evident in Luiz Gustavo, with the Brazilian adding dynamism to midfield. 

Arguably the next most competitive league in Europe is the second tier English Championship in which Wolverhampton Wanderers are belying their name and marching to glory.

The one league across Europe’s leading football nations to buck the trend of runaway leaders is Serie A in Italy where there are two sides battling for glory. The gap between Napoli and Juventus is now eight points to the third-placed team, Inter Milan.

Last season Juventus became the first team to secure six successive Italian championships. However, this season they trail Napoli by two points and also have more viable European aspirations, which may distract them domestically.

Yet football, as with all sports, can be unpredictable and so, surely, one of the frontrunners will slip up. Which do you think is most likely?







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