An interesting sub-plot has already developed within the Premier League this season – the race for third place. Even at this relatively early stage in the campaign, it looks like being a two-horsed race for the title between the two clubs from Manchester, but as to who will finish third, the final results are less than clear with as many as five clubs in the mix at this stage. So who will come out on top?
Newcastle are the current occupiers of the Champions League spot with 22 points from their opening ten fixtures. Alongside Man City, they remain the only unbeaten team in the top flight. The Magpies unexpected run of form has seen them garner the best defensive record in the league with four clean sheets and just seven goals conceded – far flung from the days of comical defending around St James’s Park.
Theirs is a tale of a relatively small squad when compared to their rivals, performing to the maximum of their capabilities, built largely upon the platform of their quite frankly brilliant central midfield duo Cheikh Tiote and Yohan Cabaye, backed up by the likes of Demba Ba up top and Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini at the back.
However, they look to have been dealt a fairly kind run of fixtures to kick off their campaign with. Home fixtures against Arsenal and Spurs aside, they’ve had a fairly comfortable run. It’s extremely doubtful whether they can continue this rich vein of form throughout the campaign, but they certainly still retain the hope of a European spot. Their next four games are Everton (H), Man City (A), Man Utd (A) and Chelsea (H) and it’ll be easier to gauge a fairer reflection of what to expect after this set of fixtures.
Spurs, currently in fifth place with a game in hand, look to be a side starting to hit their stride after the key acquisitions of Emmanuel Adebayor and Scott Parker around deadline day. They started the season with back-to-back horror shows in the league against both Man Utd and Man City, conceding eight goals in the process, with the hangover of the Luka Modric transfer saga and a lengthy injury list hanging heavily over the club.
Since then, though, they are unbeaten in seven with six victories, including a 4-0 hammering of Liverpool at White Hart Lane and a 2-1 Derby victory over Arsenal. They also have the added advantage of not being in the Champions League this season, which may go some way to hindering rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.
The lack of seriousness and degree of disdain with which Harry Redknapp treats the Europa League has been well documented in the past and could prove crucial in keeping his first eleven fresh throughout the season. They appear to have a fairly straightforward run up until the team’s home tie against Chelsea on December 22nd. Should they avoid any slip-ups in the meantime and manage to get a positive result against Andre Villas-Boas’s side, then they could well be favourites for the spot.
Chelsea have had a terrible week with Andre Villas-Boas coming under pressure for the first time during his short stay at the club so far. With a porous defence, discipline problems within the ranks and an apparent propensity to fail against any testing opposition put in front of them, they resemble a shadow of the side that won the title just two season’s ago.
The job on Villas-Boas’s hands is a huge one. Boardroom pressure, coupled with the need to refresh an ageing and thinning squad only serve to show how unenviable the task the young manager faces ahead of him. Poor results against Liverpool, Man City and Spurs between now and the new year could prove disastrous. While the naysayers are beginning to circle, Villa-Boas needs to be allowed the sufficient time to address the underlining issues with his squad.
For the first time in a long while, there appears to be a genuine worry about whether Chelsea will qualify for the Champions League this season. To my knowledge at least, that would appear to be a tad premature in its outlook.