Premier League exciting championship race

Aston Villa also entered the top 4

Rarely has the Premier League had such a wide open race as this season. The maximum gap between the top 4 teams is only 2 points, meaning that in theory, with just one early match and a win, the 4th team will jump to the top of the table. Leading not long ago, Tottenham has now dropped to 5th place, after 3 consecutive losses. But if they just beat Man.City directly in the next round, the 5th team Tottenham will catch up with the 2nd team right now.

Ngoại hạng Anh hấp dẫn cuộc đua vô địch - Ảnh 1. — Aston Villa (14) surprisingly entered the top 4

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery commented: there are at least 7 teams stronger than Villa this season, which are Man.City, MU, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle. It sounds reasonable, but right after that statement, Villa won at Tottenham and jumped into the top 4. More than half of the "7 teams stronger than Villa" are now behind them. After 13 rounds, Villa are tied on points with Liverpool; only 1 point behind defending champion Man.City; and 2 points behind the top team Arsenal.

Last season, Arsenal led for 30 rounds, but they were eventually overtaken by Man.City after round 34 and have not been able to rise since. Before Arsenal, only Liverpool was strong enough to compete with Man.City - the team that has won the Premier League 5 times in the last 6 seasons (in the season without the championship, Man.City finished second, behind Liverpool). Now, at least Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool are competing with the defending champions, while Newcastle, MU, Chelsea, Aston Villa can all compete for the top 4 (or top 5). This situation makes the tournament much more attractive than it has been in the past half decade.

"Achilles heel" of the strong

The reason why the Premier League has suddenly become so evenly matched is not because everyone has gotten stronger. On the contrary, every team has its “problems”, so no one is able to maintain maximum strength for a long period of time.

Villa, for example. They are the brightest "dark horse" at the moment, but Villa started the season with a 1-5 defeat at Newcastle. Man.City lost to Wolverhampton. And although they have led the table the most (in 5 of the last 13 rounds), coach Pep Guardiola's team is the only team in the top 4 to have lost 2 consecutive matches in the Premier League this season. Arsenal are leading the table, but they have never won more than 2 consecutive matches - something all 8 teams in the top 9 have done. Having so many teams capable of competing for the top spot also means there are no clear candidates for the championship. Everything seems to be "moving forward" after 13 rounds. No team has failed so clearly, and no manager has been fired after 13 rounds!

Having won 5 out of the last 6 matches, MU is the number 1 team in terms of form right now. However, that form is only enough to help MU move up to the number 6 position in the rankings. Before the match against Everton last weekend (won 3-0, with a superb opening goal by Alejandro Garnacho), even MU's "die-hard fans" had a hard time pointing out: which was the convincing victory of this team. The wins were all by 1 goal. In 2 out of the last 5 wins, MU scored the decisive goal in extra time. Even both goals that brought about the comeback victory against Fulham (2-1) were scored in extra time, by a midfielder who had just entered the field for a few minutes (Scott McTominay).

Arsenal's problem is that neither goalkeeper David Raya nor Aaron Ramsdale have been convincing enough to take the No. 1 spot. Liverpool need to cut down on defensive errors, while Tottenham and Aston Villa both need to be more defensive (both teams are very attacking). Tottenham's other weakness is that they have been weakened since James Maddison's injury.

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