October was another excellent month of Premier League action.
Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea remain unbeaten as the top 3 while
Arsenal continued their brilliant run and have charged into the top 4. Whereas,
Newcastle and Huddersfield remain winless and are firmly the bottom 2 but are
joined in the relegation zone by Fulham who are on a torrid run. October brought
us quality football and excellent goals and no doubt November will continue in
the same vain.
Manchester City,
Liverpool and Chelsea are separated by just 2 points at the top of the table.
Both City and Liverpool are locked on 26 points from their first 10 games and
of course share a goalless draw this month. Guardiola’s men have enjoyed October
drawing at Anfield and beating both Burnley and Tottenham. Riyad Mahrez is beginning
to payback his £60 million transfer fee with a series of excellent displays
despite his dreadful penalty at Liverpool. Guardiola’s men are also proving
difficult to score against with City conceding just 3 goals in 10 games
collecting 7 clean sheets. Despite their vibrant attacking style, Guardiola has
found a back 4 he is satisfied with. Aymeric Laporte and John Stones are
forming an excellent partnership while full backs Kyle Walker and Benjamin
Mendy remain strong attacking forces and solid defenders when necessary.
Meanwhile, Liverpool are also
proving difficult to score against with Klopp’s men conceding just 4 goals
themselves. However, despite their encouraging run of results in October,
performances haven’t been the usual rock and roll Liverpool. Just about seeing
off strugglers Cardiff and Huddersfield have seen the first struggles we’ve
witnessed from the Reds this season. Despite that, Liverpool are looking very
good indeed by remain behind City on goal difference. Chelsea
are two points further back but remain unbeaten and have been excellent under
Maurizio Sarri so far this season. Sarri is yet to lose in any competition as
Chelsea manager and is the first Chelsea manager to go unbeaten in their first 10
league games. Sarri has unlocked Eden Hazard once again with the Belgian
flourishing in Sarri’s style of play. However, others like Willian, Jorginho,
Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta are also enjoying their seasons. However,
Sarri has managed to get the best out of Ross Barkley who has dazzled
throughout October notching 3 league goals and was the beating heart of their
recent win at Burnley. Sarri has found Barkley a position in the side and is
flourishing and this can only be brilliant news for Gareth Southgate and
England.
Sides having excellent October’s included Arsenal, Brighton and Man Utd. The Gunners
are flying under Unai Emery unbeaten since their defeat to Chelsea winning 7 of
the next 8 league games with that winning sequence only ended by Crystal Palace
in their last league game. Emery has got a tune out of the likes of
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and in particular
Alex Iwobi who has taken his game to a new level in recent weeks. Arsenal are
turning into a second half side with all 7 league wins secured after being
level at half time. Emery is certainly getting his ideas across, but the same
defensive vulnerabilities remain with the Gunners still conceding petulant, unnecessary
goals. Despite these frailties, Arsenal are playing some magical football at
times highlighted with the quality of their goals against Fulham and Leicester.
Arsenal are outside title contenders but need to beat their big rivals to
really be considered contenders and they kick off November at home to Liverpool.
Jose Mourinho and Man Utd enjoyed a much better October in terms of performances and
results. Mourinho’s men seem to have clicked after their brilliant comeback victory
over Newcastle and results against Chelsea and Everton have followed. Anthony
Martial is enjoying himself right now after stunning displays against Chelsea
and Everton. No doubt Mourinho will hope his form continues going into November.
While United remain way off the pace overall, it has been a much-improved month
for the club. However, one side completely on cloud 9 is Brighton after a perfect October winning all 3 games without
conceding. Chris Hughton’s side have three in a row for the first time since
their promotion back in 2017. Victories over West Ham, Newcastle and Wolves have
soared the seagulls into 11th place. Glenn Murray continues to
deliver for Brighton and has enjoyed another wonderful month notching the
winner in games against West Ham and Wolves and in the process reached 100 goals
for the club. Chris Hughton will hope their terrific form continues going into November
starting against inconsistent Everton.
However, Fulham,
Newcastle and Huddersfield have endured miserable October’s with all 3
sides struggling with the latter 2 still winless this season. Fulham are enduring a miserable run of
form winless in their last 7 overall losing their last 4 in a row including all
their October matches. The pressure is mounting on Slavisa Jokanovic having
spent £100 million on players and the results are not coming. Fulham have
conceded 28 goals in their 10 league games and you cannot win football matches
with a ratio that horrendous. Goals are drying up too with Aleksandar Mitrovic
misfiring and the rest of the side not taking opportunities when created.
Defending is a major issue for Fulham with Jokanovic rotating his defence and goalkeeper
on a regular basis meaning a lack of stability and development of relationships
between the defence. However, another issue for Jokanovic is his reluctance to
change Fulham’s style of play because they are not in the Championship anymore
and standard of teams are far better than the Championship. The pressure is
mounting on Jokanovic and boos in the recent heavy defeat to Bournemouth have
further intensified the pressure on the Serb’s shoulders. The axe could fall on
him if things don’t improve starting with a crucial six-pointer against Huddersfield.
Speaking of Huddersfield their
season hasn’t been much better than Fulham’s with the Terriers collecting just
1 point in October and a poultry 3 overall leaving them rooted to the bottom of
the table. 5 defeats in their last 6 and a severe goal shortage has left
Huddersfield low on moral and confidence despite some encouraging performances in
particular against Liverpool. While David Wagner’s position is relative safe as
Huddersfield manager due to his magnificent efforts, the club must find a win
and goals from somewhere and fast otherwise relegation will almost become
inevitable for the club this season. Newcastle
are also struggling for results and confidence with the Magpies stuck on a poultry
3 points losing 7 of their 10 league games including all 5 of their home games.
All seems unhappy in the North East with the fans unhappy with performances and
Mike Ashley while Rafa Benitez looks increasingly frustrated and unhappy with
the performances and the squad overall. The pressure is beginning to increase
on Benitez with Ashley becoming more prominent at Newcastle’s matches this
season with the unpopular owner being at Newcastle’s recent games against Brighton
and Southampton. There has been speculation that Benitez could face the sack
with former Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim being linked with the job. While the
fans are happy with Benitez, results and performances must drastically improve otherwise
Newcastle could be staring at the Championship.
Other sides enduring winless months include Crystal Palace,
Southampton, Leicester, Burnley and West Ham. All 5 of these sides sit in the bottom
half of the table struggling for form and momentum. Palace, Southampton and
Burnley lack goals while Leicester and West Ham are inconsistent with their
performances highlighted with the recent draw between the two sides. However, football has become insignificant
with the recent helicopter crash after Leicester’s match with West Ham which
saw 5 people killed including Leicester chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. I speak
about football in this blog, but football becomes insignificant when incidents
like this happen. It is a sad time for the whole city of Leicester and the
outer footballing family. Srivaddhanaprabha has done wonderful things for the
city of Leicester and its football club including the brilliant title win of
2016 as well as donating millions of pounds into hospitals and universities to improve
the city. He will be remembered fondly, and no doubt Leicester will want to
play the season as Srivaddhanaprabha would off wanted. He leaves a fantastic
legacy at the football club and hopefully he can rest in peace. As said by many
people and football fans ‘Every person should always come home after a football
match’. RIP Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
October brought us brilliant football and quality goals, but
the tragic events certainly overshadow the football as life is far more
important. But life must go on and November will no doubt bring us quality football
and some excellent football matches including Arsenal vs Liverpool, Huddersfield vs Fulham, the first Manchester
derby of the season between City and United, Chelsea vs Everton and Tottenham
vs Chelsea to crown off November. October gives an idea into where seasons
could go, but November sees the season really click into gear and no doubt the
manager pressure will increase with the axe yet to fall in the Premier League but
with many feeling the heat, which club will be first to crack? Only time will
tell.
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