As always there is never a dull moment
in any given year's premier league season. If you ever thought
otherwise you just need to switch on the news and see Jose Mourinho
moaning about how the Manchester City team celebrated far too
enthusiastically following their recent narrow win, in the Manchester
derby at Old Trafford. The 'handbags at dawn' style dressing room
bustup involved someone throwing milk at the Manchester United manager, and Manchester City
coach Mikel Arteta ending up with a cut to the head. I'd have loved to
have been a fly on that wall!
It's hard to fault City for celebrating
though, as this win (their 14th in a row and a new premier
league record) has seen them edge ever closer to securing the league
title, even though we're not yet half way through the season. All of
the football predictions markets have them as a heavy favourite for the title already (
1/20 with most bookmakers!) . It's hard to argue with that assessment to be honest
considering they now have a very healthy 11 point lead over their
nearest rival at 18-1 to win the league, Manchester United (yes, the
team they just beat). The upcoming Tottenham game aside, they have
some fairly easy fixtures in the pipeline too, so that should bode
well for them.
From the heady heights or pole
position, we head towards the bottom end of the table. The drama
there has very much revolved around Crystal Palace. To say that they've got
off to a bad start this season would be something of an
understatement. They too have achieved a record in the Premier League
this year, sadly their record involved not scoring a single goal for the
longest period of time in the league's history, a staggering 731 goals. That's over two
months of premier league games.
They've been on a bit of a better run
of late though, with a few draws and a win or two to their name. They had a
real chance to put three points on the board in their recent game
against Bournemouth but missed a late penalty. However, they stayed focused and managed to win their
latest game against Watford and so are 'finally' out of the
relegation zone. It's very bunched up at the bottom of the table right now,
with Swansea currently at the foot of the table on 12 points and odds-on to be
relegated, with some tricky fixtures ahead.
Stay tuned for another season update in
due course!