Top Premier League conclusions after 12 games
Leicester City’s Northern Irish manager Brendan Rodgers (C) gestures from the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Leicester City and Arsenal at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on November 9. AFP PHOTO
Liverpool Stonewall Favourites: Nothing is ever settled in November. That’s the message Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will try to drum into his squad in order to manage fans’ expectations and avoid player complacency. All the same, there is no escaping the feeling that this is the year for the Kop to end a 30 year wait for England’s top flight league title. Liverpool’s nine point lead, propensity to snatch victories from the jaws of draws, and remarkable consistency that has seen them lose just once in 51 EPL outings, married with chief rivals Manchester City’s rotten luck with injuries - Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane are profoundly missed - point to Anfield glory come next May.
2- Manchester City remain the benchmark
Amidst the euphoria of Liverpool’s 3-1 triumph over champions Manchester City, it is easy to lose sight of how well the Citizens played in the Anfield pressure cooker. The final score is the only stat the 18-time champions topped. Other key stats like possession, corner count, chances created and shots on goal went to Pep Guardiola’s visitors. They may have lost but City demonstrated exactly how they accumulated 198 points over two seasons. Succinctly put, any team intending to win the Premier League must finish above City, not Liverpool.
3- Trolling Guardiola is foolhardy
Excitable Liverpool fans and overzealous neutrals are pointing to the EPL standings, superior head to head record and net spending as evidence Jurgen Klopp is streets ahead of Guardiola in management stakes. This is hot-headed baloney. You only have to look at Manchester United’s stagnation since 2013 to realise that heavy spending doesn’t automatically translate into trophies. Pep is not a cheque book manager as alleged by his detractors. Far from it - he is a football innovator of unrivalled ability. Only that now is the time for Klopp’s heavy metal football to reign.
4- Leicester City part of EPL Top 7
Ten years ago, Top Four was used to refer to Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea - the four sides with a realistic chance of lifting the EPL title. City’s emergence a 8-9 years ago and Tottenham Hotspurs’ hyper development under Mauricio Pochettino forced pundits to broaden this exclusive club to Top Six. Now, the swashbuckling football being played by Brendan Rodgers’ young Leicester City side means we must now refer to a Premier League Top
7. Under Rodgers’ tutelage, the Foxes are fast, intense, hungry and fearless.
And their manager has considerable financial backing. By season end they will have dislodged one of the traditional Top Six.
5- Norwich City going down
Norwich City must reform to adapt to the realities of Premier League football, or suffer the ignominy of a straight return to the Championship. Daniel Farke’s Canaries have stuck to the slick passing game that won them promotion from the Championship but it has failed to work a treat in the rough and tumble of Premier League football.
In addition to a mandatory foray into the transfer market (Emiliano Buendia and Teemu Pukki are the only players with any quality), the Canaries must learn how to defend. It is suicidal for fresh arrivals from the Championship to try to outduel division veterans in scoring shootouts week in, week out.
