Manchester big guns square up
The EPL top six are in a class of their own this season and TAB soccer customers can stand by for a mega clash between City and United on Sunday.
The English Premier League’s marketing assertion that it is a league in which “anyone can beat anyone” is proving untrue and, if it was not apparent before, it is now abundantly clear that it is a six-team race.
In the first 40 matches this season between the “big six” - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, champions Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur - and the rest, the big guns have lost just three, drawn three and won the other 34.
It means matches between the front-runners carry much more importance and there’s a heavyweight clash in Manchester this weekend, when log-leaders Manchester City host their neighbours at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. Were it not for the early-season troubles of United, who are responsible for one of the draws and two of the defeats of the big guns, the gulf between the best and the rest would be even wider.
Their 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers is the only time to date that a big-six club has dropped so much as a point at home to a team outside the elite.After nine rounds of matches, just under a quarter of the season, City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham were averaging upwards of 2.33 points per game. That is unprecedented at that stage of a campaign in the EPL.
Even when United are brought back into the equation, it is 2.28 points per game.
Over the previous six seasons, in which those six teams have usually been a class above the rest, the equivalent figures ranged from a low of 1.8 (2015-16) to a high of 2.07 (2016-17).
It is a function of resources and top-quality coaching, and means that the results between the top six are crucial in the title chase. If United are to bounce back into contention, they need to win at their neighbours, as they did in that 3-2 come-from-behind thriller in April.
But by then City had wrapped up the title and with so much at stake this Sunday, a repeat would seem somewhat unlikely, especially after the manner in which they put Southampton to the sword on Sunday.