Staying on winning trail can be par for course
Zim puts faith in PSL men for Cup
PREMIER League leaders Chelsea set a new club record at the weekend by registering an 11th consecutive league win within the same season for the first time.
Here are the longest winning streaks since England’s top-flight was relaunched as the Premier League in 1992:
The 2008-09 season was a tumultuous one for Chelsea, with Luiz Felipe Scolari sacked as manager in February after only seven months in charge.
But the team recovered form under interim manager Guus Hiddink and finished the season with a run of five successive wins. Scolari’s permanent successor, Carlo Ancelotti, picked up where Hiddink had left off, overseeing six straight wins at the start of a season that would end with a free-scoring Chelsea team crowned league champions and FA Cup winners.
The seeds for Chelsea’s current run of wins were sown during a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal in late September, when new manager Antonio Conte switched to his preferred 3-4-3 formation.
The west London club have since been unstoppable, notably beating Manchester United (4-0), Tottenham Hotspur (2-1) and Manchester City (3-1), moving seven points clear at the league summit.
Beginning with a 1-0 victory at Stoke City on Boxing Day, Alex Ferguson’s United went on a run of 11 consecutive wins that shot them to the top of the table. They kept clean sheets in the first nine games, won six matches 1-0 and only conceded two goals over the entire run. The sequence came to a juddering halt in a 4-1 home defeat by Liverpool, which was followed by a 2-0 loss at Fulham. But a subsequent burst of seven wins carried Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates to a third consecutive title.
Liverpool’s 24-year wait for the league title appeared destined to come to an end as a team spearheaded by Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge rattled off a series of thrilling victories in the English spring of 2014.
Their victims included Arsenal (5-1), Manchester United (3-0) and title rivals Manchester City (3-2). But Brendan Rodgers’s side were to come unstuck in a 2-0 home defeat against Chelsea, with Steven Gerrard’s unfortunate slip gifting Demba Ba a goal that opened the door for City to claim the title.
City lost their title to Chelsea the following season, but they finished that campaign like a train, winning their last six fixtures. Manuel Pellegrini’s men began the subsequent campaign in equally impressive fashion, winning their first five games without conceding a goal, but would ultimately finish fourth.
United roared to the finish line in the 1999-2000 title race, winning their final 11 games and ending the campaign with a record 18-point advantage over nearest rivals Arsenal.
They scored 37 goals in the process, including seven in a 7-1 demolition of West Ham United in which Paul Scholes claimed a hattrick. The following season began with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United and would once again end with United top of the pile.
Arsenal set a record for the most wins within a single Premier League season (13) and the most successive wins in the history of the English top-flight (14) as they romped to a second league and FA Cup double under Arsene Wenger. Fourth in the table in early February, Arsenal tore to the front with a run of 11 wins on the spin before securing the title with a 1-0 success at the home of title rivals Manchester United. They finished the season by beating Everton 4-3 at Highbury and opened their title defence with a 2-0 win over Birmingham City before drawing 2-2 at West Ham. — AFP ZIMBABWE coach Kalisto Pasuwa has named nine players from South Africa’s Premier Soccer League in his provisional 31-man squad for the African Nations Cup finals‚ but has ignored the talents of Kaizer Chiefs’ attacking duo Edmore Chirambadare and Michelle Katsvairo.
Almost all those selected from the PSL are expected to make the final cut down to 23‚ though it is likely that at least one of the forwards chosen will be discarded.
There was no space for the Kaizer Chiefs duo of Chirambadare and Katsvairo even on the provisional list though and they look unlikely to make the finals in Gabon that runs from January 14-February 5 barring a serious injury crisis among the forwards.
The list does include defenders Blessing Moyo (Maritzburg United) and Onismor Bhasera (SuperSport United)‚ midfielders Danny Phiri and Kudakwashe Mahachi (both Lamontville Golden Arr Willard Katsande (Kaizer Chiefs)‚ forwards Khama Billiat (Mamelodi Sundowns)‚ Cuthbert Malajila (Bidvest Wits)‚ Evans Rusike (Maritzburg United) and Tendai Ndoro (Orlando Pirates).
The biggest decision for Pasuwa will be around the strikers‚ where he has an abundance of riches with Knowledge Musona and Nyasha Mushekwi almost certain to be selected.
It means there could be no place for Malajila‚ despite his vast experience‚ and Rusike‚ with Ndoro’s weight of goals for Pirates moving him to the front of the pile.
Former Chiefs striker Matthew Rusike‚ who plays in Sweden‚ is another option and, along with Mushekwi, scored in a recent win over Tanzania.
There may be some more disappointed South African-based players outside of the Chiefs pair who are at this stage out of the mix‚ not least in the goalkeeping department where George Chigova (Polokwane City) and Tapuwa Kapini may have hoped to force themselves into the reckoning.
Highlands Park forward Charlton Mashumba is a budding talent but is up against too much in terms of ability and experience among the forwards.
His teammate at Highlands‚ defender Augustine Mbara‚ and Ajax Cape Town fullback Eric Chipeta are others who are not being considered at this stage.
Zimbabwe have been drawn in a tough Group B alongside Algeria‚ Senegal and Tunisia at the finals. — TMG Digital