United primed for title chase

It is not often that the team placed 10th in the league are best-placed in the race for honours.

But this bizarre anomaly currently exists in the topsy-turvey, unpredictable Premiership title race in which SuperSport United are the best-placed team in spite of occupying 10th position.

And the explanation for this is quite simple. In spite of having 13 points in comparison to unexpected leaders Boroka FC’s 19 points, the club have with six matches played exactly half those in comparison to the 12 completed by the front-runners.

In the unlikely event that SuperSport won all these outstanding games, they could gain 18 additional points and take a comprehensive 12-point lead over Baroka.

More realistically, if SuperSport figuratively doubled their present 13 points tally from six points in the six outstanding matches, they would still hold a commanding seven-point advantage over the present leaders.

“The lop-sided number of matches played by the teams generally,” explained a PSL official, “is mainly due to the commitments of clubs who played in Caf’s Champions League and Confederation Cup tournaments, with SuperSport affected most because of reaching the Confed Cup final”.

Also ominously well-placed in fifth, a matter of three points behind Baroka, but from three fewer games are Mamelodi Sundowns.

But the PSL official warned against baseing the final outcome in the title race on the evidence of present statistics.

‘’The season has been highlighted by a spate of surprises,” he added. “Look for example at champions Bidvest Wits currently occupying bottom place. So almost anything can happen.”

And an intriguing programme of midweek games could clarify the situtation, with Sundowns playing Baroka and second-placed Orlando Pirates up against SuperSport.