This season in the EPL it has been quite a fascinating season. During the pre-season, there were talks that this was going to be the tightest race for the title ever. The reason being that Manu were going to be stronger after last season experience, Chelsea with the addition of Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, Arsenal who made it to the final of last season champion league and Liverpool with the addition of a few quality players. The other teams like Tottenham, West Ham, Blackburn, Bolton also added some quality players and were expected to pull a few upsets over the big four. That was during pre-seaon.
Now currently, West Ham after sleeping for 3 quarter of the season is showing signs of picking up to avoid relegation instead of a place in Europe. Arsenal and Liverpool have fallen by quite a distance in the title race. For Arsenal case, they lost a number of key players to long term injury and were counting too much on the youth team to maintain a run. For Liverpool, their early season away form killed any chance to mount a title run. Tottenham for the players that they have are also too inconsistent to do anything for a title race.
For Manu and Chelsea, it has been a great season for both teams they went on long runs of been unbeaten in the competition that they were involved and even in April, Manu is still in contention for three of the competition and Chelsea having won the league cup is also still in contention for the three competition that are still ongoing. Both teams have approached their matches with different mentality. For Manu, they approach a game with the more gung ho approach of trying to win their opponent by scoring as many goals as possible. Chelsea' approach is the more pragmatic approach of trying to score a goal then seat back and prepare to score the next goal on a rapid counter-attack. This could explain on the goal differences between the two teams.
After such a long time, where both Manu and Chelsea were taking turns to win their respective games, the first team to fumble in the final track is Manu with the disappointing lost to Portsmouth yesterday. Actually Chelsea in the last few games have not been impressive but they grind out result where as Manu's football has been breath-taking and great to watch.
However if we are considering the efficiently of winning matches, Chelsea will win hands down. Manu to win a game has to use a high intensity style of play and the whole team must be playing at a high standard to get the win. Chelsea on the other hand counts a lot on set play as well as quick counter to win matches as they can relied on a strong defence. As a result their approach did not required a that high intensity style of play which characteristic of Manu play. This is especially crucial towards the end of season when there is fixture congestion. The difference between Manu lost to Portsmouth and Chelsea win against Tottenham is that Manu players made mistake at the bad which allow Portsmouth to take full advantage whereas Chelsea managed to score from a long shot and then the defence was able to hold out. Manu looked tired in tired in the second half.
Moving forward the last one month plus will be exciting times for both clubs, Manu have to make sure they win all their games to be champion and Chelsea on the other hand need to win all and hope Manu slip up on another game other than the Chelsea vs Manu game. I think it will go down to the wire. The involvement in the other competition could prove crucial in who will eventually be crowned champion. Will it be the cavalier approach by Manu or the more controlled style of play of Chelsea that will prevail?
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