Premier League Halfway Point
Well we are officially at the halfway point in the 2018-19 Premier League season and here is how things currently stand.
The last 3 weeks of the season have pretty much wrecked the top of the table, or at least Man City. The starting point for this was on December the 8th when Manchester City faced Chelsea. Chelsea pulled out a 2-0 win and City have followed up their first loss of the season by losing 2 out of 3 to Crystal Palace and Leicester City. Manchester City have not only fallen out of first place in the league and to third place but have fallen 7 pts behind the leaders Liverpool. Liverpool continue to dominate both offensively and defensively and have yet to lose a game through the first 19. Tottenham in 2nd place, who are 6 pts behind Liverpool, and Chelsea in 4th round out your top 4. Arsenal are close behind Chelsea, 2 pts off, in 5th place and the now Mourinho-less United have now won 2 games in a row and stand 6 pts back of Arsenal in 6th place. There’s a lot to look forward to in the 2nd half of the season like the top 4 race which should be hotly contested by at least 5 teams and maybe even 6 if United can bounce back. Also can Liverpool finally win their first English top division title since 1990? Here’s my predictions for the 2nd half….
Repeat??
Photo Credit: The National
Champion: Two weeks ago I would have never thought that I would pick against Manchester City to win the title and that is why I’m going to stick to my gut and kind of shockingly still choose Manchester City as the champions. You just look at Manchester City’s team and compare it to Liverpool and it surpasses them in talent in every way possible I feel like. They are better at every position other than Liverpool maybe having maybe a better goalie and striker. But even if that’s the case, Ederson, Aguero and Jesus are not far behind their Liverpool counterparts. The most shocking thing to me for Liverpool has to be their defense. Apparently Van Dijk is the best defender in the league because it doesn’t matter if he’s being matched up with Lovren or Matip, Liverpool is keeping a clean sheet, though I definitely feel like this is going to change in the 2nd half. I thought that Liverpool vastly overpaid for Van Dijk but I couldn’t be more wrong. But back to City winning the league, it is all going to come down to their match up on January 3rd. If City can win and close the gap to 4 pts then they obviously have a good shot at overtaking Liverpool but if they lose this game or even draw this game and stay 7 to 10 pts back then their chances become a lot more slim. My prediction is a City win on Jan. 3rd and the pressure just becomes too great for Liverpool as the season drags on, just like it always has.
Top 4: To round out my top 4, I’m obviously going Liverpool and Tottenham, then…….Arsenal. As a Chelsea fan it pains me to say this but I just don’t trust the goal-scoring from this team unless we add somebody in the January transfer window. Liverpool and Tottenham should almost be locks for the top 4 at this point. Tottenham have been playing incredible soccer as of late and if they can continue this form through March and pick up a win over Liverpool then they also could have a shot at the title. For the opposite reason that I’m going against Chelsea in the top four, I’m taking Arsenal in the top four solely due to their ability to score. Arsenal have been incredibly clutch in games and have found ways to score when they need it most. Scoring will be Chelsea’s downfall and Arsenal’s savior.
Relegation: At this point in the season, Huddersfield, Fulham and Burnley occupy relegation spots. I don’t expect much of this to change other than I’m going to switch Burnley and Cardiff. Main reason why, I just can’t see Burnley going from 7th place to being relegated to the 2nd division.
The last time Liverpool won the league. Will we see it again? If history tells us anything it’s that they’ll find a way to choke, but at some point you have to change history.
Photo Credit: Independent