Mid-Season Review

6:00 PM Unknown 1 Comments

So we’ve reached the halfway point of the Barclays Premier League season. Let’s review a bit of
what we’ve learned:

- José Mourinho is a top-three manager in the world. His ability to play his players in their best possible positions is uncanny (It helps when you have a holding midfielder like Matić to provide some responsibility to the side, too), and Chelsea are my odds-on favorite to win the title this year. Yes, that does make me sick to my stomach to admit.

- David De Gea is a top-three goalkeeper in the world. Sure, the relative resurgence of Manchester United has been a team effort, but nobody has stood out like the lanky Spaniard. His heroics and overall solid play have propelled United into the Champions League spots of the league table, and as outfield players like Di María begin to regain full fitness, the sky is the limit for van Gaal’s men.

- Every game matters. Southampton is coming off a summer in which essentially half their team was sold, yet here they sit in the top four. Meanwhile, West Ham lurk just underneath them in fifth, coming out of seemingly nowhere. Why are these two succeeding? Because they take care of business against the smaller teams. The Saints may drop points against the Uniteds and the Chelsea of the BPL, but beating the Sunderlands (while Manchester City drop points against the Burnleys) are what is keeping the underdogs of the league in the European spots of the table.

- The parity is magnificent. Speaking of City and Burnley’s thrilling 2-2 draw, we have ourselves a Premier League table just as open as ever, if not more so. Just a handful of points separate everyone from Manchester United all the way down to Leicester, and this in itself is the appeal of English soccer to the casual fan.

- My fantasy team is absolutely dominating the Temple University league. Rooney, Charlie Austin, Sigurdsson, Ryan Bertrand, David Silva, Eden Hazard, and Christian Eriksen, just to name a few. Tremble in fear, adversaries.