The Premier League:
Manchester City built an early lead in the standings, even going on a 12-game winning streak, defeating Chelsea, Arsenal, and drawing with Liverpool in the process. 2nd place Liverpool have kept pace with City, only being 6 points behind with a game in hand and adding new dynamic winger Diaz and bringing in Harvey Elliot and Ibrahim Konate into the first team. Despite consistent quality being shown at the top, several of the teams below the top 2 underperformed, namely Chelsea and Manchester United. Coming off a champions league victory in which they defeated league leaders Manchester City, the blues were expected to make a strong challenge for the title, they suffered several unnecessary draws teams on the lower end of the table. Their story was similar to that of Manchester United as the red devils sit outside the top 4 as of match week 28. With the addition of several superstars including Cristiano Ronaldo, they were expected to build on their surprise 2nd place finish last season but instead ended up sacking their manager after a poor run of form. After several years of decline, Arsenal bounced back and put up 48 points after 25 games to place 4th. The gunners are led by a strong core of young players such as England Internationals Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe as well as Danish maestro Martin Ødegaard and pacy Brazilian winger Gabriel Martinelli.
La Liga:
Losing their talisman Lionel Messi in the summer, FC Barcelona had a well below-par beginning of the season, ending up as low as ninth and sacking manager Ronald Koeman in late October. They then replaced Koeman with Barca legend Xavi and after a slow start, they saw a group stage exit in the group stage and more disappointing losses. Xavi then began giving younger players more minutes and a rebirth commenced, personified by the free-flowing, energetic play that showcased the true talent of several of the Barca players.
“Xavi’s implementation of the Barca philosophy is elegant and effective at the same time. It is very refreshing to see,” Barcelona fan Kidus Gidey said.
While Barca only recently began getting back into the groove, their La Liga rivals Real Madrid had consistently stayed top of the league with striker Karim Benzema at the top of the scoring charts in all of Europe and winger Vinicius Junior exploding as a potent attacking force and mazy dribbler.
Bundesliga:
Another Bundesliga season, another year of Bayern domination. Led by Ballon d’Or runner-up Robert Lewandowski and veterans Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer, Bayern is on its way to its tenth league title in a row having won 19 games, drawn two and nine points away from second place Borussia Dortmund. Despite Dortmund, the last team to win the league other than Bayern, boasting the talents of Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland and third-place Bayer Leverkusen possessing silky skills Florian Wirtz, the majority of young talent still belongs to Bayern Munich who has Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané, and Jamal Musiala.
Ligue 1:
After, losing the league title to Lille and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain played hardball in the summer, bringing in Lionel Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wjnaldum, and Achraf Hakimi to make an already star-studded team an all-star one. With Messi turning provider for star forward Kylian Mbappe’s goal tally, Donnarumma barking orders at the back 4 from his goal-line, and Hakimi and Wjnaldum cleaning up everything in between, PSG has taken a 13 point lead at the top of the table and looks to finally win the French league.
Serie A:
The closest title race with several teams still having a shot at glory, Serie A has heated up and provided excitement almost every week. Whether it is Juventus’s comeback from three to one down to defeat Roma four to three in just the last 13 minutes of the game or the nail-biting Milan Derbys, there doesn’t seem to be a clear favorite for the Scudetto League title this year. With there being just a seven-point difference between first place Inter Milan and fourth place Juventus, all is still to play for all of the top four as we approach the final 10 match weeks of the season. After a near-decade of Juve dominance, the hunger for the title of “Best Team In Italy” is at the highest point in several years.
