Six games into the new season and the Premier League table is starting to take shape. The big spenders have again risen to the top of the pile, two newly-promoted sides are holding their own in mid-table, and the dog fight is forming below.
Supporters of Leeds, Newcastle, Burnley and Norwich will have their own feelings as to whether their teams will become submerged in the relegation scrap this season.
None of the four have won a game in the top flight so far – and it’s usually towards October that club chairman start hitting the big red managerial merry-go-round button.
For some fans, poor dealings in the transfer window meant they saw this coming. For others, staying in this division was always going to be a tough ask. And others still – here’s looking at you, Toon supporters – just don’t know what to make of the circus anymore.
Still, at least the managers are trying to keep a cool head. Saturday saw Newcastle and Burnley take credible points on the road and both Steve Bruce and Sean Dyche rued the missed chance to steal wins.
“The game should have been put out of sight but you can’t come here and dominate the way we did and create the chances we had and miss them,” said Bruce, clinging on to his job despite the animosity of the Newcastle faithful, after the 1-1 draw at Watford.
“We nearly got punished for it at the end, which would have been totally unjust in my opinion. Our performance was terrific, we’ve done okay of late and haven’t managed to get that first win.”
Another away draw, this time at stuttering Leicester, had Dyche pleased but not content.
“We have to earn the right (to get the first win),” he said. “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, the performance was decent again. It’s that balance – I’m aware of how the team is performing but you have to turn it into wins.”
Both men head home on Saturday night grateful to have avoided defeat, but that can’t be said of Marcelo Bielsa and Daniel Farke.
Bielsa’s Leeds play a great game but are coming up short in the Premier League this season. They shared 35 shots with West Ham at Elland Road on Saturday and it was their exposed defence in stoppage time that gifted Michail Antonio the Hammers’ winner.
Premier League bottom four
After six games
- 17th: Newcastle – 3pts, -7gd
- 18th: Leeds – 3pts, -8gd
- 19th: Burnley – 2pts, -6gd
- 20th: Norwich – 0pts, -14gd
“Two teams faced each other with two different realities,” was how Bielsa, through his translator, saw the match. “A team that is chaining together positive results, and our team who is chaining together negative results.
“Normally in those circumstances, the team in negative trend is difficult for them to obtain what they deserve. When the team is in a good moment it is easy for them to obtain what they deserve.
“I think if the game had been a draw it wouldn’t have been unfair. Evidently all our sacrifice didn’t crystallise.”
Earning wins and deserving wins are two different things. Bielsa knows that. But he also has complete trust in his system, as does the Leeds board. Despite their form, his job remains secure.
As for Farke, the Norwich boss was perhaps the most subdued of the quartet after Saturday’s winless encounters as he mulled the 2-0 loss at Everton, which saw the Canaries match up to their hosts without ever really threatening.
“You don’t expect to win points against Manchester City and Liverpool but the other four defeats affect self-confidence, especially with a young group and their mood. But they have to roll their sleeves up and work hard,” he said.
“You don’t expect a newly-promoted side to win many points away from home. But you have to win against sides who will finish in the bottom half of the table, like Watford last week. So we’ll keep going and try to have a good season.”
At this stage of the campaign “keeping going” is pretty much all a manager can do.
Sunday sees Southampton – also without a win but with four draws from five games to their name – host 16th-place Wolves at St Mary’s. Lose that and the winless four swilling at the bottom of the table becomes a hapless five. But there’s plenty of time yet to resurrect these campaigns.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3AKVLyt
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