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Udinese started to drop down in the standings after starting to get poor results recently. They couldn't win a game for three weeks and lost to Torino home the last time. I wonder if their greaty journey ends here or they will recover themselves later again maybe.
It is already not easy for them to be a part of top 6 at the end of the season of course. Because there are many bigger teams than them and it will not be easy for Udinese to be able to compete with them at the same level throughout the season. But the season is long and we will see how consistent these teams will be.
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Wolves - Leicester was one of the most interesting games of the previous week. Wolves had so many goal opportunities but couldn't make use of any. But Leicester scored in nearly every goal attempt and won by 4-0. But they needed this win very much. Now they are on a winning streak of two games.
On the other hand they are going to have a really difficult game this week. The opponent is Manchester City. Maybe Leicester are the home team but I don't see it like much of an advantage for them. Manchester City are the most powerful attacking team of the season and Haaland is really unstoppable. I don't think Leicester can get any point in this game I'm afraid.
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Unai Emery is really taking charge by November 1. But it is an interesting choice of him to leave Villarreal and decide to start managing Aston Villa instead. I know that Villarreal aren't doing well recently as well but it feels like he would have still been more successful with Villarreal.
Aston Villa are entering a new phase and they reacted very quickly to the manager change. They got a 4-0 win over Brentford right away even before Emery comes here. Emery is one of the special managers and I expect him to do a better job than Gerrard with Aston Villa. Maybe they can finish the season in top 10 this time.
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Atletico Madrid are following the Real Madrid - Barcelona duo behind for now. They have really made a big progress in the league on the recent weeks. They didn't lose for five weeks and won four of those games.
Actually they didn't make a good start at first. It was like this season would be even worse for Atletico Madrid. But Simeone has started to make up for that bad start by the recent results. However I still doubt them about being capable of getting points from teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid. Because those two teams are at another level compared to the rest of the teams in the league. They aren't unbeatable of course but it is still hard to do so considering their forms.
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Union Berlin did it like Liverpool against Nottingham Forest!  This is definitely kind of a setback for Union Berlin. This might be more than just the lost three points. Full pressure from Bayern Munich again and beyond that several other clubs. The five teams behind Union Berlin won their game this weekend, which makes them a massive loser of this gameday. Those three points hurt a lot and honestly I am a bit sad about it. It's always fun to see Bayern hunt another team in front of them, but the difference is that Bayern often is able to change gears while other teams become unstable. Dortmund's win was a must or otherwise they could have dropped to rank 9. That might have been close to Terzic being sacked soon. Now they should use their momentum, but as we all know, it is Borussia Dortmund... It looks like those odds were telling us something because Union Berlin's odd was pretty high.  Bochum kept the game balanced despite playing against the leader. I think they really deserved this win. After having a 2-0 score advantage Union Berlin had nowhere to run. They desperately tried to make a comeback. If Pantovic didn't miss the penalty maybe they would have more time to equalize the score and get one point at least. But they scored barely in the stoppage time and it ended 2-1. Union Berlin couldn't beat the last team in the standings and this would affect them mentally bad I guess. |
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Barcelona have conceded only four goals so far and three of them came by Real Madrid. Normally they have been incredible about closing their goal against their opponents so far. They still have nearly the same chance with Real Madrid to make it to the title. They just need to play much better against Real Madrid in Camp Nou and defeat them there.
Xavi must have learned his lesson from that 3-1 defeat in the El Clasico. I wouldn't expect him to make the same mistakes there. Losing points in unexpected games will be a big decider for these teams to get closer to the title. It is difficult for now to say which one is more likely to lose more points in such games.
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~snip~
A real good start for newcastle , still wondering if they can do the crazy transfer in january.
Indeed. It has been a wonderful run for Newcastle until this moment. They couldn't even bring many big names to the team in the last transfer window. I was really doubtful about their performance in this season as a result. But they are making me surprised even more every week. Defeating one of the most powerful teams of the season in an away game is a really big work by them. They stole one point from Manchester United as well. As long as they keep up playing determinedly they can be one of the biggest candidates to finish the season in top 4. They are already at the 4th position now. |
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I really appreciated Napoli and Lazio today. Both of them were the highly dominant teams in their games against Roma and Atalanta respectively. Atalanta were even the favourite side against Lazio according to bookmakers. But Lazio defeated them 2-0 anyway.
Napoli were able to find the winning goal quite late in the game actually. Thanks to Osimhen they have consolidated their lead now. Napoli are really unstoppable and they have won many big games despite being the away team so far. It is hard to predict what team will be able to defeat them finally after so many weeks. Maybe it will happen in a very unexpected game by a weaker team who knows.
Napoli continued their positive results, where neither the place nor which team the opponent so far did not affect them because in the end they found a way to make a goal and win. Before facing another big game, which is against Atlanta, they will face Sassuolo, usually a match that is considered unimportant will actually be a match that makes them have to pay a heavy price losing or drawing is definitely not expected in the match Napoli are going to have a tight schedule for some time as well. They have a game vs Rangers on Oct 26, another one vs Sassuolo three days after and there is another game vs Liverpool three days later. But they are lucky to play the first two in their stadium. It is still a high tempo of course so I wonder how good they will be able to handle those games. It feels like they will defeat Rangers first and be ready for Sassuolo mentally as well. I don't think Sassuolo are the team to finish their winning streak but they still had better be careful. Because they can be a big threat to the top teams of the league sometimes. |
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The Ligue 1 has become really interesting lately. The closest opponents of PSG in the standings are Lens and Lorient now. However even with them PSG have a five-point gap at the moment. They are already starting to consolidate their lead in the league earlier in the season. This is important for them also because this will help them decrease their load here and focus more on the Champions League title. It is a pity to see Marseille's performance dropping this much on the recent weeks. They seemed like they cared about the league more than the Champions League before. But now it is like there is no difference for them. Actually we see a change now because they are better in the Champions League considering their last results. |
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I really appreciated Napoli and Lazio today. Both of them were the highly dominant teams in their games against Roma and Atalanta respectively. Atalanta were even the favourite side against Lazio according to bookmakers. But Lazio defeated them 2-0 anyway.
Napoli were able to find the winning goal quite late in the game actually. Thanks to Osimhen they have consolidated their lead now. Napoli are really unstoppable and they have won many big games despite being the away team so far. It is hard to predict what team will be able to defeat them finally after so many weeks. Maybe it will happen in a very unexpected game by a weaker team who knows.
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Barcelona completely destroyed Athletic Bilbao by a 4-0 result today.
Dembele was the most impressive player of the game in my opinion. Because he contributed to every goal by one goal and three assists. This might be the best game he didn't play selfish and helped his teammates score as well. Because normally we see Dembele using nearly all of the chances by himself and wasting many of them at the same time. Athletic Bilbao are really in a desperate condition after that good start to the season. Maybe it is because of playing many big games consecutively these days.
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Tottenham - Newcastle game ended really shockingly to me. I was expecting a competitive game for sure but I would never thought of a win for Newcastle here.
The first half was no different than a nightmare for Tottenham. Newcastle got 2-0 ahead already and captured a huge advantage. I wouldn't expect this to happen after seeing that Manchester United kept Newcastle at 0 goal. Tottenham should have been able to defend them well also and they should have been the side to get ahead first. Recently there is a significant amount of decrease in their performance. This is their second loss in a row and Conte need to wake his players up immediately.
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Actually Barcelona's great winning streak was broken by Real Madrid. But they seem very eager to maintain a new one after that great effort against Villarreal. Barcelona are just playing much different in Camp Nou. They haven't faced Real Madrid home yet maybe but their home games so far have been very impressive. They scored 11 goals and conceded none in 5 games.
Athletic Bilbao seem weaker recently. After seeing their struggle against Atletico Madrid in a home game I just think that Barcelona should be able to finish them by at least two goals. Lewandowski is in a good form now and I think he would score again.
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FC Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić announced that the club won't be very active during the upcoming winter transfer window. He announced that the FC Bayern already bought players for the "whole season" last summer. There is currencly no need for other players.
~snip~
I assume that Bayern Munich won't really go for a striker then. However I think that they definitely need one for the Champions League especially. Maybe it isn't much problem for the Bundesliga as they are doing wonderful recently there. They are still the number one contender for the league title and it looks like they will have the lead back soon. However the Champions League will get much more difficult for them in the later stages. If they have a reliable striker in the attacking line then they would be more assertive for the title in the Champions League as well. But maybe they might change their mind later on. |
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Dortmund were really impressive this week. Maybe their opponent wasn't a big team but Dortmund really needed a win like 5-0 to recover a little. They couldn't win for three weeks before this game. This pushed them to lower positions in the standings. But now they are only four points away from the leader. Union Berlin haven't played their game yet of course so we will see the final gap later.
Bayern Munich have started to play like in the past seasons finally after many weeks passed in the season. Doing this without a natural striker is a great job. I know that they have Choupo-Moting but I meant a striker like Lewandowski. I wonder if they will sign someone in January as well.
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Tottenham - Newcastle is an attracting game today. Tottenham are the favourite team for the win maybe but the odds are still very high on one hand.
Newcastle are one of the impressive teams with their performance so far of course. They haven't lost a single game for six weeks in the league. They are a huge threat to Tottenham as a result. Tottenham lost to Manchester United the last time and this might affect the morale of the players badly. But I still like their performance in general. They just screwed up against the biggest teams of the league. Their last game here against Newcastle ended by a huge 5-1 victory. Newcastle are stronger now so this time it might be a win by a close gap.
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Hoffenheim really disappointed me with their very poor performance. They were one of the top teams in the standings but we didn't see a proper performance in offense from them at all. This was no different than the ineffectiveness level of Freiburg against Bayern Munich. Hoffenheim also had the same problems against them.
I trusted both teams to score by trusting Hoffenheim's scoring power and my bet lost. Bayern Munich have really started to play like their usual version these days. They are climbing the positions and it is another sign for a season that they become the champions. Playing this much strong without a big striker in the team is really impressive.
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Chelsea might still be in search of another striker to transfer in January. However I don't think they are thinking of bringing back Lukaku at all indeed. They are speculated with Ronaldo for now but we will see.
Ronaldo is already very likely to leave the team at the earliest opportunity. He isn't wanted by Erik ten Hag clearly and this is the best thing to do for Ronaldo as a result. Chelsea are actually after many strikers according to some reports but signing Ronaldo on a free transfer might seem more favourable for them. But his salary might still be quite big though.
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This game was really dangerous for Real Madrid even though they dominated the second half completely. Because Sevilla were able to keep the score at 1-1 for a very long time. However Real Madrid still found a way to score the relieving goals for themselves. They came by a two-minute interval also. I liked Valverde's goal a lot by the way. He is in a really good shape these days and his shots are so fast that goalkeepers are having big trouble against them.
While I was doubtful about how good Valverde's wing play would be, he started to perform amazingly. We will see how much he can keep this up.
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Chelsea must consider themselves lucky for not losing this game actually. Because comparing the general performance of each team, Manchester United were clearly the better side. They found many more opportunities to score in this game but Chelsea were still the first team to score anyway. The last minutes were pretty exciting though. Manchester United were in big trouble after conceding the goal in the last minutes but Casemiro saved the team one point by scoring the equalizer in the last moments.
Erik ten Hag must be disappointed with the score after all that effort but I believe it is still nice to steal some point from a big team in an away game.
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