Page 10 - Soccer360 Issue 105

2024
TITLE RACES
Takehiro Tomiyasu is among the 43 players to have been sent off this season. Since the start of the 2009-10 season, Arsenal have been shown more red cards (48) than any other Premier League side.
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Jayden Danns of Liverpool celebrates his second goal in one match.
This Premier League campaign is averaging 3.16 goals per game, no Premier League season has finished with a higher average than the last one: 2022-23, where the average was 2.85 goals per game. If the pace of goals continues we will see back to back historic seasons.
Newcastle United made history by having eight different players score in their 8-0 victory over Sheffield United, marking both Newcastle’s largest away win and Sheffield United’s most substantial league defeat.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Many English football fans thought that Arsenal blew their best chance to break the domination of Manchester City in the Premier League last season. Still eight points ahead of Pep Guardiola’s side at the start of April last year, the Gunners collapsed at the end of the season to meekly hand the title to City. But Arsenal look to have a much stronger mentality this year and seem more than up for the challenge. With the champions struggling at times with injuries and performances, Mikel Arteta’s side has been just one of the teams realistically challenging for glory.
Arsenal may have beaten them at the beginning of February, but Liverpool have been the real sensation in the Premier League this year. Jürgen Klopp announcing his imminent departure from the club was only the latest in a string of galvanising moments that have seen the Anfield club playing some of the best football in the country. Having finished outside the Champions League in 2022-23 and revamped the squad over the summer, Klopp will be determined to end his reign with a second league title.
While the expected challenge from Newcastle United has not materialised, other clubs - like Aston Villa and Tottenham - have joined Manchester City to make this year’s Premier League title race the most open in recent memory.
It is inevitable that most of those clubs will fall away from the race at the top as the weeks go on but it does seem as though there will be at least two clubs battling it out until the final day of the season - and that might not even include Man City, the team that has lifted the Premier League trophy in five of the last six campaigns. Still, the defending champions remain the favourites due to their recent supremacy and how relentless they continue to be in pursuit of success.
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