Leicester City, Crystal Palace And Swansea City Have Not Performed At Their Level This Season
There’s a reason why the Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world. The competition is simply too intense. Some of the best players in the world now call England their home thanks to being a part of the Premier League. Every footballer now dreams of playing in the Premier League. It really has reached a new level of quality and competitiveness. Year in year out, the Premier League affords us surprises such as Leicester’s title win last season.
The battle at the top this season seems to have gone Chelsea’s way as they lead the table quite comfortably, with the likes of Spurs, City and Liverpool hovering around. Something that’s been disappointing to see this season is the number of clubs that are in trouble of getting relegated at the end of the season. In a way, this is good as it is a testament to how good and competitive the league has now become.
Having said that, there are a couple of teams that have really disappointed this season. A lot was expected of these clubs given the kind of star power possessed by each one of those teams. The 3 clubs in question are –
Leicester City
Absolutely no qualms about this season. Leicester were crowned champions of England at the end of last term after an astonishing season. The likes of Vardy, Mahrez and Kante stepped up big time to earn the Foxes their first Premier League title. However, this season has been a different story, as they find themselves 3 points above the relegation spot; quite a fall from grace.
Ranieri has been sacked and his temporary replacement, Craig Shakespeare seems to be doing his magic as the Foxes look re-vitalized. Their performance to out-do Sevilla in the Champions League Last 16 knockout tie is a testament to their class. In the league, they should do all that’s possible in their hands to avoid the drop and a shock could be on the cards as well in the Champions League if Leicester live up to their performances from last season.
Swansea City
The Swans found themselves being in the bottom 3 for most of the season, but have recently upped the ante following Englishman Paul Clemente’s arrival at the club. That, coupled with the January acquisitions brought in by Clemente, have resulted in them climbing out of the relegation zone but by no means are they safe yet. They still lie 16th in the table, 3 points above the relegation zone.
The likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Fernando Llorente, Leroy Fer and Ki-Seung Yung Ply their trade at the Liberty Stadium. Considering the star power at their disposal, Swansea have been underwhelming to a very large extent. The January additions of Tom Carroll, Martin Olsson and Luciano Narsingh seems to have given them the impetus to try as hard as they can to avoid the drop at the end of the season.
Crystal Palace
The summer arrival of Cristian Benteke was designed as a tool to turn The Eagles into a top 8 club, but the complete opposite has happened as they find themselves just 1 point above the relegation zone. Alan Pardew got it horribly wrong and the club brought in Sam Allardyce for a rescue job. Although big Sam started off slowly, he’s begun to get good results. Palace recently secured a hat-trick of wins, which will give the team and their manager a lot of confidence and belief to put in performances of the same irk.
Wilfried Zaha has had an excellent campaign, but the club, in general, have underperformed severely, much to the dismay of Eagles fans. Palace will have to give their all in the last few weeks of the campaign, in order to avoid the drop, which would be a bad direction to go for them, given how successful they have been in the Premier League. The likes of Cabaye, Benteke and Townsend need to step up their game and deliver, in order for Sam to get his rescue mission right.
