This is a season which feels different to many others in the Premier League. Despite the recent dominance of Manchester City who made history by winning four league titles in a row, they had challengers on each occasion. City having a near challenger is what made the Premier League feel different from the Premiership up in Scotland or Ligue 1 in France. To note there are still many differences between the quality of the leagues but a decent challenger was a significant one. City didn't just stroll to their titles as Liverpool and Arsenal notably gave them a run for their money but the cash flow seems dried up super early in this campaign. Liverpool look like they will become champions and in February they moved 13 points clear at the top from Arsenal. Indeed even before Christmas Arne Slot's side looked unstoppable and in that sense this season feels disjointed. Of course anything can happen in football but it doesn't look like it's going to, not for first place anyway. If anything Arsenal may well fall more points behind and would it really be a surprise to see Manchester City even move past Arsenal?
Quite a few teams have punched above their weight this season just look at Nottingham Forest in 3rd place for evidence of that. However a lot of credit has to go to Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola. The Cherries have been a tough side to face this season and have a realistic chance of making Europe next season. The club are currently in 7th place and in the FA Cup have reached the quarter finals. They will play Manchester City and the thinking will be that's them out. But hold that thought. Bournemouth are at home where they remain a quite brilliant side in front of their fans and they have already beaten City this season in the league when at home. There has been a lot of praise on Iraola who at 42 is still very inexperienced. His only other relevant managerial job was in La Liga with Real Valladolid when he spent 3 seasons with the club and ended up with a not so impressive 39% win rate. At Bournemouth this stands at 41% but we should only really be focusing on the present and currently Iraola is on a winning wave. Knock out City in the FA Cup and we are guaranteed a surprise winner given so many of the bigger clubs have fallen.
To win the FA Cup: Manchester City 2.75, Aston Villa 5.00, Brighton 7.00, Fulham 9.00, Bournemouth 11.00. To note Preston North End is the only non Premier League side left. They will play Aston Villa at home and are priced up at 151.00 to lift the famous trophy.
Graham Potter's start at West Ham was turning into the stuff of nightmares although not quite on a Ruben Amorim level but Potter may have steadied the ship. First came a surprising victory away to Arsenal which was the Gunners first loss at home this season in a game which ended as 1-0 to Potter's side. This was followed up by a 2-0 victory over Leicester. In a sense it was the win over Leicester which rang more true. It's all very well pulling off a surprise result against a title chasing side in 2nd place but if you then fall to the team in 19th who are finding it difficult to register wins that would be cause for concern. The objective now for Potter will be to push on and if the Hammers can reach 45 plus points this season then the feeling will be they are going in the right direction with a summer window coming up for Potter to shape his side in what and how he needs it to be.
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