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Every football season is associated with a new topsy-turvy scenario which nobody would have foreseen at the start of the season. The current season is no different as it has thrown plenty of surprises our way whether it be individual performances or team performances.
Take for example the case of Crystal Palace. They were clearly not favourites for a finish in the top half of the table but the least their fans would have expected with Frank de Boer at the helm was a season free from a relegation battle.
However, seven games into the season, they are rock bottom with zero points, zero goals scored, two managers and seventeen goals conceded. I’m sure that nobody would have predicted such a predicament at the start of the season.
Although Palace’s start was surprising, many clubs from around Europe’s top five leagues have had an even more surprising start for their stature. In some cases, they have exceeded expectations while in other cases they have just failed to live up to the hype.
#5 Burnley
Burnley ended the previous season with just one win and seven points from their 19 away games but seven games into the current season, they already have two wins and eight points from just four away games!
Sean Dyche’s men started the season on fire with a 3-2 win at the home of the defending Premier League Champions Chelsea. They’ve followed this up with two away draws against Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur as well as a victory over Everton at Goodison Park.
Seven games into the current Premier League season, Burnley have 12 points and find themselves in 6th place which is amazing for the club as they finished the previous campaign with 40 points and in 16th place.
What is amazing is the fact that they sold two of their key players, Michael Keane to Everton and Andre Gray to Watford, and have still managed to exceed expectations. There is a reason why Sean Dyche is called the Ginger Mourinho.
#4 Nantes
Claudio Ranieri, the architect of Leicester City’s fairytale title-winning season, was sacked by the Foxes in February 2017 but it didn’t take him long to find a new job.
The Italian was hired as manager of Ligue 1 club Nantes in June and under his guidance, the club has enjoyed a terrific start to the season.
Nantes currently find themselves in fourth place with 16 points in eight games and only behind third-placed Marseille on goal difference.
What is astonishing is the fact that Nantes have scored just 6 goals in their eight games which is lower than 15 other teams in the division and no team in the top 12 have scored fewer than them.
This is similar to how Leicester played at times during their title-winning season by keeping clean sheets and pulling off 1-0 victories. In just eight games, Nantes have already kept five clean sheets.
It would be too much to expect Nantes to win the league now that PSG have surely bought the league with signings like Neymar and Kylian Mbappe but Nantes still could go on to secure Champions League qualification if they keep up their current form.
#3 Everton
Everton did a carbon copy of what Spurs did in 2013 after selling Gareth Bale and what Liverpool did in 2014 after selling Luis Suarez. The Toffees sold their talisman Romelu Lukaku for £75m and signed 14 players of which at least eight are first team players.
Some of their signings like Wayne Rooney, Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane and Gylfi Sigurdsson are Premier League proven and hence, it wasn’t expected of them to wither away like Spurs or Liverpool.
The fact that they had Ronaldo Koeman at the helm was also another reason why fans expected Everton to enjoy a solid season.
Seven games into the Premier League season, Everton have seven points, scored four goals and conceded twelve. This leaves them 16th in the table and just two points above the relegation zone.
Things are far worse in the UEFA Europa League for them. After two games, they find themselves bottom of the group comprising of Atlanta, Lyon and Apollon Limassol.
#2 Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich started the previous season under three-time Champions League winning manager Carlo Ancelotti and went on to win yet another league title. They exited the Champions League against eventual winners Real Madrid after a spirited fight but there were signs that everything was not perfect under the Italian gaffer.
The problems at the Bavarian club came to the fore right from preseason when they went on to lose against both Milan clubs, Liverpool and Napoli in preseason games. In these four games, they failed to score at least once and conceded 11.
Once the season started, the problems began to mount. Despite winning the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund on penalties, they went on to lose to Hoffenheim in a league game and draw against Wolfsburg.
However, the final nail in Ancelotti’s coffin was a 3-0 humiliation at the hands of PSG in a Champions League game.
Bayern currently find themselves five points behind highflying Borussia Dortmund after just seven league games. They desperately need their treble-winning manager, Jupp Heynckes, to instil some belief and confidence in the squad if they are to at least retain the league title.
#1 Real Madrid
Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid has taken the football world by storm since he took charge and has gone on to win seven trophies.
The way things were going at Real Madrid and Barcelona in the summer, it looked like Real Madrid would once again win the La Liga and establish themselves as Spain’s superpower. However, that hasn’t happened.
Despite losing Neymar, appointing a new manager and all the issues surrounding their board, Barcelona have enjoyed a perfect start to the season with 7 wins in 7 games.
On the contrary, Real Madrid have had a shocking start to their league season. Seven games into the season, they already find themselves 7 points behind league leaders Barcelona. A seven-point difference in a league like La Liga is a significant one.
Los Blancos dropped all their points at home with two draws against Valencia and Levante and a defeat to Real Betis. Against Betis, they conceded a goal in the fourth minute of added time and it was scored by Antonio Sanabria - a former youth player of Barcelona.
Nobody would have foreseen such a start from the defending Spanish and European Champions.
