One famous football commentator likes to say that chicks should be counted in the spring. As it is already 15 degrees outside, and until the end of the "Premier" league season, most teams have only seven games left, let's count. The day before the Manchester derby, where a lot can be decided, it's the perfect time. In addition, in the next round, the leaders of the championship, "Chelsea" and "Arsenal," will face each other. The fate of the cups Sadly, the fight for the title winners this season seems to be the least interesting, as "Chelsea," who won 3-1 in the first match against "Burnley," have been in first place the whole season. Can we doubt the triumph of Jose Mourinho's team in the league if the "Blues" suffered their first loss only in the 15th round, having won 11 games and drawn three so far? Probably not. However, the "Premier" league season continues a little longer. The second failure on New Year's Day against "Tottenham," several lackluster performances against the bottom teams, and goodbye to the UEFA Champions League on March 11 shook the "aristocrats." But we can doubt until we see more, as last season's champions, Manchester City, whom football experts called the only ones capable of challenging "Chelsea," started the 2015 season with even more ups and downs, earning just 18 points from 12 matches. The fight for the champion's cup no longer seems realistic for the "City," but unexpectedly, "Arsenal" started to win one game after another at the beginning of the season, bringing some intrigue. It seems that the "Gunners" continue to follow the tradition of being the strongest team in the country in one part of the campaign and fighting against outsiders on equal terms in the other. Last season, Arsene Wenger's proteges dominated in the first half, but now, to make it more interesting, they stepped up their game on New Year's Eve. After a defeat against Southampton on January 1, "Arsenal" suffered only one loss in 11 matches and won 10. This equals 30 points out of 33 possible. The main question is whether "Arsenal" can maintain their excellent form for another month and a half. Even if they manage to beat all the lower-ranked opponents, the performance of the league leaders, who are 7 points ahead and have one game in hand, will largely determine the outcome. Let's not forget that "Arsenal" players still have FA Cup matches ahead, while the "Chelsea" players can rest, and Jose Mourinho can devise tactics that constantly bring him fame. The only scenario in which we could see the London team lifting the trophy after more than 10 years is this: "Arsenal" gathers at least 16 out of 18 possible points in the remaining matches against other clubs and defeats the "aristocrats" in two weeks, who, after a defeat, begin to feel pressure and stumble against average opponents. All this doesn't sound very realistic, especially given that in recent years, the team with psychological issues could be called "Gunners." On the other hand, the triumph of "Manchester City" in 2012 looked equally unbelievable. Although "Chelsea" continues to demonstrate less high-quality football lately, they remain the undisputed favorite, but the most intriguing period is still ahead. UEFA Champions League Predicting the composition of the first four of the "Premier" league before the season was interesting to see if the team dealing with the loss of Luis Suarez, namely "Liverpool," would be able to return to the Champions League after a summer of heavy spending by "Manchester United." Despite the fact that the "Red Devils" surpassed another Manchester team and rose to third place last weekend, they haven't been mentioned so far, as they didn't compete for the title cup this season. The contours of the first four began to emerge only with the acceleration of the "Premier" league. Then there were no doubts about the power of "Chelsea" and "Man City," as well as the surprising performance and ambition of "Southampton" to maintain excellent form until May. Of course, although fluctuating, "Man United" is also among the strongest. Meanwhile, "Arsenal," "Liverpool," "Tottenham," and last season's fifth-placed team, "Everton," seemed to have vague prospects. However, football is charming in that way. The league leaders now look completely different than they did at the beginning of the season. "Arsenal's" ambitions have grown to first place, contrary to "Man City's" strategist Manuel Pellegrini, who has repeatedly declared that the fight for the champions title is lost. The Chilean is now forced to focus on the fight for medals or even fourth place, as they are seven points behind and have to catch up in the end. Of course, we cannot ignore without additional attention the most frequently discussed club of the year, "Manchester United." It must be admitted that, despite unstable and often unattractive results, the "Red Devils" deserve to return to the Champions League. "West Ham" coach Sam Allardyce has called this team the "High Passes United," but their position in the table speaks for itself. It would be possible to think differently only if the referee's career hadn't been ended by Howard Webb. Summing up the performances of all teams this season, it seems that in the Champions League, alongside "Chelsea" and "Arsenal," we should see the Manchester duo. Looking at other teams that play well, you can name one main drawback that likely led them to remain outside the Champions League. "Liverpool," of course, sorely misses last season's leader Luis Suarez. Daniel Sturridge, who was supposed to take over the role of the attacking leader, has barely played due to injuries, while the young Mario Balotelli has only scored one goal in the "Premier" league. "Tottenham's" problem has been defense for several seasons. It is hard to imagine being among the four teams who have missed more precise strikes this season. Finally, "Southampton" can be singled out for a weak attack, like "Liverpool," but perhaps their biggest weakness this season was a lack of experience and a short bench. The fight for survival As in recent years, the main candidates to travel to the Championship from the "Premier" league are "Aston Villa" and "Sunderland" among teams relegated from there in the past. Many fans even say that the latter have been in the league for far too long but always manage to avoid relegation undeservedly. Now the aforementioned two teams are joined by "Hull City." If the season ended today, teams going down to the second tier of English football would be "Queens Park Rangers," "Burnley," and "Leicester City." From the current bottom teams, more was expected before the season. The disappointing performance of "Burnley" and "Leicester City" is somewhat justified when you look at their squads because there are really not many players capable of competing in stronger "Premier" league teams. The champions of the "Championship" last season, this year seem not to stand out even compared to previous leaders. "Leicester" began their journey in the top division quite well and ranked seventh after five turns but have now been languishing at the bottom of the table for a long time. However, the biggest disappointment among the newcomers can be called QPR. With players like Leroy Fer, Niko Kranjcar, Mauricio Isla, or Steven Caulker, the London team hasn't won a single away game for a long time. Even with the return of Joey Barton and one of the league's most prolific strikers Charlie Austin, they have not been able to improve. True, there is still time until the end of the season, so teams in the relegation zone have some chances to bounce back. The most realistic candidate not to fall back to the "Championship" is "Burnley," who are only two points behind "Hull," and three points behind "Aston Villa," who are rising one step higher. In the remaining seven matches, "Burnley" can definitely achieve a successful result against "Everton," "Leicester," the same "Hull," "Stoke," and "Aston Villa," while their counterpart QPR will play against teams in the top five in three matches, and face the seventh-placed "West Ham" in one. "Leicester," on the other hand, has to play eight more matches, five of which are against the second ten teams, but the team's survival still seems unlikely. If "Burnley" successfully uses their chances, the place in the relegation zone will probably be occupied by "Aston Villa." Tim Sherwood's team has only six games left, and to score points against "Tottenham," "Man City," or "Southampton" is highly unlikely. This could also be jeopardized by the fact that the team is still in the FA Cup, where they will face "Liverpool" in the semi-finals. This certainly will not add strength to the players. To survive, "Villa" will have to successfully play against "Everton" and "West Ham" at home and defeat "Burnley" in the last match of the season. Indeed, predicting the relegation race is the most challenging, as teams at the bottom of the table often play against each other in the last stage. Many things can get mixed up in the decisive phase, even with a single draw. Biggest Discoveries The most surprising team of the season without a doubt is "Southampton." Although the dream of playing in the Champions League for the "Saints" will not come true, Ronald Koeman's army can be praised for having the best defense in the league and often for excellent play against top clubs. This year, "Southampton" still lacks more equal players who could replace injured or tired leaders, but in the summer, you could already see that Ronald Koeman was not willing to blink in the player market. After the success of Mauricio Pochettino, the team sold in the offseason, the Dutchman managed to strengthen the team successfully. If during the offseason Koeman can not only maintain the core of the team, to which Jay Rodriguez will return, but also strengthen it, the "Saints" will be even more serious contenders for the fourth "Premier" league position or even for medals next season. No one would dare to argue that the biggest discovery among players this season is the candidate for the best player of the season award, Harry Kane. The 21-year-old Englishman, who recently made his debut for the national team, gave what many "Spurs" coaches have been looking for a long time - consistently scored goals. This is only Kane's first season in the "Premier" league, but he is already considered one of the best strikers in the world. Of course, we can't overlook QPR leader Charlie Austin, without whom the London team would likely not even occupy a respectable 18th place. The story can be summed up in one sentence: from the construction yard to the opponent's penalty area. Once a bricklayer, the Englishman can now boast being the second most prolific player in the league. In addition, one of the most surprising players this season was "Arsenal's" defensive midfielder Francis Coquelin, who showed up at just the right time. After spending the month on loan at "Charlton Athletic," the Frenchman returned to London in mid-December and became one of the key players for the "Gunners." A large part of the successful "Arsenal" game in 2015 is largely attributed to Coquelin. This situation is reminiscent of the first half of last season when Mathieu Flamini played incredibly well, and the team was at the top of the standings. Biggest Disappointments Many, like this season's newcomers, have been disappointed by "Everton's" "Liverpool." Last year, the "Toffees" demonstrated very solid football, but this season they had to balance their efforts on two fronts as they took fifth place and won the right to compete in the Europa League. This tournament, considered unimportant by almost all English clubs, tripped up Roberto Martinez's team. Not many would argue that Romelu Lukaku, Leighton Baines, Tim Howard, or Ross Barkley deserve to compete in a team higher than twelfth place. Still, to have a more successful game in the national championship while also avoiding troubles in Europe, more players of similar caliber to those already mentioned are needed. On the other hand, the most undeserving of nomination players to share the disappointment are "Manchester United's" and "Liverpool's" strikers Radamel Falcao and Mario Balotelli. The Colombian arrived in Manchester as a star and one of the best forwards in the world, for whom no expense was spared for his loan. In addition, Falcao earns more than 365,000 euros a week and is the highest-paid player in the league. After his arrival in early September, the striker should have earned about 12 million euros. He has played twelve games so far and only scored four times. Thus, disregarding the loan fee, one goal from the Colombian forward costs about 3 million euros to the "Red Devils." Balotelli, on the other hand, was also acquired as a starting player, along with Daniel Sturridge, to compensate for the loss of Luis Suarez. The scandalous Italian has run onto the field eight times in the "Premier" league. Compared to this result, even Falcao's performance seems highly important to his team. Balotelli's price is 22 million euros. Symbolic Season Team To select the best eleven before the end of the season may seem strange and silly, but after more than 30 rounds, it is unlikely that many of its members will change. The symbolic team should be something like this, according to EA Sports, the official player performance index site of the league. True, this list also takes into account the performance of the represented clubs. Goalkeeper: David De Gea ("Manchester United"). Defenders: Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry (both "Chelsea"), Nathaniel Clyne ("Southampton"). Midfielders: Eden Hazard ("Chelsea"), Santi Cazorla ("Arsenal"), Cesc Fabregas ("Chelsea"), Wayne Rooney ("Manchester United"). Forwards: Alexis Sanchez ("Arsenal"), Harry Kane ("Tottenham"), Diego Costa ("Chelsea").
Mantas Bureika
