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Ian Darke, ESPN.com writerOct 4, 2024, 04:13 AM ET
- Darke, who called games for the network during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, is ESPN lead soccer voice in the United States. He has covered the Barclays Premier League and the Champions League since 1982, and has one of the world’s most recognizable soccer voices.
Every football season needs a tale of the unexpected. Leicester City‘s 5000-1 title triumph in 2015-16 was the mother of all shocks, and how many people thought Aston Villa would finish in the top four last season while Manchester United ended with a negative goal difference for the first time in the Premier League era?
So after six matchdays this season, which teams and players might spring a surprise this time round?
You have to start with Chelsea — dismissed by most observers as a circus club on a supermarket dash to sign way too many players. But reason has broken out, and new manager Enzo Maresca has moulded a team that have climbed up tp fourth place on the back of three successive wins.
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Cole Palmer, with four goals in the first half against Brighton on Saturday, might be the best player in the league right now, and Chelsea are top scorers in the whole division with 15. Less remarked on is the fact that midfielder Moisés Caicedo is at last starting to show why the club invested £100m in his services.
Chelsea’s London neighbours Fulham are raising eyebrows, too. They followed a 3-1 win over Newcastle by ending Nottingham Forest‘s unbeaten start at the City Ground. Sixth place represents dizzy heights for this highly watchable team. The Cottagers have as good a defensive record as Arsenal so far, with only five goals conceded in six games.
Mexico international Raúl Jiménez‘s return to top form at Fulham, after four years in the doldrums following his horrific fractured skull injury while playing for Wolves, is a heartwarming story. The striker started the season on the bench but has now scored three times in three matches. Manager Marco Silva deserves enormous credit for his patience in restoring Jiménez’s confidence, and he is also getting a tune from winger Adama Traoré, who has previously driven his coaches to distraction by his failure to turn his searing pace into chances and goals.
Enzo Maresca has galvanized Chelsea after some transfer turbulence, with the Blues finally finding a settled XI and some consistency. Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images
None of the three promoted teams — Leicester, Ipswich or Southampton — have won a Premier League game yet, but all three could yet shock the doom-mongers predicting a quick return to the Championship.
Ipswich surely have a realistic chance of staying up based on the evidence of their 2-2 draw with highfliers Aston Villa. Playing the bright, creative football that earned two successive promotions, they gave Villa all the problems they could handle, with young striker Liam Delap scoring both goals and looking a bargain after his £20m signing from Manchester City. Meanwhile Jack Clarke, who moved from Sunderland, will give opposition teams plenty of problems on the left wing.
Their defence, however, is less convincing. The Tractor Boys lost to Liverpool and Manchester City in their first two games but since then have held Fulham, Brighton, Southampton and Villa to draws, suggesting they are far from overawed playing at this higher level.
Leicester are conceding too many goals, but there’s plenty of fight in them and they have scored in every game so far. Jamie Vardy, who is 37 now, still looks sharp enough without quite being the player who once scored in 11 successive games, while Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp and Wilfred Ndidi bring plenty of Premier League know-how to the midfield. The Foxes even gave Arsenal a scare at the weekend, meaning Steve Cooper’s team should not be written off yet.
Meanwhile, Southampton manager Russell Martin questioned his team’s character after Monday’s first-half chaos in the 3-1 defeat at Bournemouth. The Saints can be slick but look poor in both penalty areas. Martin might need to occasionally rip up his “pass and possession” style to give his team more bite. But their academy looks to have produced another gem in young midfielder Tyler Dibling, who scored a lovely goal against Ipswich and has been a breakout star for 2024-25.
So, if the promoted trio do cause a shock or two, who might be in a relegation fight they did not expect?
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Echegaray: Cole Palmer is the best player in the Premier League
Luis Miguel Echegaray reacts to Cole Palmer’s four goals in Chelsea’s 4-2 win over Brighton.
Wolves have conceded a league-high 16 goals this season and transferred out key men in Max Kilman and Pedro Neto. The squad look to have enough talent to get out of trouble, and manager Gary O’Neil can reflect on a tough start against Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Villa and Liverpool. But he needs to start picking up points before confidence and belief evaporate.
Crystal Palace finished last season like an express train but this time find themselves surprisingly in the bottom three. The team are just not clicking for head coach Oliver Glasner, and you wonder why. The way Palace faded after leading at Everton would be a worry for their fans, but with the likes of Eberechi Eze, Marc Guéhi and Adam Wharton in the lineup, the likelihood is they will climb soon.
West Ham are another club unexpectedly struggling to find any rhythm. A team that can boast players of the quality of Lucas Paquetá, Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus should be top-six contenders, yet the Hammers have won only once (2-0 at Palace) and the attractive football demanded by the fans is not being delivered as yet by manager Julen Lopetegui. There is also a lack of pace in some areas, which was brutally exposed in the recent home defeat to Chelsea.
What about players who might make some unexpected waves?
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Arsenal’s 17-year-old midfielder Ethan Nwaneri looks incredibly gifted; striker Jhon Durán at Villa is a maverick who has scored four times as a substitute; Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood is versatile and dependable in midfield or defence; and Nottingham Forest have found a proper centre-back in Nikola Milenkovic, who arrived from Fiorentina. Also, winger Harvey Barnes is at last forcing his way into the team after a flurry of well-taken goals for Newcastle, whose barren summer in the transfer market is not causing as many issues as some warned.
Should we be surprised by the continued struggles of Manchester United and Erik ten Hag? I’m afraid not. The display against Spurs was pitiful, and Ten Hag can surely not survive a repeat anytime soon. He is running out of time, and pleas for “patience” are not going to wash.
No shocks either from Manchester City, unless you count the absence from the team of last season’s PFA Player of the Year Phil Foden, who has started only two games — against Watford in the Carabao Cup and Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League. He was ill a while back, but is there something we do not know here?
As for Liverpool, now top of the table, the only shock is that the transition from Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot has gone so smoothly. They are enjoying coming up the rails in the shadows while the headlines are full of City and Arsenal, Pep Guardiola vs. Mikel Arteta. They will both need to watch Arne’s “Slot machine”!
