[Football] Teams that have surprised you this year so far...

[Bry Nylon]

Palace. I thought they would be in the relegation fight but they've more or less been comfortable all season.

Palace really are the PL’s unflushable turd.

Even when they start a season by losing 8 in a row and you think they’re gone, they seem to somehow bob back up to the surface. Since Christmas they seem to adopted a rather novel approach for a football club by effectively giving up playing football altogether, yet they still accumulate points.

 

[warmleyseagull]

Norwich for me. Teams that do as badly as them in PL often tank in Championship but they are pretty much nailed on champions already. Kept Farke on, which is an unusual vote of confidence; perhaps lucky that the slow transfer market in summer meant that Pukki and Cantwell stayed. Be interesting to see if they adapt better second time round.

 

[warmleyseagull]

Palace really are the PL’s unflushable turd.

Even when they start a season by losing 8 in a row and you think they’re gone, they seem to somehow bob back up to the surface. Since Christmas they seem to adopted a rather novel approach for a football club by effectively giving up playing football altogether, yet they still accumulate points.

They, Burnley and Newcastle (to a lesser degree) have perfected the art of PL survival despite being shit. The X points (combination of Xga & Xg) table has Burnley 19th with 27 points and Palace 18th with 29. Only Man U, Leicester & Everton are ahead of them in terms of actual points in excess of X points. It is frustrating in this season more than most, but it doesn't seem a long-term strategy. X will sort you out at some point.

No prizes for guessing who is 8th in X table and has by a country mile the largest deficit of actual points compared to X points.

 

[southstandandy]

Cheltenham doing so well in League 2.

 

[amexer]

Sheffield Utd Didnt think they would sink so fast
Fulham Didnt think would pull back after such a poor start
Brenford Just admiration how they can sell 2 of best players £50/60m and still compete in such a tough division
Man Utd very surprised in 2nd place
Burnley For umpteenth time thought with style of play and lack of transfers will go down. Manager sticks to what he knows and it works

 

[Bry Nylon]

Cheltenham doing so well in League 2.

Cheers - Hadn't noticed that but just had a look at the table. Always had a soft spot for Cheltenham Town. Also, Cambridge Utd (in 2nd spot) are my nearest league club and back before covid I used to take my kids to games at The Abbey fairly frequently. I still have tickets here for Cambridge vs. Northampton last March which was the first round of games to be called off. League 2 football live is still a great experience.

Hopefully both Cheltenham and Cambridge can get promoted this season.

 

[Jeremiah]

Sheff U , Liverpool & Wolves - worse than I had thought

West Ham, Villa & Leeds - better than I thought.

 

[A1X]

I thought Spurs would be better and really in there for the top 4 this season

 

[Weststander]

I think this season is one off. Teams that might thrive with a raucous home crowd eg SheffU and Everton have been deprived of that and there's been a wide disparity by club of best 11 injuries (in a condensed season, more muscle injuries). Someone on here or another club's forum posted a graphc showing this.

Over the entirity of the season:

Villa, Manure, ManC, Fulham, Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal and Spuds have been incredibly lucky in this aspect. Villa essentially being able to play their strongest 10 or 11 every week, only recently hit by the loss of Socksie.

Bizarrely, Arteta and Maureenho haven't made that best 11 advantage count.

SheffU (their two best CB's), Liverpool, Wolves (Jiminez), Newcastle (a catalogue of best players out), CP and Stains hit hard.


Imho 2021/22 will see a bit of normality restored, home advantage back again and fewer injuries. I rate Moyes, but I can't see them topping a whole load of big guns again.


If we stay up, I think we'll thrive. Potter will have that much more experience and TB might fund some goal scorers.

 

[jessiejames]

Leeds thought they would struggle more. Villa about right due to how much they have spent. West Ham doing better than I expected, Liverpool WTF, since VVD injury a real slump, one man team.

 

[nwgull]

Leeds for me. They generally get well beaten by the teams in the top half, but seem to have a very useful knack of winning all their games against the bottom 7-8 so far, apart from against us.\

Norwich haven't surprised me at all. Teams that stick with the manager on relegation tend to do well the next season.

 

[Live by the sea]

West Ham very surprised- don’t think they are any better than we are But the Big difference is they do take a far higher percentages of the chances they create .

Didn’t expect sheff Utd to fall off a cliff like they have done .

 

[Gwylan]

Really surprised at the number of people saying Leeds. I think they're about where I thought they'd be - if anything, slightly worse than predicted at this stage ( I thought they'd lost to Liverpool at the start and then put a run together until the fixtures caught up with them).

I thought Sheff Utd would struggle a bit but not go off the cliff like that. Villa were always going to do better.

Like most people, the two that really surprise me are Liverpool and West Ham

In the championship, I'm shocked by Barnsley - had them down as relegation candidates with Wycombe and Massive

 

[LamieRobertson]

I think on this occasion it’s best that no pics are published

 

[banjo]

Burnley and Palace for me. Shite football but still grind out results to stay up.

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Mate is a West Ham fan. He's convinced they are doing well because of there being no fans. He gave the example of their game against Sheff Utd at home. They sat tight, bided their time and won it late. Clearly tactical and it worked but he's sure fans would have been hugely negative if they'd been there and had perceived the team to be "not having a go" early on.

They have had no fans in the vicinity for couple of years now.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Lower down,Cheltenham and Morecambe in Lge 2 along with Sutton Utd in The N/Lge thought that Torquay Utd would win that.

 

[Swansman]

No massive surprises (aside from West Ham, thought they would be mid-table). I had one set of predictions before the season and a quite different one after the transfer window closed. Tight schedule and Klopps way of training his squad was always going to collide for Liverpool and while I thought Sheffield would be better I cant say I'm shocked they are going down. All in all no big surprises.

 

[albionfan37]

For me:

West Ham and Villa
Never saw them doing as well as they have, especially West Ham.

Liverpool
The wheels really seem to have come off; admittedly they have a make-shift side but the swagger up front and PL goals and seem to have dried up.

Sheffield Utd
I never expected them to repeat last seasons consistency but then again I didn't expect them to completely implode either.

Brighton
I really expected a comfortable mid-table berth this season, not to be battling it out down the bottom again. There's always next season I guess.

Never know what you’re going to get with West Ham they’re as likely to get into Europe as get relegated
I thought villa would do better than last season I thought Sheffield United would struggle but not to the extent they have and Brighton are Brighton lol I do think with another years experience we could be on the cusp then again 17th is just as likely too

 

[big nuts]

Shows you the difference no fans make.

The most toxic atmosphere in the country is at West Ham typically. No fans and a huge improvement.

Some of the best fans around in Liverpool have seen them go from 80+ games unbeaten at home to six consecutive Anfield defeats.

I’m not suggesting this is purely down to fans, but an undoubted influence.

Barnsley in the Championship have definitely been the surprise package.