Egyptian kings and statement wins

Your narrative-focused monthly football round-up. Telling the story as the season unfolds.

Manchester City bounced back from their relegation form (1 win in 13, including 9 defeats) of November and December with 5 wins in January. They scraped through into the Champions League playoffs with a Matchweek 8 victory against Club Brugge and climbed back into the top four of the Premier League. They’ve also spent £125m on new players, so back to business as normal at The Etihad.

On England’s south coast, Bournemouth ignited a bid for European football with an undefeated January, delivering statement victories away at Newcastle and at home against Nottingham Forest, two of the most in-form teams in Europe. Across 6 January matches Bournemouth scored 17 goals, including 4 at St James’s Park and 5 unanswered goals against 3rd place Nottingham Forest. 

After doing everything they could through November and December to throw away what had started looking like a procession to their 28th La Liga crown, Barcelona got back to winning ways in January in emphatic style. Through 8 games they plundered 31 goals, which included victories against Valencia (7-1), Benfica (5-4), Real Betis (5-1), and a 5-2 tonking of Real Madrid to claim the Supercopa de España (in Saudi Arabia, obviously). It’ll be tough to get back to the top in La Liga though. From being 6 points clear at the top of La Liga in November, Barcelona now sit 7 points adrift in 3rd.

No such problems in Naples. Napoli lost the second of their talisman duo this month after seeing Victor Osimhen depart for Galatasaray in the summer (22 G+A so far this season in the Turkish capital). Khvicha Kvaratskhelia departed for PSG in January, but Napoli keep on rolling unperturbed. Napoli are the form team in Europe right now, riding a 7 game win streak and currently sitting atop Serie A. However, defending champions Inter are only 3 points back with a game in hand, so it’s very much game on in Italy. Napoli are already out of the Coppa Italia and after a dismal title defence last season (10th place) have no European football to worry about either, whereas Inter are fighting strong on all fronts. This is the title race to watch.

After Juventus’ defeat last time out against the aforementioned red-hot Napoli, PSG are the sole remaining team from Europe’s ‘Top 5’ with an undefeated league record. The fact it took until 25th January for Juventus to suffer their first league defeat is somewhat suggestive of a flourishing season, but the stat is deceptive. Juventus sit in 5th place, some 16 points behind leaders Napoli, largely as a result of so many drawn games. 13 league draws to be precise, a tally unmatched not just across Serie A but across Europe’s ‘Top 5’. Brighton and Bologna are the only other teams with a double-figure draw count and even they don’t come particularly close (10). Hard to beat, struggling to win. 

PSG, on the other hand, continue their romp towards yet another Ligue 1 title, with the added prospect of aiming for an unbeaten season, one of the few things they haven’t yet been able to accomplish.

Returning to England, David Moyes is back at Everton, and they’re showing early signs of picking-up where they left-off twelve long years ago. Sean Dyche can feel rightly aggrieved (when does he not?) after a fairly impressive, if somewhat uninspiring, December. A 4-0 victory against Wolves and consecutive draws against Arsenal, Chelsea and City was only marred by defeats to Manchester United and high-flying Forest. Still, all change at Goodison. Moyes is in and has started with 2 wins from his first 3 games, beating both Spurs and Brighton. The third was a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa. They now have a 7 point cushion to the relegation zone and the first flicker of some hope. 

After racking-up eight wins on the bounce through November and December, Chelsea hit a bit of a skid, winning only 2 of the next 8, drawing 3 and losing the other 3. It sees them end January in 6th. Elsewhere in London, Tottenham’s woeful league form continues unabated, even whilst they march on in three different cup competitions.

Goals & Assists Leaders

Mohamed Salah remains out on his own at the top as he continues to plunder goals and assists, with 40 so far to his name this season.

1 - Mohamed Salah - 40 G+A. 23 goals & 17 assists

2 - Raphinha - 34 G+A. 23 goals & 11 assists

T3 - Omar Marmoush - 33 G+A. 20 goals & 13 assists

T3 - Harry Kane - 33 G+A. 24 goals & 9 assists

5 - Robert Lewandowski - 32 G+A. 29 goals & 3 assists

January Goals & Assists Leaders

In January though it was Lautaro Martínez and Rodrygo who ruled the roost, with a combined 10 goals and assists each from their 8 matches. In scintillating form, Justin Kluivert needed only 5 matches to bag himself 9 goals and assists.

10 - Lautaro Martínez, Rodrygo

9 - Justin Kluivert, Raphinha

8 - Kylian Mbappé, Phil Foden, Bradley Barcola, Ousmane Dembélé

7 - Robert Lewandowski, Alexander Isak, Jude Bellingham, Ollie Watkins

Win Streaks & Clean Sheets

At a club level it’s Napoli who are setting the tone heading into February, with 7 straight wins. Not far back are Real Madrid with 5 straight victories, unsurprising given Rodrygo, Mbappé and Bellingham alone combined for 25 G+A in January.

Augsburg snapped from a run of 3 defeats right into a sequence of 3 wins whilst Manchester United also make a surprise appearance with 3 straight victories. Their 2-0 victory over FCSB in Matchweek 8 sealed United’s status as the only team to successfully navigate the Champions League or Europa League group stage unbeaten. Signs of life again at the Theatre of Dreams?

January saw Atleti’s impressive win streak come to an end after 15 straight victories with a surprise defeat to Leganes, setting a benchmark that’ll be tough to beat.

It’s Napoli’s title rivals Inter who lead with way with clean sheets, keeping a total of 20 from their 32 games so far this season. 7 of those came in the Champions League group stage, where Inter conceded only one goal.

14 teams won themselves promotion to the big leagues in the summer; so far this season their fortunes have been mixed. The safest bet to still be around next season are St. Pauli, who currently sit 13th in the Bundesliga after back-to-back wins and are 8 points clear of the automatic relegation spots and 6 clear of the playoff spot. Not to be outdone, Angers hit their own purple patch in January, stringing together 3 straight league wins and adding 2 Coupe de France victories to boot. They also sit in 13th. Amongst the promoted sides, only Leganes and Auxerre (23) have more points than Angers’ 22. Unfortunately for Leganes the fight for survival in La Liga is tight, meaning their 23 points leaves them only 3 points above the dropzone.

Bottom of the class are Southampton, with a measly 6 points, forlorn and adrift, the only team across the ‘Top 5’ with less than 10 points. With 15 games remaining the only target right now is somehow finding a way to beat Derby’s 11 points from 2007-08. Above, it’s looking highly likely that at least one of Ipswich and Leicester join them in dropping straight back down to the Championship, and very possibly both of them if Wolves can find a way to pull themselves together.

Como have been grabbing plaudits recently in Serie A, and currently sit in 14th, but they’re only 2 points above the drop. Keep your eyes on Serie A and La Liga if relegation dogfights are your thing.

🦅 Can Marmoush continue his form at City? And how well will Eintracht Frankfurt cope without him?

Omar Marmoush has been keeping elite company so far this season. His tally of 33 goals and assists trails only Salah’s obscene total of 40 and Raphinha’s 34. He shares 3rd place on the G+A leaderboard with Harry Kane and sits one contribution above Robert Lewandowski. His transfer-disrupted January has meant he’s only played 3 games this month, but he’s on for a monumental season if he can get anywhere close to sustaining his Eintracht Frankfurt form at City. 

As for Eintracht Frankfurt, that’s a huge goal threat to replace. Across all competitions, Marmoush was involved in 33% of The Eagles’ goals - even Salah can’t claim to be so indispensable (28%). The good news is that Hugo Ekitiké is already jostling for the crown, netting 4 goals in the 4 games The Eagles have been without Marmoush, taking his G+A total for the season up to 22.

🌳 Can Nottingham Forest stick with it at the top of the table? 

Nottingham Forest won 7 straight through December and into January, but after a sizable wobble against Bournemouth the chasing pack are now well within sight. Some tricky fixtures in February will go a long way to shaping the final order of the top eight teams. 

🍒 Is Justin Kluivert the real deal? 

He’s probably the hottest ticket in town in 2025 so far. 5 matches, 6 goals, 3 assists and leading Bournemouth to 4 wins and a draw. He has 2 hat-tricks in as many months and 17 G+A so far this season. Are we finally seeing the realisation of the promise first exhibited 9 years ago as a 17 year old kid at Ajax?   

🦇 Can Valencia avoid the drop? 

A recent win against Real Sociedad got Valencia off the bottom of the table, but whatever glimmer of hope climbing to 19th place offered, it was quickly snuffed out by a rampant, merciless Barcelona. They’re currently 5 points adrift and close to being in serious trouble.