Since the ISL did something it does at times -- play for a couple of weeks without a break -- we muse today on matchweeks 16 and 17.
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Hyderabad play a role in the title race
Just how peak ISL is it that the team tripping up the challengers to the crown is the team that's farthest away from it? FC Goa and Bengaluru FC would have looked at their fixtures against Hyderabad and licked their lips -- before this, Hyderabad had taken just one point off the previous seven games, and that was off a hapless East Bengal. This would be a formality, they thought, a chance to keep up with (or even get closer to) Mohun Bagan.
Shameel Chembakath and his men had different plans. They travelled to the Fatorda, near as well matched them for possession (51% vs 49%) and shots on target (5 vs 4) in a battling display that saw them earn a deserved 1-1 draw. Ten days later they hosted Bengaluru FC and outplayed them in the final third (xG of 0.99 vs 0.46, 6 shots on target vs 1), and only lost two points to the belligerence of Sunil Chhetri.
Those two results mean Goa are six and Bengaluru eight behind Mohun Bagan... and they may not be done yet. Up next, they host the unlikely challengers from Jamshedpur.
Bengaluru slowdown a concern
BFC have played three games in 2025 and are yet to win one. What will concern them is how they've been unable to turn winnable positions against beatable opposition into tangible points. Against Jamshedpur, they had 1.61 xG vs 0.61 while against Mohemmadan it was 1.71 xG vs 1.16. Against Hyderabad it took a Sunil Chhetri masterclass in far post heading (he now has 10 goals in the league, what form!) to salvage a point in a game where their unfancied opponents were palpably better for the most part.
Having started the season with the bit between their teeth, BFC have slowed down to a jog now. For Gerard Zaragoza, it's imperative that they don't come to a standstill now -- that home fixture against Odisha on Wednesday is a big one.
Are Jamshedpur the most dangerous threat to Mohun Bagan?
If they could play all their matches in Jamshedpur, in the stadium they call the Furnace, then definitely. At home, they've taken 22 points from a possible 27 (at 2.44 points per game); away, that's six points in six. They hosted Mohun Bagan and weathered a veritable storm before Stephen Eze channeled his inner Franz Beckenbauer to dribble from within his half to inside the Bagan box, and level things up with a lovely finish. That point is the first Bagan have dropped in four games.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!! ����
A moment of pure brilliance from Stephen Eze to level the score in #JFCMBSG ��#ISLonJioCinema #ISLonSports18 #JioCinemaSports #LetsFootball pic.twitter.com/6dKfG60m1r
- Sports18 (@Sports18) January 17, 2025
What will worry the Bagan faithful (alongside their hopeless conversion, underperforming xG massively in the last two matches) is what Jamshedpur did in their previous game. Travelling to Mumbai, they clinically dismantled the reigning champs 3-0, a sign that their travelling blues might be coming to an end. If they can keep this pressure up, they will emerge as the ones Bagan need to look out for the most.
P.S. Mumbai City have lost three games 0-3 at home this season. It's really not been a good one for Petr Kratky and co.
Kerala Blasters make a late push under Purushothaman
Over the last five games (i.e. since the sacking of Mikael Stahre), only Mohun Bagan have taken more points than Kerala Blasters. After taking just 11 points in their first 12 matches, they've taken 10 in these next five... and they've been accompanied by some decent performances. Their win against Odisha showed attacking resilience of the kind that was missing all season, while their backs-to-the-wall 10-men-for-an-hour effort to keep NorthEast United was a sensational show of defensive organization.
The fans continue to tussle with the management, as is their right considering what they've been seeing on the field, but TG Purushothaman and his assistant (and Blasters youth side coach) Tomasz Tchorz are shaping this team to be late, late contenders for a playoff spot.
NorthEast seem stuck in a rut... where Odisha and Chennaiyin have been all season
19 shots against the Blasters and zero goals, 16 against Goa for one, 11 against Punjab for one and a frankly ridiculous 25 against Mohemmadan for none... the past four matches have been an exercise in frustration for Juan Pedro Benali's (till then) high-flying NorthEast United. They had, after all, scored 29 in their previous 13 games and that was the one area he would have assumed wasn't going to be a problem for them. It is now, though, and they will need to find a way out of this rut if they are to fight off late challengers for their still nowhere-near-guaranteed playoff spot.
The gaffer sets his sights on the next one! ��️#StrongerAsOne #8States1United pic.twitter.com/v2LFmWk00s
- NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) January 19, 2025
Speaking of ruts, hello Odisha and Chennaiyin. Odisha, in seventh, have five points in the last five and it's been a big fall from potential title challenger on paper to struggling to fight for the playoffs. Chennaiyin, even further back in 10th, also have five points in five and look stuck in a bog. Both teams have the managers, and the playing personnel, to do much better (especially Odisha, in terms of squad) but can they climb out of their ruts so late in the season?
East Bengal and Punjab FC continue to lose steam
Across November and December, East Bengal racked up four wins and two draws in seven games, their best run in quite some time in the ISL. January, though, has seen three losses in three, and they are back to languishing near the bottom of the table (11th now, three points off 10th and ten adrift off the playoff spots). While the losses may seem narrow on the surface (2-3, 0-1, 0-1), they were outplayed in all three and for a fanbase that demands so much more, this is turning out to be a season of yet more woe.
Punjab, meanwhile, had a superb start to the season, winning six of their first nine games, but have now failed to win any of their last six (including four losses). The last two games have seen a bit of an uptick (two draws, even for the most part), but that head of steam they'd build up in the first half of the season has simply vanished. Panagiotis Dilmperis has to dig deep now to rediscover some momentum and make what is still a very plausible push for the top six.