Thirteen games into the 2025-26 Indian Super League season, all fourteen clubs have played atleast once, giving us an early indication of how Indian football's top-flight will play out.
We have title contenders, relegation candidates, goal of the season contenders taking shape already; as well as the never-ending off-field drama associated with Indian football.
We muse, on games 5 to 13 of the ISL:
East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan for the title?
Two wins, goal differences of +4 and +6, six points on the board, and their strikers in goalscoring form. The giants of the Kolkata maidan are stamping their authority on the Indian Super League, and how. Granted, we are only two games into the season, but both East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have already separated themselves from the rest of the pack with their performances. Jamshedpur and Mumbai might also have the same amount of points, but they're unlikely to be able to keep up with the sheer quality that the Kolkata giants possess.
In Miguel Ferreira and Youssef Ezzejjari, Oscar Bruzon has one of the best attacking combinations in Indian football right now. Ferreira's languid style dovetails perfectly with Ezzejjari's intensity and eye for goal, which has resulted in the pair being involved in six of East Bengal's seven goals this season. An all-Indian defence has also looked the part, with Bruzon's side generating the most xG difference (3.10) of any team so far. This is still East Bengal however, a club famous for letting league titles slip, but in a truncated 13-game season (without playoffs and a final), will this finally be their year?
Not if Bagan have anything to say about it. The green-and-maroon side of Kolkata have picked up from their trophy-winning season without missing a beat. The coach may have changed, but it's the same recipe - stay compact and let the forwards do their thing. Jamie MacLaren has two goals in two, Dimi Petratos has a goal and an assist, and their defence has not let in any goal and has the least xG conceded of any team (0.4). Even 10 days into the ISL season, the Kolkata derby on May 3rd looks all set to be the title-decider. Both clubs have a couple of games after, but on this form, it's hard to see who can prevent a Kolkata title faceoff.
GCDA - Blasters fiasco a microcosm of Indian football
Not even 24 hours before the Kerala Blasters took to the pitch for their first home game of the season, they had been thrown out of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. Club officials and media were unceremoniously told to depart before the pre-match press conference, as the Greater Cochin Development Authority (who own the stadium) attempted a last-minute increase in matchday rent.
The Blasters are playing nine home games this season - so an attempted increase from 18 lakh to 37.8 lakh, on the eve of the first home game, felt almost like extortion. Bear in mind that the Blasters played 12 home games last season that cost them slightly upwards of a crore. The club even explored alternative stadiums this season, unable to afford the 8.4 lakh rental per game, before the GCDA Chairperson announced discounted 'one-time' rates to 2 lakh per game to entice the Blasters back. The GCDA then attempted to raise this to 4.2 lakh per game just before the Blasters faced Mumbai City, but faced with public backlash, the bigwigs got involved.
ℹ️ An update#KeralaBlasters #KBFC #YennumYellow pic.twitter.com/DdxCyVBsvn
- Kerala Blasters FC (@KeralaBlasters) February 21, 2026
Just have a gander at the names that the Blasters thanked in their social media post for resolving the matter, and you realize the problem with Indian football. Even a club as well-supported as the Blasters can be held to ransom, simply because the ISL ecosystem operated in a financial bubble that has well and truly burst. Political will has been keeping clubs afloat, not financial prudence. It is simply unsustainable, and the only way forward for Indian football is to become more self-reliant, with a long-term vision grounded in reality, not grandiose pie-in-the-sky PDFs.
Lalrinzuala Lalbiaknia with a goal / story of the season contender
What. A. Goal.
The run, the touch, the finish, almost reminiscent of some of Dennis Bergkamp's best. If that feels too big a name to associate with Lalrinzuala Lalbiaknia, you haven't been paying attention. Because, as he celebrated his first ISL goal in the far corner of the Sree Kanteerava stadium in front of the NorthEast United fans, the story that led to that moment was arguably better than the goal.
In another universe, Rinzuala could have been scoring that goal for Bengaluru FC. An unconfirmed but all-too-possible tale is that the forward, dealing with a recently deceased father, worked as a labourer to fund his trip to Bengaluru to trial with BFC as a 16-year-old. He featured in their youth setup for a couple of years before a bad injury saw him released. Rinzuala returned home, and a few short spells with other clubs later, signed for Aizawl in 2023. It turned his life around - he broke the record for the best-scoring Indian in an I-League season, held by Sunil Chhetri (big names, remember?). Talk of a national team callup followed, he had even agreed a deal with Mohun Bagan, only for an injury to ruin his medical and thus scupper the move.
Mandar Tamhane, once of BFC, brought him into the NEUFC fold, and two games into his ISL career, Rinzuala has well and truly announced himself - against BFC no less. It may have only taken him two seconds to score that goal, but it was decades in the making.
The relegation battle could be quite interesting this year
Fourteen will play, thirteen will survive, one will drop into the Indian Football League (formerly the I-League). Even two games in, there are early signs that we could be in for quite the relegation race this year - with a number of teams barely offering any opposition on the pitch.
Early season predictions have pitted Odisha FC and Sporting Club Delhi to be in the mix with newcomers Inter Kashi, but Antonio Habas' side have shown enough defensive nous to offer some hope. That Odisha have even made it to the pitch is a minor miracle, the club having begun pre-season only days ago. Their display was typically rusty, but they have a few ISL regulars to escape.
SC Delhi have bet the farm on Indian youth, but it looks to not have paid off after a couple of heavy defeats. They sit bottom of the table, and they might battle with an all-Indian Mohammedan SC to avoid relegation all season long. It's hard to see these teams keep clean sheets, even if their young Indian attackers seem promising. While Delhi and MSC seem all set to fight it out, a few clubs could be dragged into a relegation dogfight if they don't get their act together soon enough.
Kerala Blasters and Chennaiyin FC have both looked uninspiring, having not scored in 180 minutes of football en-route two defeats each. On paper, there's too much quality for either side to go down, but stranger things have happened in football. A poor run of form could snowball into something worse - and in a 13-game season, there might not be enough time to recover. While Delhi and Mohammedan could conceivably survive in the lower tier of Indian football, relegation for clubs like the Blasters and CFC with their sizeable operational budgets could sound the death knell for them.
Goa, Mumbai finding their feet, but there's no time
FC Goa shed off their rust to stroll to a 2-0 win over Mohammedan SC, and in doing so, looked their familiar selves again. The club arguably don't have as much motivation as the rest of the clubs, having already sealed their AFC Champions League 2 qualifier spot with their Super Cup victory. However, if the colour Manolo Marquez turned after Mohammedan nearly scored is any indication, Goa are going full pelt for the title. Marquez's fluid attacking quartet has already generated the most xG of any club so far, and even top defences would struggle.
Yet, Goa have dropped points already this season, and with only 11 games to go, it might come down to their fixtures against East Bengal (away) and Mohun Bagan (home). If Goa have slowly returned to form, the same can't be said of Mumbai City FC - who've looked rather dull in their two games so far, despite both being clean sheet victories.
Petr Kratky can boast of some superb foreign signings, but Mumbai have created only 1.9 xG across 180 minutes and have conceded an xG of 1. There's plenty of rust on show, but fortunately for Mumbai, they've managed to earn the results despite not appearing to be at their best. It's said to be the mark of champions, but an xG difference of 0.9 after two games doesn't exactly scream title-winners.