State of Play: Analysis of Major European Leagues, November International Break
The world of football has reached another international break, the last one in 2014 and indeed the last one until March of next year. It provides clubs and managers with a chance to assess how things are progressing in the 2014-15 season and perhaps get one or two players back from injury, too.
We're taking another look around the top European leagues to see just who is performing best in each country. We're examining players, teams and statistics and seeing who needs a big improvement over the coming weeks, ahead of the busy Christmas period in England and winter breaks in other leagues.
Here's our round-up of the big four leagues plus the best of the rest, so feel free to contribute more below and mention your standout players—and those who need a reminder of what they're capable of!
Premier League
1 of 5
Unbeaten sides: Chelsea
Fewest wins: Burnley, one
Highest scorers: Chelsea, 28 goals
Worst defence: Queens Park Rangers, 22 conceded
Unexpected achievers: Southampton, second place, West Ham United, fourth, Swansea City, fifth
Underperformers: Liverpool, 11th and Tottenham Hotspur, 12th
Quirky stats: Arsenal have been awarded more yellow cards than any other side (29) but no reds. Swansea manage the second-fewest shots per game, just 9.5, yet have scored 15 goals, more than well over half the league. The top three assisters in the league are Cesc Fabregas (nine), Gylfi Sigurdsson (seven) and Dusan Tadic (six)—all new signings in summer.
Chelsea look set to walk the title with their strong squad, ironclad belief and lack of anything approaching a genuine challenger, with the Premier League clubs seemingly intent on showing who can perform furthest below their intended level rather than too many positives.
Southampton, Swansea City and West Ham have all been excellent in their own ways, all sitting in the top five. Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United must all be wondering just what they need to do to get their defensive setups working properly. Hint: organisation and set plays.
Sergio Aguero continues to drag Manchester City forward in league play, scoring 12 goals this term to be the league's top scorer. Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez has made a big impact in his debut Premier League season, as has Chelsea's Diego Costa.
The bottom three of the league is made up of all three newly promoted sides, who have managed two wins between them in their last 15 combined matches.
La Liga
2 of 5
Fewest defeats: Valencia and Celta Vigo, one each
Fewest wins: Cordoba, yet to win
Highest scorers: Real Madrid, 42 goals
Worst defence: Levante, 25 conceded
Unexpected achievers: Valencia, third place and Sevilla, fifth place
Underperformers: Real Sociedad, 15th and Athletic Bilbao, 11th
Quirky stats: Barcelona and Real Madrid have both netted 24 goals from open play. Atletico Madrid have managed just six, but have a whopping 13 from set pieces—three teams in La Liga have none, including Barcelona. Eibar have the lowest pass success rate in the league, just 67 percent, but are in the top half of what is widely considered the most technical league around.
Real Madrid have usurped Barcelona as the big team in form; Carlo Ancelotti's men have won a thoroughly ridiculous 13 consecutive matches in all competitions, since losing back-to-back league games against Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid earlier in the season.
Sticking with those three sides, Real Sociedad have just announced David Moyes will replace Jagoba Arrasate; so far, their only two wins this season have come against the Madrid teams, La Liga winners Atletico and Champions League winners Real.
The storylines to watch are numerous and exciting. The race for the Champions League spots looks to be between Valencia (impressive, solid but overly cautious at times) and Sevilla (pacy, direct, flagging of late). However, Malaga and Celta Vigo are two good teams as well, one pragmatic and the other free-flowing, both just outside the top four so far.
Eibar continue to confound sceptics by sitting in the top half, while Cordoba are very much struggling to get to grips with the top flight and look rather doomed already.
Bundesliga
3 of 5
Unbeaten sides: Bayern Munich
Fewest wins: Stuttgart, Werder Bremen, Hamburg, Freiburg, two wins each
Highest scorers: Bayern Munich, 27 goals
Worst defence: Stuttgart, 25 conceded
Unexpected achievers: Wolfsburg, second place and Hannover, fourth
Underperformers: Borussia Dortmund, 15th
Quirky stats: In 11 games, Bayern Munich have conceded one goal less (three) than Hamburger SV have scored (four). Borussia Dortmund average 17.5 shots per game, the third-highest in the league, yet their only winning goal of late was a 45-yard own goal.
Bayern remain an unstoppable train at the top of the table in the Bundesliga, already clear by four points and in the knowledge that they have almost three times the points tally of last year's big rival, Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund themselves were bottom of the table before finally winning last weekend. Schalke are 11th, the same place they were when Roberto Di Matteo took over, but by points are further away from the top four than when he joined.
Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolfsburg have both been impressive, making up the top three this season, and face each other at the end of November. Hamburger SV and Stuttgart both look as though this will be one campaign too many for them in the top flight; neither have looked remotely solid and they both occupy the automatic relegation places.
Serie A
4 of 5
Fewest defeats: Juventus and Sampdoria, one each
Fewest wins: Cesena, one win
Highest scorers: Juventus, 25 goals
Worst defence: Parma, 28 conceded
Unexpected achievers: Sampdoria, fourth place and Genoa, sixth
Underperformers: Parma, 20th and Fiorentina, 11th
Quirky stats: Juventus feature in the top two of the league for average possession per game, shots per game and pass success rate. Only eight goals have been scored off counter-attacks in the whole of the league. Josip Ilicic is in the top 10 for players' shots per game (3.1) but has only scored once.
Juve and Roma continue to be the top two sides in Serie A, with the Turin giants winning the battle between the two for top spot and also triumphing during the 90 minutes against each other a few weeks ago.
Napoli have been resurgent and have shot from the bottom half up to third, thanks largely to the goals of Spanish forward Jose Callejon, the league's joint-top scorer. Bad news came with Lorenzo Insigne's cruciate ligament injury, however, with the player out of action for around six months, per Sky Sports.
Going forward, the first big clash to look out for is the Milan derby—Sunday November 23, AC Milan vs. Inter Milan. With both still floundering in mid-table, it's not as key as it might once have been, but it could still be critical for both managers' job security.
A week later the Turin derby sees Juve and Torino lock horns, while Sampdoria vs. Napoli will also be an intriguing measure of Samp's ability to sustain a top-three challenge.
Other Major Leagues
5 of 5
Fewest defeats: Unbeaten—PSG, Ligue 1; Porto, Portuguese Primeira. One defeat—FC Twente, Eredivisie; Zenit and Kuban Krasnodar, Russian Premier; Benfica, Vitoria Guimaraes and Sporting, Portuguese Primeira.
Fewest wins: Yet to win—Gil Vicente, Portuguese Primeira. One win—Dordrecht, Eredivisie; Arsenal Tula and Torpedo Moscow, Russian Premier; Penafiel and Academica, Portuguese Primeira.
Ligue 1 still sees Olympique Marseille, under the leadership of Marcelo Bielsa, sit atop the league table—but they have suffered two defeats in their last three games and their lead is cut is a single point ahead of Paris Saint-Germain, the defending champions. Lyon are the in-form side though, up to third after five successive wins, with young forward Alexandre Lacazette proving himself one of the best in the league. Last year's runners-up, Monaco, are down in eighth. Every side in Ligue 1 has won at least three matches.
PSV hold a healthy four-point lead at the top of the Dutch Eredivisie, with a run of five wins putting them clear of Ajax, though they needed a last-minute winner to beat relegation battlers Heracles last time out. The league's top scorer is Michiel Kramer, a 25-year-old who has never before netted double figures in the top flight. His nine goals for ADO Den Haag is still only enough to lift the team to 14th in the 18-team league. Bottom club Dordrecht have lost seven consecutive fixtures.
To Russia and the Premier League, where Zenit had extended their lead at the top after beating rivals CSKA Moscow recently—but then suffered their first defeat of the season, 3-1 at home to Terek Grozny, at the weekend. Even so, they lead by seven points after 13 games and look certain to win the league barring an implosion; Andre Villas-Boas has the team organised, confident and scoring for fun. The two Krasnodar sides are in the top five, with only CSKA of the five Moscow sides managing those to reach such heights.
Finally, the Portuguese Primeira Liga sees a familiar leader in Benfica after 10 matches. Porto are third, with Vitoria Guimaraes the surprise team in second, after they have won their last four to climb impressively. Sporting Lisbon, with Marco Silva now in charge, have only lost once—but have only won four. All those draws leave Sporting down in eighth place, way off the title charge. Twenty-year-old Talisca, called up this week to the full Brazil squad, is top scorer with eight goals.
