For football fans across Afghanistan, the English Premier League season just got even more exciting with the launch of the EPL Predict and Win Contest from Afghan Wireless. Now, as well as cheering on your favorite teams and players, you’ll have the chance to win great prizes from Afghan Wireless when you correctly predict the winner of upcoming EPL matches. For more contest information, dial 152 on your Afghan Wireless handset.
If you need a little help in picking your winning choices, read on to find out how the top-10 EPL teams (as of mid-March, 2017) are looking.
#1: Chelsea
With 21 wins in the season so far and a 10-point advantage over their closest rival, Chelsea is sitting comfortably at the top of the EPL pack. Thanks to a solid defensive component, as well as their incredibly dynamic midfielder N’Golo Kanté, many are convinced that Chelsea’s victory this season, which would be their second in three years, is assured. However, manager Antonio Conte is determined not to let a sense of complacency squander his team’s lead. Therefore, he is keeping a careful eye on close contenders Tottenham and Manchester City.
#2: Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs striker Harry Kane, who has scored three hat-tricks over the last nine games, is not only in the best form of his career, he’s also the outright top scorer in the EPL. His calm and dead-on precision have been the major force propelling Tottenham to its current standing as the EPL’s #2 team, with 16 wins and only three losses in the season so far.
#3: Manchester City
Tied for points with Tottenham (both teams are sitting at 56 points each), Manchester City’s quiet summer has been followed by a somewhat unpredictable season as the team negotiated a change in captaincy. However, things may be on the upswing again following City’s victories in all three EPL matches in February: a feat that earned manager Pep Guardiola the Premier League Manager of the Month award.
#4: Liverpool
According to their own manager Jürgen Klopp, consistency is one of Liverpool’s biggest challenges. Despite having taken 19 out of 27 possible points from the other top-six teams, Liverpool has struggled in their matches against some of the lower-ranked clubs, including Bournemouth (currently #14) and Leicester City (currently #15). Klopp is working to keep the team motivated and to reverse what he sees as the worrisome trend of disappointing results having a bigger effect on his players than positive ones do.
#5: Arsenal
Despite their respectable fifth-place ranking with 50 points, Arsenal is in a slump, which hit new lows with the team’s humiliating 5-1 home defeat against Bayern Munich in a recent Champions League match. Many blame manager Arsène Wenger, but he is standing firm in the face of protests from fans calling for him to step down. It remains to be seen whether his previous track record of consistent achievement will see Arsenal through with almost one-third of the EPL season still to play.
#6: Manchester United
Having started out the season as the most fascinating club in the Premier League, Manchester United has turned into what some are now calling a “specialist in draws.” The team has sat in sixth place for nearly five months, and if excellent goalkeeping has meant that they have conceded few matches, they haven’t secured many wins, either. They also haven’t yet reached 50 league goals, though all five teams above them have recorded half-centuries by now.
#7: Everton
Everton are out for a top-six finish this season—a feat that doesn’t seem that far fetched given their recent impressive run of nine unbeaten matches. However, if they are to keep hold of this goal, Everton and their striker Romelu Lukaku will have to bring more pressure and precision in future than they did in their match in early March against Tottenham, which ended their no-loss streak.
#8: West Bromwich Albion
Flying high in eighth place with 40 points, West Brom are enjoying their most successful spell ever in the Premier League, quashing dire predictions and remaining contenders for next season’s Europa League. Expect manager Tony Pulis to capitalize on this positive streak, if only to give fans something other to talk about than his ongoing dispute with Crystal Palace.
#9: Stoke City
While Stoke occasionally comes through with an impressive display, like their recent 0-0 draw against Manchester City, that frustrates top teams, their general record is one of poor performance against the elite. This track record often sees Stoke shuttling between the mid-table places without quite being able to crack the top tier. At this point in the season, fans are wondering if they should hope for more, or if the middle ground truly is as high as Stoke can go.
#10: Southampton
In tenth place, Southampton could still be in danger of relegation, but a recent impressive victory against Watford, during which striker Manolo Gabbiadini continued his hot scoring streak, could be a sign that the tables are turning. However, with big scheduling gaps between matches, manager Claude Puel worries about the difficulty of keeping training intensity and players’ motivation up.