DSTV Prem Weekend Review – Winners And Losers By OptaJabu

A new Bet Central feature in the 2021/22 season will be a Statistical Winners & Losers section, highlighting some of the weekend’s highs and lows from a statistical standpoint. We continue with this weekend’s action of the DSTV Premiership that was.

Mamelodi Sundowns – Winner

The winners list this season has been dominated by Sundowns – players, coaches, and the team itself, and you need just watch them for one game to understand why. We joked over the weekend that Downs may need a new motto, because the sky may not be enough of a limit. The last time they started a season so well was in 1999, their youngster Promise Mkhuma was not yet born. The Brazilians have won 16 points from their six league matches this season, their joint-best start at this stage of a PSL season (16 also in 1999/00). In the history of the PSL, only one team (Stuart Baxter’s Kaizer Chiefs in 2014/15) has won more points at this stage of a PSL campaign (18). We’ve praised their defence before, and if they continue to keep clean sheets, that praise will likely continue.

9 – Sundowns have now kept 9 consecutive league clean-sheets for the first time in their PSL history. Only Wits (10 CS in 2003/4 under Roger de Sa) have ever gone on a long run of clean sheets in PSL history.

Sekhukhune – Winner

The limelight has not been on the league’s automatically promoted side for many reasons. Have they even received their trophy and medals for the GladAfrica Championship? As long as they have positive results in their first top-flight season, it won’t matter one bit. Losing their very first top-flight game when the season started could have been discouraging, but they have only lost one game since then, and are sitting comfortably in 7th on the table.

Vincent Pule – Winner

Vincent Pule will turn 30 years old sometime during the course of this season. He should also make his 100th Pirates’ appearance in the league sometime this season. These are serious milestones for any player. Since joining Orlando Pirates in 2018, no player has made more league appearances for the club than he has (89), and in a sense, his inconsistency (despite the obvious talent) is a mirror image of his side’s inconsistency (despite the obvious talent) over the years. Pirates went on a winning run of 3+ league matches only twice under Zinnbauer, only twice under Micho, and only twice under Tinkler before them. Yet, as Pule is starting to find some of his best creative forms – hopefully, that will also reflect on the team.

4 – Pule has provided four assists in six league matches this season, having provided none throughout the whole of the 2020/21 season.

Royal AM – Winner

Another three points for John Maduka and his band of men. Since the start of last season, only three top-flight teams have managed to win four successive games (Sundowns, twice – once last season and once this season; and AmaZulu under Benni McCarthy). You can add Royal AM to that list, as they continue to surprise many.

12 – Royal AM remains the league’s top scorers this season, with 12 goals.

Knox Mutizwa – Winner

A goal, a missed penalty, another goal, then an own-goal – Knox has had a busy two weeks. He makes the Winners List, however, for setting a new Arrows record: 40 – Knox Mutizwa’s goal against Marumo Gallants was his 40th league goal for Golden Arrows, eclipsing Mabhuti Khanyeza (39) as the club’s all-time leading scorer in the PSL top-flight (excluding NFD).

Victor Letsoalo – Winner

We can’t include Royal Am as winners without including a vital cog in that machine – Victor Letsoalo. A few months ago in the COSAFA Cup, Letsoalo became the first South African player to score a hat-trick on his international debut, and only the second overall for Bafana after Benni McCarthy. He’s now set on reminding us that it was not a fluke. Only Peter Shalulile (15) has scored more goals in the league in 2021 than Victor Letsoalo (13, level with Thabiso Kutumela).

4 – Letsoalo has scored in four successive league matches for the first time in his career.

The Officiating – Loser

No one wins when the quality of the PSL product is undermined by poor officiating. Parts of the body (a team or player) may win in the short term, but the whole body (teams, fans, sponsors, and the sport) lose out in the long term.

Stuart Baxter – Loser

Stuart Baxter’s second coming at Naturena is less than ten games old, but he is already feeling the heat. You don’t need to be a lawyer to argue that 10 games are not enough for a coach to get his message across, infuse his style and culture, and get positive results. But ask Gavin Hunt – you don’t get too much time to do that here. A very fortunate penalty to gain a draw against AmaZulu should not hide that he was 60 seconds away from becoming the first coach in Chiefs’ PSL history to lose a league game away to Usuthu. To make matters worse, Sundowns are flying, and their 16 points in the opening six games are bettered only by one team in PSL history – Chiefs in 2014/15, under .. yes you guessed it … Stuart Baxter. If that is not an indication that his second coming is far from the glory of his first, we wonder what will be.

6 – Six points in the opening six games is Kaizer Chiefs’ joint-worst start at this stage of a PSL season (6 also last season and in 2007/8).

TS Galaxy – Loser

Still winless. Still bottom. Still a mess. What is the German for “What a mess”? Their new German/Serbian mentor may yet turn things around, but it must happen before everyone else disappears into the horizon.

Swallows – Loser

If losing to Sundowns was a criminal offence, SAPS would be a very busy institution. It can happen to anyone. So, that’s not the stick we’re beating Swallows with here. But in the last four games, Swallows have conceded 10 goals and scored none.

7 – Swallows have failed to score in seven consecutive matches in all competitions in this season. They failed to score in just five matches throughout all of last season.