Chennaiyin FC secured a dominant win against East Bengal during the fifth game week of the Indian Super League. Brison Fernandes and Irfan Yadwad scored two goals each as the team finally found their rhythm. East Bengal struggled with fatigue and injuries, leaving them eager for the upcoming international break.
The fifth game week of the Indian Super League saw a big loss for the champions, a controversial win for one former champion, and a familiar type of win for another former champion.
We muse on GW5 of the ISL:
Chennaiyin find the goals, and how
Given how they'd played in their last three games, Chennaiyin would have had to score at some point, and when the tap opened, there were signs that it would overflow. One team was going to bear the brunt of them. That team was East Bengal.
The champions went to Chennai with an air of invincibility about them in domestic competition, but left with their tails firmly tucked in between their feet.
Brison Fernandes scored two, both precise curling finishes into the far-post. Ramon Tanque finally scored - it took him 19 shots to finally ripple the net. Irfan Yadwad scored two more as well, as East Bengal just had no answers to Chennaiyin's speed and precision in attack.
Irfan Yadwad with a brace and a SIUUU to top it off! ��
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Clifford Miranda's side are finally up and running.
East Bengal are lost, the international break comes at a perfect time
Four games without a win in the AFC Champions League Two, and now a thumping in the ISL in Chennai, East Bengal are only too happy now to head into that break for some time to refresh, regroup, and give their big guns some time off.
Fatigue has obviously been a factor in this recent drop-off in form, as was Anwar Ali's absence in Chennai, with an injury. However, Antonio Lopez Habas's choices also need questioning. He's just not used Lukasz Zwolinski and Chris Ikonomidis enough, and with those being foreigners with a reasonable amount of pedigree, that's been a strange choice from Habas.
That has had a direct impact of too much game time too soon for the likes of David Lalhlansanga and Edmund Lalrindika, who have recently shown the impact all that football has had on their legs.
First big refereeing controversy of the season
Bengaluru FC's winner against FC Goa just shouldn't have happened. And really, it was for no fault of Bengaluru. In fact, it was a beautifully worked move. A throw-in deep in their own half, worked into Ryan Williams in midfield, spread wide from there to Ashique Kuruniyan, slipped through to Soham Varshneya, for a finish into the corner. All in the 93rd minute, amazing football. The glitch here, the throw-in that should have never been.
Ricky Meetei tackled KC Malsawmsanga in the box - a fair challenge - and then Chinglensana Singh cleared the ball out into touch. Pretty straightforward Goa throw-in. Somehow, the officials didn't see that. Perhaps referee Pratik Mondal was distracted by the Goa players appealing for a penalty for that tackle from Ricky. Either way, there's no excuse for such mistakes. It wasn't marginal, it wasn't a difficult decision to make.
Chaos ensued in the dying minutes at the Fatorda, and the sequence of events will have left the Gaurs feeling hard done by.
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As it happened, it gave Bengaluru a priceless win, and they've now picked up five of their 10 points from four games, in the 90th minute or later.
Beware ISL, Mohun Bagan are in business
They're still not at their best, they're still giving their oppositions more chances than they'd like. But now they're winning games. That's what Mohun Bagan do. After a loss to NorthEast United in their opening game, Bagan have now won four ISL games in a row, and they're in a familiar spot on top of the ISL standings.
Lee Erwin's scored three this season, so has Dejan Drazic, and there's been serious impact from the likes of Liston Colaco and Anirudh Thapa, who have come up with crucial contributions at crucial times.
However, one thing Bagan don't usually do is let their opponents back in games when they're ahead. They did that twice against Odisha. The second time in particular, was so avoidable, as Mehtab Singh hit a clearance into Abhishek Tekcham's back, to allow Everton Nascimento a curling finish past Vishal Kaith.
Everton restored parity in #MBSGOFC before Erwin snatched the win at the death! ��
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It didn't matter in the end, because Bagan switched themselves on and created Erwin's winner. Mistakes or not, Bagan are winning again, and that's a big warning sign for the rest of the league.
NorthEast survive Churchill banana skin
Survive probably is the right word to use in this case, because Churchill created more chances, they created the better chances, but they just couldn't finish. When NorthEast had theirs, they were clinical.
Churchill had four big chances, through Angousana Luwang, Sebastián Gutiérrez, Dramane Salou and Wayde Lekay. NorthEast had no real big chances, but Antonio Moyano's finish in second half stoppage time to seal the win was a nice one, but the first one should've been stopped by Churchill.
Ethyan Gonzalez opened his ISL account, but his chip over Sayad Kadir should've been saved by the goalkeeper, who got himself caught in no man's land, and let the ball slip into the net off his fingertips.
