Who are the mid-season Premier League surprise hits? Which player has shone, which club are causing eyebrows to be raised and which manager has been a surprise success at this stage of the season?
Premier League Surprise Hits at The Mid-Season Stage
Surprise Player Hit Award – Tomas Soucek
Tomas Soucek has had a positive impact on West Ham United’s rise up the Premier League table as they sit in fifth position and just six points off the summit of the Premier League.
Soucek is a powerful midfielder and has weighed in with seven Premier League goals in 20 appearances, contributing to ten victories so far with four of his goals directly resulting in three points for the Hammers.
Soucek has a 74.1% pass success rate in the Premier League and has won an average of six aerial duels per match. The £17 million paid for him is fast looking like a bargain and he can be the player to fire West Ham into Europe.
Surprise Manager Hit Award – Brendan Rodgers
The 2016 Premier League title win was just a one-off moment of football history that amazed everyone and it has been the sentiment ever since May 2nd that year when Leicester City lifted the title. Fast forward nearly five years and Brendan Rodgers has Leicester dreaming of success once more.
Sitting just two points off the top of the table, Rodgers has got Leicester playing the type of football that saw them defy all of the odds to take the title back in 2016 and he has to be commended for the job he has done.
He has Jamie Vardy on form and has nurtured players such as James Maddison and Harvey Barnes into players worthy of getting their hands on the Premier League for Leicester City once more.
Surprise Team Hit Award – West Ham United
In the past eight seasons, West Ham have finished no higher than seventh in the Premier League and ahead of the current Premier League season, there was little to suggest that anything other than a mid-table finish would be on the cards again.
However, at the mid-term point of this 2020/21 season, David Moyes’ men find themselves in fifth place and dreaming of European football next season.
Tomas Soucek has been a big part in the climb up the table as well as the continued improvement of Declan Rice, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio has chipped in with five goals in ten appearances this season.
West Ham have had a soft underbelly over the years but demonstrated their resolve and fighting spirit in particular when they came back from 3-0 down with less than 20 minutes to play at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat.
West Ham are third in terms of home form this season which is a step forward as the London Stadium has not been the most successful move for the club. Whether the lack of fans has actually taken the pressure off a touch remains to be seen when fans finally do return to stadiums, hopefully this season.
What Next?
With the 2020/21 season throwing up some strange results, the second half of the season is going to be one of the most exciting in years with no team running away with the title and even down to mid-table there are teams in with a chance of qualifying for European competition next season.
Which players will be the Premier League surprise hits as the season continues? Can West Ham United break the top six or even the top four? Will Brendan Rodgers take Leicester City to a second incredible title win in just five seasons? Could Soucek go on to be a surprise player of the season?
All these questions will be answered as the Premier League continues to its 23rd May conclusion.
The Premier League remains a hotspot for gaming brands, despite losing in-stand attendance. Many brands have succeeded in capturing television markets thus far this season. The influx of new sportsbooks in the UK have bucked the 2020 trend, ending with a strong Q4. Online books such as PartyCasino, which launched both virtual sports and a soon-to-be released formal sportsbook, have had good success in the first have the Premier League season.
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