Mohun Bagan are top again, Mohammedan are off their duck, East Bengal and Bengaluru FC played out a classic, Mumbai City slipped finally and Kerala Blasters have a massive problem on their hands.
We muse on the ISL week gone by:
Mohun Bagan, do you not get bored?
Storms. Lightning. A water-logged pitch that brought back the best return-to-school-in-monsoon memories. Nothing can stop Mohun Bagan.
A lovely Sahal Abdul Samad pull back was met with an equally lovely Robinho finish and the most stacked team in the league once again showed just how unbeatable their squad depth was. Combine this win with Mumbai's loss to Goa, and they now lead Mumbai by two points (and Goa by four) atop the league table.
Of course they do.
A Mumbai loss, finally, as Nemil shines
A combination of Lallianzuala Chhangte and a rock-solid defence had powered Mumbai City to five wins and three draws in their first eight games, but in their ninth, they ran into an inspired FC Goa.
Goa had come into the season the best prepared, thanks to their presence in the AFC Champions League Two, but started it so poorly they looked down and out of any title race. Now, they are just four points behind Bagan, thanks to a dominant 2-0 win over high-flying Mumbai City.
Sahil Tavora opened the scoring with a neat finish, but it was Mohammed Nemil's second (his first in the ISL) that took the breath away: it's the most nonchalant long-range screamer this writer has seen, a piledriver hit with the casual air of a two-yard sideways pass. After the match, coach Manolo Marquez said that his young playmaker does this all the time in training and that he's finally showing it in competition. There's surely more to come from Nemil soon.
Meanwhile, City's slip meant they now go back to chasing Bagan, and that's never a great position to be in.
Mohammedan finally find points, but surely, it's too late
Two games this week and Mohammedan have finally got two points on board. The first came in an 1-1 against Odisha where Adison Singh tapped in an equaliser after VP Suhair had given the dominant home side a first half-lead. They were perhaps a bit lucky to take a point (Odisha's lackadaisical finishing certainly helped) but considering the season they've been having a bit of luck was due their way.
As for the 0-0 at Chennaiyin on Monday... it happened, Mohammedan got another point, and now we move on. Thank you.
East Bengal vs Bengaluru = match of the season
Oh, what a cracker this was.
East Bengal vs Bengaluru had everything -- a packed Salt Lake; an Ashique Kuruniyan right-footed screamer (no, really); an Anwar Ali bicycle kick; a red card for East Bengal's Miguel Figueira early on, with the score at 1-1; a Suresh Singh tap-in; a sensational Ryan Williams finish from what looked an impossible, zero angle; a special Saul Crespo belter from the edge of the area; a 97th minute Anton Sojberg equaliser.
It ended 3-3, one of those classic draws where one team will feel they dropped two points (Bengaluru) and the other will feel they gained one (East Bengal)... and the sheer fight the home side showed, despite playing most of the match with ten men was truly admirable.
In the bigger picture, the result sees EB pull BFC down into a upper-mid-table fight where EB, BFC and Jamshedpur are tied on 15 points (five behind Bagan), a point behind Goa and a point ahead of Punjab FC.
Kerala Blasters have a fight on their hands, but it's not on the pitch
If you're wondering why Jamshedpur are still on 15 points, it's because they went to Kochi and got thoroughly outplayed. Nihal Sudeesh and Vibin Mohanan put the finishing touches on a superb display by Ashley Westwood's men, but their problems are far from over.
For watching from the stands in Kochi were a mere handful (relative to the usual sea of yellow). The boycott from the biggest official fans group (Manjappada) continues in full swing while another official body, the Fan Advisory Board has written a letter of no-confidence in the club's management.
Blasters legend and fan favourite CK Vineeth, meanwhile, came out and said that fans ought to attend matches and let their feelings be known in person, via chants and tifos and banners and the like... and you can see his point about sticking with the team through thick and thin. Especially from a player's perspective: they are trying their best and they would love the support.
However, these are fans from a state where boycotts are the chosen way to protest perceived injustice. In this case, it is also a response calculated to hurt the management -- whose entire brand revolves around this fandom, and who have nothing in the trophy cabinet to fall back on -- the most. From their point of view, if they were to go back in, the back of the protest would be broken. After all, empty seats speak to TV audiences and watching brands in a way no banner and tifo can, in a manner that can't be PR-spun in any other way.
With fans and management at such loggerheads and no easy way out on the horizon, this could get uglier and messier and may very well not end with this season.
What else happened?
Punjab dismantled Inter Kashi in the most one-sided fixture we've seen this season, big Nsungusi Effiong at the heart of everything good they did. Chennaiyin outmuscled SC Delhi 1-0. Andy scored one of the great slapstick own goals while Rinzuala scored a hilarious tap-in as NorthEast drew the Kerala Blasters in KBFC's other home game this week.