The Chinese Super League has gone through 21 rounds of matches, and Shanghai Harbour Team has won 16 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss during this period, accumulating 52 points and staying at the top of the table. They are already 14 points ahead of second-place Shanghai Shenhua, so it can be said that there is no longer any doubt about winning the championship. In terms of relegation, two out of three teams - Shenzhen, Dalian and Nantong - should be the more likely scenario, with too many clues yet to be determined.
Some of the mid-table teams seem to get less attention than the champions and relegation, but two teams whose records have caused some discussion recently are Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Changchun Yatai, two of the old Chinese Super League teams.
Both teams had a strong start to the season. Both teams were ranked in the top four for a long time. Tianjin Jinmen Tigers were fourth in the 16th round. Changchun Yatai, who won two consecutive matches, had won the first experience card and was ranked third in the ninth round of matches.
However, both teams have seen their records drop severely recently. Tianjin Jinmen Tigers recently won their last seven rounds of matches and even failed to get three points in their home matches against Nantong and Shenzhen.
Changchun Yatai also won in 7 rounds. Since beating Henan in the 14th round, its record stands at 5 draws and 2 losses. Like Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, both teams haven't lost much, but the key problem is that they can't always win.
While both of these teams are undefeated in seven rounds, the story behind them is a little different.
Four or five years ago, Changchun Yatai and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers were the teams perennially struggling in the relegation circle. In recent years, with the construction of Chen Yang and Yu Genwei, the label of relegation team is gradually torn off, but the content is different.
In recent years, Chen Yang has a good eye for choosing foreigners. Lennardo, who is on loan from Taishan, tops the scorer's list this season. However, Changchun Yatai didn't have much in mind, which means a bit rich. After accumulating enough points at the beginning of the season, Lennardo didn't renew his loan and veteran Sun Jie left, a period of seven rounds of victories directly related to Lennardo's departure.
Two years ago, Tianjin Jinmen Tigers almost disappeared from the Chinese soccer scene, but now have made great progress under the building of Genwei. The team's technical and tactical quality is very high, and local players such as Wang Qiuming, Barton, and Xie Weijun are also performing at a high level. However, the problem with Tianjin Jinmen Tigers is that the bench is not strong enough. When entering the sprint stage after half a season of amazing performance, the inferiority of the personnel level restrained the momentum of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. They have scored only 26 goals in 21 rounds of matches, which is the other team among the top 8 ranked teams that has not reached 30 goals, except Shanghai Shenhua who practiced 1-0ism.
