It’s Kaizer Chiefs v Supersport and Cape Town City v Swallows as the PSL season cruises through into the second half of the campaign. We’ve crunched the numbers – historic, present and forgotten – to help you with some context around what’s happening this weekend.
15:00 – Kaizer Chiefs v Supersport (Saturday)
The New Year had started kindly for Kaizer Chiefs and Gavin Hunt. They welcomed back Samir Nurkovic and enjoyed a brief 5-game unbeaten run, including a run of three successive wins in January. However, three successive defeats have turned the picture on its head again – Chiefs have now gone five games without a win in all competitions.
Their visitors have started 2021 on a brighter note, losing just one game in the league. Only Sundowns (18) have won more points than Supersport (16) in the league this year. Led by Bradey Grobler & with the 2-1 win over Cape Town City as their latest backdrop, Kaitano Tembo’s men will be confident for goals against this Chiefs side. No team has scored more goals than Supersport since the turn of the year (14).
Gavin Hunt & co are still licking their wounds from the AmaZulu defeat this week, but even the red card may not be an excuse when you consider that no team has seen more reds than Chiefs this season (3). Defeat on Saturday would make Supersport the first team to which Hunt loses Home & Away in the same league season of his Chiefs career.
The double whammy – Supersport were the last team to which he lost Home & Away in the same season at Wits.
The triple whammy – Gavin Hunt used to coach Supersport.
Indeed, Chiefs have won just one of the last nine league matches v Supersport (D5 L3, since 2016), but it’s a fixture that never bores. In the last 13 years, only one league game between the sides has seen less than 0.5 goals, with the last two delivering Over 2.5 goals each.
Since the November international break, only one out of Supersport’s thirteen games has had less than 1.5 goals in the league. For Chiefs, only 3 out of 13 games have seen less than 1.5 goals in the same time.
1 – Supersport have scored Over 0.5 in every game they have played this season except for the game against Sundowns. No side has fewer blanks (Arrows also 1FTS).
3 – This is the third time this season that Chiefs have gone a 5 game winless run (also in November & December). They have had as many 5-game winless runs in the last four months as they did in the previous 45 months before today.
5 – Kaitano Tembo has won more matches against Gavin Hunt than he has against any other coach in his coaching career (5).
15:30 – Cape Town City v Swallows FC (Sunday)
The Sunday game sees Cape Town City host Swallows FC for the first time in their 5-year history. Swallows have already won the return leg 3-2 and could secure their first top-flight double since their promotion on Sunday. Swallows failed to score in the last game against AmaZulu (only the 2nd time they have failed to score this season), but will be favoured to find the net against the leakiest defence on land.
Despite a 4-0 victory in the Nedbank Cup against Celtic, City have gone on to lose their last two league games. Only once in their history have they gone on a longer run of successive league losses (4 under Benni McCarthy in February 2018). Indeed, roses are red, violets are blue, but Cape Town seems to struggle at this time of the year. Ok, that doesn’t really rhyme but the point is this:
1 – City have won just one of the last 10 league games they have played in the month of February, losing every one of the other nine.
26 – City have conceded more goals in the league this season than any other side (25). Ironically, they have also scored more than any other side (27).