Winners And Losers: PSL Matchday 5

Orlando Pirates continued their perfect start to the league season with a 2-1 victory over AmaZulu on Friday night. The result sent them to the top of the table, a position they retained after Sundowns lost to Polokwane City on Sunday afternoon. There were wins also for Chippa Utd and Royal AM, while SuperSport United got revenge for the 4-0 drubbing by dismissing Kaizer Chiefs at home. TS Galaxy may have picked up a point, but (like AmaZulu) remain in search of their first win of the season. Winners & Losers is a statistical review of the weekend action.

Winners

Polokwane City

The biggest winners this weekend, both by shock value and statistically. Sundowns were given a 66% chance of securing three points pre-game, but Phuti Mohafe and co. had other plans. They barely gave Sundowns a sniff, limiting them to zero shots on target, and a paltry 0.21xG. You have to go back almost five years (and 138 games) for the last time a team restricted Sundowns to no shots on goal.

10 – 10 points in the opening five games represent Polokwane’s City’s joint-beast start at this stage of a PSL top-flight season (also in 2019/20). 

Gavin Hunt

A monumental difference in mood from a week ago. Gavin Hunt came into this following three straight defeats and looked very frustrated in the third of these against Pirates. Defeat here would have left his side just outside the relegation zone, but they rallied their way to a well-deserved, if narrow, win. Chiefs have now lost more league matches against Supersport than against any other side in their PSL history (P56 W16 D18 L23), and the recent trend has been marginal.

1-0 – Each of Gavin Hunt’s last four home league matches against Kaizer Chiefs has ended in a 1-0 win.

Orlando Pirates

The common missive is not to get carried away after just five games, and that’s understandable. But it doesn’t mean that Pirates fans (at least) can’t get hugely excited about their progress and potential. For the general public, a first proper title race in five years will feel like a glass of water after walking five years in a desert. For Pirates fans, their relief comes in a different form. You only have to look at how long it took to get 15 points in the last few years to grasp it:

• 2019/20: 12 games to get 15 points
• 2020/21: 10 games
• 2021.22: 11 games
• 2022/23: 10 games
• 2023/24: 10 games
• 2024/25: 5 games

5 – Only once before have Pirates had a better-winning run from the start of a PSL campaign, while this is only the fifth time in PSL history that a team wins five out of five to start their season.

Chippa United

They may have played more games than their peers, but it’s still impressive that Chippa currently sits in third on the table. Last season after six games, Chippa was in 12th. The season before, they were in 15th. It’s even more admirable when you look at it on the whole.

10 – 10 points from six games is Chippa United’s best-ever start to a PSL top-flight campaign.

Royal AM

A first win of the season, and one that alleviates the pressure on the KZN side. The team has played 15 games since mid-April, and this was just their second win in that time. With a transfer ban that shows no sign of ending, they need to start gathering points as soon as they can.

Losers

Sundowns

Whichever way you look at this, Sundowns were disappointing on the day. They recorded four shots in the end, and that was only thanks to a late flurry. The fact that a defender Rushine de Reuck took the most shots in the team (2) should be a worry.

0 – This was the first time Sundowns have failed to record a shot on target in a league game since January 2020 v Orlando Pirates, under Pitso Mosimane (138 league games ago). 

Kaizer Chiefs

Chiefs’ two defeats have come in tough fixtures against SuperSport and Sundowns, so there normally would be no need to panic. Except, a tricky trip to Magesi and a crunch Cup tie against the same Sundowns are next in seven days. Chiefs only played 4 games in 41 days before that. A clean sheet against Magesi should be the priority.

4 – This is the first time in PSL history that Kaizer Chiefs go without a clean sheet in each of their first four league games of the season.