We've passed Week 9 in the Arab League and there have been changes in the standings, in the top 4 in particular. Ittihad got their second defeat in week 9 and that result cost them their place as at the same time Al Nassr got 1 point as they also got a draw. But that was enough to make Al Nassr shift the position occupied by Ittihad before, yes even though it was only different in goal productivity.
Apart from all that, I was a little surprised by what Al Nassr achieved this week because they could only draw against a club that was actually not strong and fairly weak.
In week 9 the competition gets tougher as you said some of the top teams took their place some go up and some go down and we have an underdog team, yeah Al-Taawoun is not one of those clubs that has star players but they managed to stay in the top 2 obviously this is a bit strange and as far as I know their main strength is in defense while no player stands out as the top scorer. Imagine if Al-Taawoun was actively hunting for top European players of course it can increase their goal activity because Al-Taawon goal activity is lower than other teams in the standings.
Yes, that's true, but it's worth remembering that the absence of European-labeled players doesn't mean they can't compete fiercely in the standings, and that's what Al Tawoon is doing. And also the presence of European labeled players does bring a breath of fresh air but it is not a guarantee that clubs that are inhabited by many European players they can show their best and are in very tight competition in the standings.
For me the presence of players they bring to the league is to increase popularity, and if they can bring the club to play better it is a bonus they get.
Al-Nassr has been impressive so far. I was quite surprised at the draw of Al-Nassr match against Abha last Friday. Abha is not a strong club and has performed poorly this season but they managed to equalize with a goal from Karl Toko Ekambi.
It's a shame that Al-Nassr couldn't win the match at home, even though Al Nassr was able to dominate the ball game well and with the 2 goals scored by Otavinho and Talisca, he was quite optimistic that Al-Nassr would win, but it turned out that Abha was able to equalize within minutes last minute and who would have thought that Al-Nassr would get a red card in this match and Cristiano Ronaldo could not score a goal for Al-Nassr. If only Cristiano Ronaldo could score a goals it is certain that Al-Nassr would succeed in winning the match by getting 3 points.
Yes as I said before, I was also quite surprised by what Al Nassr achieved against a club that is not a favorite club. But that's the beauty of football, sometimes something unexpected happens in a match.
Although this is a bit disappointing for Al Nassr, but this is precisely what makes the competition even more interesting, because unexpected things like this add a special attraction for football lovers. Thus, we will not be easy to predict every match.