Do Nottingham Forest have what it takes to win the Premier League? Can Real Madrid and Barcelona be toppled?

We have had a look at the title race in the ‘top five’ leagues and picked one dark horse capable of finishing as champions…

La Liga: Atletico Madrid
Any club not named Real Madrid or FC Barcelona are a dark horse in La Liga as far as we’re concerned.

Atletico Madrid have done very well to keep within touching distance of their city rivals and are above Hansi Flick’s in-form Barcelona after 22 matches, losing fewer times (two) than anyone else in La Liga this season.

After a league defeat at Real Betis on October 27, Diego Simeone’s side decided to stop messing about, winning their next 15 matches across all competitions, including a Champions League triumph at Paris Saint-Germain and a crucial La Liga victory away to Barca.

That run ended with a surprise 1-0 defeat to Leganes but they have bounced back accordingly and sit second in La Liga, one point behind pacesetters and arch-rivals Real, whose most recent La Liga result was a controversial 1-0 defeat at Espanyol.

Atletico winning La Liga would hardly be a humungous upset but it would certainly come as a surprise, especially given Real’s summer acquisition of Kylian Mbappe and Barca’s early-season form under new head coach Flick, who is bringing the best out of exciting attackers Raphinha and Lamine Yamal. From big-money summer signing Julian Alvarez to Rodrigo De Paul and Jan Oblak, Simeone has some fantastic players in his squad.

Still, Atleti have forever been in the shadow of Real Madrid and Barca and a league title win is very possible and would be a fantastic achievement.


Serie A: Atalanta
Napoli and Inter are the clear favourites in Serie A as things stand, with Juventus lagging behind on a bizarre 13 draws and one defeat from 23 league encounters; AC Milan are nowhere to be seen.

Between Juventus in fifth and Inter in second are Lazio and Atalanta. The latter are stronger than Marco Baroni’s men and a team everyone seems to quietly root for, whether that be in Europe or Italy.

Toppling Simone Inzaghi’s Inter and Antonio Conte’s Napoli will be extremely difficult and Atalanta’s current form indicates they will soon fall below Lazio, but if they can get back into the swing of things soon, they have a bloody good chance.

Since losing in the Italian Super Cup against Inter on January 2, Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have only won once in Serie A, defeating Cesc Fabregas’ Como while dropping points against Udinese, Juventus, Napoli and Torino and losing Bologna in the Coppa Italia. It has been a pretty miserable run.

We have faith in Atalanta getting their season back on track and a trip to Hellas Verona on Saturday is an ideal opportunity to do so.

Ligue Un: Marseille
Paris Saint-Germain are currently running away with the Ligue Un title with an unbeaten record after 20 matches, but you never know what can happen – this is PSG we are talking about after all.

Ten points separate Marseille and the French champions and the fact PSG are yet to lose is not a good sign for the former, who are now managed by ex-Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi and have former Premier League players Mason Greenwood, Neal Maupay and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in their squad.

Marseille are an exciting team with several brilliant young players and on their day are more than capable of beating PSG. There is a clear consistency issue, however, with silly points being dropped too frequently. Losing 3-1 at home to Auxerre was particularly disappointing but being brushed aside by their title rivals in October will still sting to this day.

It probably will not happen for Marseille this year but it will be an important learning curve for them. There are some issues that clearly need ironing out, particularly their discipline. There is far too much red that comes up when you look at their results.

Red cards did not cost De Zerbi the first three times they happened but they did eventually contribute to dropped points at home to Angers, losing 3-0 at home to PSG and most recently, drawing 1-1 at home to Lille.

Marseille have some very decent fixtures coming up before an important trip to Paris, so like Atalanta, if they can start to pick up some momentum, PSG will be in trouble.

Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen
We know current champions Bayer Leverkusen are far from being dark horses but league leaders Bayern Munich are simply too far ahead for anyone else to be considered.

There have been a few very difficult Champions League nights for Bayern’s rookie head coach Vincent Kompany but in the Bundesliga, he has done terrifically well. The Bavarians have been scoring goals for fun, but they have also been conceding quite a few recently, which tends to catch up on you.

Shipping three to Holstein Kiel last weekend was a particularly dangerous and downright ridiculous thing to do, but as we are all fully aware from their unbeaten 2023/24 domestic campaign, Leverkusen are never far away from ridiculousness.

Their never-say-die attitude means they cannot be ruled out of the Bundesliga title race, even if Bayern are currently six points clear. Both have only lost once in the German top flight this campaign and they face off at the BayArena on February 15, which will be one to watch for sure.

Given some of Bayern’s shaky performances under Kompany this season and The Harry Kane Curse, we feel there is a distinct possibility they crumble under the pressure in the run-in. Here’s hoping, because Kane experiencing another trophyless season would be incredibly funny.

Premier League: Nottingham Forest
We all said the Leicester City story would never be repeated but their rivals Nottingham Forest are giving it a good go. Would it be as remarkable as that 2016 title win? No, because Forest have been in the Premier League a few years now and have spent significantly more money and bought an outrageous number of players since being promoted in 2022.

That takes nothing away from what Forest are doing and what they could achieve, because without Leicester, this would go down as the greatest achievement of any club in Premier League history if they do somehow pip Arsenal and Liverpool to the title.

Nuno Espirito Santo has got his team playing the perfect way: they are defensively compact and devastating on the break, with a clinical striker up top in between two tricky, quick and direct wingers.

Arsenal are obviously in a stronger position to win the league but Liverpool are the true favourites and the team Forest desperately need to fall off a cliff if they are to win the Premier League. It is hard to see that happening given how consistent they have been under Arne Slot, but you never know, eh?

Source:
www.football365.com/news/feature-atletico-pip-mbappe-real-madrid-dark-horse-top-five-league-title-races